Page:EB1911 - Volume 28.djvu/263

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WAITZ, G.—WAKE, W.
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household. He had a livery given him and during illness an extra allowance of food. Besides “piping the watch” and guarding the palace against thieves and fire, this wait had to attend at the installation of knights of the Bath. London and all the chief boroughs had their corporation waits certainly from the early 16th century, for in the privy purse accounts of Henry VIII. occurs (1532) the entry “Item, the XI daye (of October) paied to the waytes of Canterbery in rewarde . . . vijs. vjd.” In 1582 Dudley, earl of Leicester, writes to the corporation of London asking that a servant of his should be admitted to the city waits. These borough waits appear, however, to have been more nearly akin to the medieval troubadours or minstrels who played to kings and nobles at and after the evening meal. The duties of the London waits, which included playing before the mayor during his annual progress through the streets and at city dinners, seem to have been typical of all 16th- and 17th-century city waits. The London waits had a special uniform of blue gowns with red sleeves and caps, and wore a silver collar or chain round the neck. In the 18th and early 19th century the ordinary street watchmen appear to have arrogated to themselves the right to serenade householders at Christmas time, calling round on Boxing Day to receive a gratuity for their tunefulness as well as their watchfulness. When in 1829 their place as guardians of the city's safety was taken by police, it was left for private individuals to keep up the custom.


WAITZ, GEORG (1813-1886), German historian, was born at Flensburg, in the duchy of Schleswig, on the 9th of October 1813. He was educated at the Flensburg gymnasium and the universities of Kiel and Berlin. The influence of Ranke early diverted him from his original purpose of studying law, and while still a student he began that series of researches in German medieval history which was to be his life's work. On graduating at Berlin in August 1836, Waitz went to Hanover to assist Pertz in the great national work of publishing the Monumenta Germaniae historica; and the energy and learning he displayed in that position won him a summons to the chair of history at Kiel in 1842. The young professor soon began to take an interest in politics, and in 1846 entered the provincial diet as representative of his university. His leanings were strongly German, so that he became somewhat obnoxious to the Danish government, a fact which made an invitation in 1847 to become professor of history at Göttingen peculiarly acceptable. The political events of 1848-1849, however, delayed his appearance in his new chair. When the German party in the northern duchies rose against the Danish government, Waitz hastened to place himself at the service of the provisional government. He was sent to Berlin to represent the interests of the duchies there, and during his absence he was elected by Kiel as a delegate to the national parliament at Frankfort. Waitz was an adherent of the party who were eager to bring about a union of the German states under a German emperor; and when the king of Prussia declined the imperial crown the professor withdrew from the assembly in disappointment, and ended his active share in public life. In the autumn of 1849 Waitz began his lectures at Göttingen. His style of speaking was dry and uninteresting; but the matter of his lectures was so practical and his teaching so sound that students were attracted in crowds to his lecture-room, and the reputation of the Göttingen historical school spread far and wide. At the same time Waitz's pen was not idle, and his industry is to be traced in the list of his works and in the Proceedings of the different historical societies to which he belonged. In 1875 Waitz removed to Berlin to succeed Pertz as principal editor of the Monumenta Germaniae historica. In spite of advancing years the new editor threw himself into the work with all his former vigour, and took journeys to England, France and Italy to collate works preserved in these countries. He died at Berlin on the 24th of May 1886. He was twice married — in 1842 to a daughter of Schelling the philosopher, and in 1858 to a daughter of General von Hartmann.

Waitz is often spoken of as the chief disciple of Ranke, though perhaps in general characteristics and mental attitude he has more affinity with Pertz or Dahlmann. His special domain was medieval German history, and he rarely travelled beyond it.

