Armagnac, Jean IV., d', born about 1395, was the son of the constable. His entire life was a series of revolts, breaches of faith and forgeries. He joined the English against the dauphin, defied the authority of his prince, struck money in his own name, forged a will by his relative the countess of Comminges, who had made the king her heir, and at length died broken down with remorse for his crimes.
Armagnac, Jean V., son of John IV. and Elizabeth of Navarre, was, if possible, a worse man than either his father or grandfather. His private life was most impure, and having been discovered carrying on a secret intercourse with the English, Charles VII. ordered him to be apprehended. He fled to his estates in Arragon, and proceedings were taken against him in parliament, which ended in a decree of banishment and confiscation. He then professed penitence, and thus procured the intercession of Pius II.; but the king was inflexible, and it was not till the accession of Louis XI. that he succeeded in being restored. In 1465 he again took arms against the king, and only consented to disband his troops on receiving 10,000 livres. The money was paid, but the men were retained. On this he was once more proceeded against, and forced again to flee to Arragon; he was condemned to death, and his estates were forfeited, yet he recovered his property by force, and bade defiance anew to the royal arms. His own deceitful policy was at length resorted to; the Cardinal d'Albi, called the "devil of Arras," was sent to negotiate with him. A treaty was agreed upon, and while the count was in the act of signing a document which gave him favourable terms, the king's soldiers rushed in and killed him.—A. L.
* ARMAND, Alfred, born in Paris in 1805. He is the most eminent French architect of the day in connection with railways. Amongst his productions may be noticed the following stations built by him between 1839 and 1851:—Versailles, St. Cloud, the Rouen station in Paris, St. Germain, Arras, Amiens, Lille, Calais, St. Quentin, and Douay.
ARMAND, François-Huguet, a French comedian born at Richelieu, in 1699; died at Paris, on 26th November, 1765. Armand occupied the stage for forty years, and enjoyed an extraordinary reputation for satirizing, in the characters of Scapin, Crispin, and Pantalon, all the foibles and eccentricities of his age. Lekain called him "le modèle de tous les comédiens."
ARMANDI, Pierre Damien, a French general, born in 1778, died in 1855. He took part in all the wars of the republic and the empire, and after the fall of the latter, was intrusted with the education of one of the sons of the king of Holland, eldest brother of Louis Napoleon. To his care also King Jerome confided the charge of his eldest son. He has written "L'Histoire Militaire des Éléphants."—A. L.
ARMANI or ARMANNI, Giovanni Battista, an Italian poet and improvisatore, born 1768; died 1815.
ARMANI, Pietro Martire, an Italian painter, born 1613; died 1669. He was a pupil of Lionello Spada, and practised his art at Reggio.
ARMANN, Vincenz, or ARMANNA, Vincenzo, a Flemish painter, died in 1649. He lived at Rome, and painted many of his landscapes while in the inquisition, to which he was committed for having eaten fat in Lent.
* ARMANSPERG, Joseph Louis, Count of, president of the council of regency in Greece, under King Otho I.; born at Kötzing in Bavaria, 28th February, 1789. This patriotic nobleman entered with great enthusiasm into the war of German liberty in 1812, spoke boldly for the rights of his country, but in vain, at the congress of Vienna, and afterwards filled various situations of honour and trust under King Louis. Appointed to the presidency of the regency in Greece in 1832, he held that office for two years, and then retired into private life.—A. L.
ARMATI, Salvino degli, a member of a patrician family of Florence, to whom it seems probable that the world owes the invention of spectacles. Montucla decides in favour of Armati. Manni cites on behalf of his claim, the following inscription on a tombstone:—Qui giace Salvino d'Armati degl' Armati Firenze inventor degli Occhiali anno mcccvii."
ARMBRUSTER, John Michael, born in Wurtemberg, 1761, was for some time editor of the Zurich Gazette. He obtained a situation under the Austrian government, and rose to be secretary of the supreme court of police and censorship, and editor of the official organ of the government. Besides the various periodicals which he edited, he wrote numerous books of amusement for children. Committed suicide 1817.—J. B.