Waitz's chief works, apart from his contributions to the Monumenta, are: — Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte (8 vols., Kiel, 1844-1878; 2nd ed., 2 vols. only, 1865-1870); Schleswig-Holsteins Geschichte (2 vols., Göttingen, 1851-1854; the 3rd vol. was never published); Lübeck unter Jürgen Wullenwever und die europäische Politik (3 vols.; Berlin, 1855-1856); and Grundzüge der Politik (Kiel, 1862). Among his smaller works, which, however, indicate the line of his researches, are the following: — Jahrbücher des deutschen Reichs unter Heinrich I. (Berlin, 1837, 3rd ed., 1885); Über das Leben und die Lehre des Ulfila (Hanover, 1840); Das alte Recht der salischen Franken (Kiel, 1846); and Deutsche Kaiser von Karl dem Grossen bis Maximilian (Berlin, 1872). In conjunction with other scholars Waitz took a leading part in the publication of the Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte (Munich, 1862 seq.), and in the Nordalbingische Studien, published in the Proceedings of the Schleswig-Holstein Historical Society (Kiel, 1844-1851). A Bibliographische Übersicht über Waitz's Werke was published by E. Steindorff at Göttingen in 1886.

Obituary notices of Waitz are to be found in the Historische Zeitschrift, new series, vol. xx.; in the publications for 1886 of the Berlin Akademie der Wissenschaften, the Göttingen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, and the Hansischer Geschichtsverein; in the Historisches Jahrbuch der Görres Gesellschaft, vol. viii. ; and in the Revue historique, vol. xxxi.


WAITZ, THEODOR (1821-1864), German psychologist and anthropologist, was born at Gotha on the 17th of March 1821. Educated at Leipzig and Jena, he made philosophy, philology and mathematics his chief studies, and in 1848 he was appointed professor of philosophy in the university of Marburg. He was a severe critic of the philosophy of Fichte, Schelling and Hegel, and considered psychology to be the basis of all philosophy. His researches brought him into touch with anthropology, and he will be best remembered by his monumental work in six volumes, Die Anthropologie der Naturvölker. He died on the 21st of May 1864 at Marburg.

In addition to his Anthropologie, the first four volumes of which appeared at Leipzig, 1859-1864, the last two posthumously, he published Grundlegung der Psychologie (1846); Lehrbuch der Psychologie als Naturwissenschaft (1849); Allgemeine Pädagogik (1852); and a critical edition of the Organon of Aristotle (1844).


WAKE, THOMAS (1297-1349), English baron, belonged to a Lincolnshire family which had lands also in Cumberland, being the son of John Wake (d. 1300), who was summoned to parliament as a baron in 1295, and the grandson of Baldwin Wake (d. 1282), both barons and warriors of repute. Among Thomas Wake's guardians were Piers Gaveston and Henry, earl of Lincoln, whose daughter Blanche (d. 1357) he married before 1317. This lady was the niece of Thomas, earl of Lancaster, and her husband was thus attached to the Lancastrian party, but he did not follow Earl Thomas in the proceedings which led to his death in 1322. Hating the favourites of Edward II. Wake joined Queen Isabella in 1326 and was a member of the small council which advised the young king, Edward III.; soon, however, he broke away from the queen and her ally, Roger Mortimer, and in conjunction with his father-in-law, now earl of Lancaster, he joined the malcontent barons. He was possibly implicated in the plot which cost his brother-in-law, Edmund, earl of Kent, his life in 1330, and he fled to France, returning to England after the overthrow of Isabella and Mortimer. Edward III. made him governor of the Channel Islands and he assisted Edward Bruce to invade Scotland, being afterwards sent on an errand to France. In 1341 he incurred the displeasure of the king and was imprisoned, but he had been restored and had been employed in Brittany and elsewhere when he died childless on the 31st of May 1349. His estates passed to his sister Margaret (d. 1349), widow of Edmund, earl of Kent, and her son John (d. 1352), and later to the Holand family. Wake established a house for the Austin canons at Newton near Hull; this was afterwards transferred to Haltemprice in the same neighbourhood.


WAKE, WILLIAM (1657-1737), English archbishop, was born at Blandford, Dorset, on the 26th of January 1657, and educated at Christ Church, Oxford. He took orders, and in 1682 went to Paris as chaplain to the ambassador Richard Graham, Viscount Preston (1648-1695). Here he became acquainted with many of