ARMELLE, Nicole, a celebrated fanatic, who pretended to divine illumination, born at Campenac 1606; died at Vannes 1671. An Ursuline wrote her life, under the title "L'Ecole du pur amour de Dien," Paris, 1704.
ARMELLINI, Girolamo, an Inquisitor-general of the Romish faith at Mantua, about the year 1516.
ARMELLINI, Carlo, was born in Rome about 1780, of an old and highly respectable Roman family. He was educated for the bar, and devoted himself with great ardour to the study of jurisprudence and literature. He rose to distinction at an early age, for his classical learning, legal science, and patriotism. When the dissensions between Napoleon I. and the pope, left Rome for a time free from priestly rule, and gave her back her ancient title of republic, young Armellini, already famous for his knowledge of jurisprudence and practical legal capacity, took his seat among the judges of the republic, and was actively employed in the administration of the new laws of the state, the abolition of clerical privileges, &c. On the fall of Napoleon and the restoration of the pope, Armellini had acquired so high a reputation, that, although a noted republican, he was allowed by the papal government to remain in Rome in the tranquil exercise of his profession; and during the long period of his legal activity—from 1815 to 1848—he was engaged in the most important causes of his time, and was considered one of the greatest ornaments of the Roman bar. On the death of Gregory XVI., in 1846, the universal and clamorous demand for administrative reforms in the Roman States, at length wrung from Pius IX. a constitution, and Armellini was made a member of various commissions appointed for the reconsideration of the laws. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1848, and took a prominent part in the formation of the new scheme of civil and criminal law, the abolition of exceptional tribunals, &c., &c. Every attempt at substantial legislative reform was, however, rendered abortive by the obstinate resistance of the papal court, emboldened by the ill success of the struggle for independence in Lombardy; the slight reforms already granted were, one by one, withdrawn, and the Roman volunteers, hastening to aid in the Lombard war, were recalled. The menaces of the exasperated people, however, and the intrigues of Austria, induced the pope to fly in disguise to Gaeta, and put himself under the protection of the king of Naples. A provisional government was then established in Rome, of which Armellini was a member. One of its first acts was to send messages of conciliation to Gaeta, requesting the pope's return. The pope, however, rejected these advances, and excommunicated the provisional government. Rome being thus left without a sovereign, Armellini and his colleagues resolved to appeal to the suffrages of the nation, to decide upon the new organization of the state; and they issued a decree (written by Armellini), for the convocation of a Constituent Assembly. The first meeting of the Assembly took place on the 8th of February, 1849, and the sitting was opened by Armellini. In an eloquent address he set before the Assembly the actual position of the state, the absolute refusal of the pope to listen to any terms offered by the provisional government, the impossibility of reconciling the universal and imperative demand for administrative reform with the temporal sovereignty of the pope and the existing privileges of the priests; and he concluded with the words, "God and the People,"—words well known throughout all Italy as the formula of the national association of "Young Italy," founded by Joseph Mazzini. The words were received with enthusiasm by the Assembly, and the republic was voted by a majority of 133 to 11. The executive power was vested in a triumvirate, composed of Armellini, Montecchi, and Saliceti. Their first care was the organization of municipalities throughout the country, the abolition of clerical privileges, and the reformation of the civil and criminal law. On the defeat of the Piedmontese army by the Austrians at the battle of Novara, the Roman Assembly, desirous of strengthening and giving new vigour to the government, with a view of carrying on the war of independence against the Austrians, reconstituted the executive power. The new triumvirate was composed of Armellini, Aurelio Saffi (a young Roman noble), and Joseph Mazzini, who, though a Genoese by birth, had been recently declared a Roman citizen by the Constituent Assembly, in consideration of his great services to his country. The new triumvirate displayed extraordinary activity in preparing to send supplies and men to the relief of Venice, then besieged by the Austrians; but their intention was frustrated by the unexpected
