It was not until 1492, however, that he was recognized by the states of Guelder as their sovereign. The Emperor Maximilian made repeated attempts to obtain possession of the duchy by force of arms, but all his efforts were foiled by Egmont. The war lasted until 1499, when a truce of twelve years was concluded between the belligerents, though the mediation of Louis XII. of France. The war was renewed by the archduke Philip but with no better success; and on the death of Philip in 1506, Egmont invaded Brabant, took many of the towns, and enriched his soldiers with their pillage. A powerful league, composed of the archduchess Margaret of Austria, the emperor of Germany, and the kings of Arragon and England, was formed against Charles, but by the aid of France he maintained his ground against this formidable combination. In the end he was compelled by Charles V. in 1528 to acknowledge himself a vassal of the empire. His hatred of the house of Austria, however, induced him to make an effort to persuade the states of Guelder to unite the duchy to France, but they were so much displeased with the proposal that they compelled the duke to abdicate in 1538 in favour of William, duke of Cleves, Berg, and Juliers. Charles died a few months after of chagrin.
Lamoral, Prince of Gavre, Baron de Fiennes, the celebrated patriot, was born in 1522. He accompanied Charles V. in his African expedition in 1544, and two years after was made a knight of the order of the golden fleece. He served with great distinction as commander of the cavalry in the war between France and Spain, and his impetuous valour mainly contributed to the victories gained by the Spaniards at St. Quentin in 1557, and at Gravelines in 1558. His great military talents and distinguished services, and his frank, generous, and disinterested character, combined with his large hereditary estates and his marriage with the heiress of the great house of Luxemburg-Fiennes, gave him immense influence in the Low Countries, and he was almost adored by the inhabitants of Flanders and Artois, of which provinces he was governor. He was a staunch Roman catholic himself, but the known liberality of his sentiments rendered him obnoxious to the narrow-minded and bigoted Spanish monarch and his counsellors. He was, however, chosen a member of the council appointed to assist the duchess of Parma, who then governed the Low Countries, and exerted himself to mediate between her and the people, who were in a state of great excitement. When the cruel and despotic duke of Alva was sent to supersede the duchess in the government, he at first caressed the count and the other leaders of the popular party, but was at the same time making secret preparations for their destruction. Egmont was in vain warned by the prince of Orange that his life was in danger. He and his friend, Count Horn, were treacherously arrested at a meeting of the council, carried to Brussels, and consigned to separate dungeons. On the 4th of June Count Egmont was condemned to death. In spite of the most urgent representations in his behalf from the emperor, the free towns of Austria, and many other influential quarters, the sentence was carried into effect on the 5th of June. The count submitted to his fate with great courage and composure. He was universally regarded as a martyr to the cause of liberty and patriotism, and many of the spectators dipped their handkerchiefs in his blood. His judicial murder was the signal for a general revolt against the government, which, after a sanguinary war of thirty years, ended in the emancipation of the United Provinces from the Spanish yoke.— Philip, son of Count Lamoral, a son wholly unworthy of such a sire, adhered to Philip II., and fought for him in the wars of the league in France.—J. T.
EGNAZIO (in Latin, Egnatius), the name adopted by Giovanni Battista Cipelli, a learned Venetian, who was born about the year 1473. He was a pupil of the celebrated Politian, and in the school of this master made the acquaintance of the future Leo X. At the age of eighteen he commenced lecturing on belles-lettres in his native city, and with such success as to provoke the jealousy of older professors, especially of Sabellico, with whom Egnazio carried on a long and vituperative controversy. Having entered the church he obtained some preferment, and in 1515 was sent by the Venetian council to Milan to compliment Francis I. He continued his labours as a professor until he had entered on his eightieth year. He died in 1553. Besides orations and epistles, he left "De Romanis Principibus vel Cæsaribus," &c., and "De Exemplis Virorum Illustrium."—J. S., G.
EGUAL, Maria, a Spanish poetess, born 1698, at Castellon de la Plancha in Valencia, and married to Don Cristoval Peris, marquis of Castelfort. Her poems are numerous, though but few of them were ever published; she also wrote a romance on the adoration of the magi. She died in 1735.—F. M. W.
EHINGEN, Georg von, a German traveller, born of noble parentage in 1435. His parents were one of five couples who married in the same district at the same time, and had in all one hundred children. Georg von Ehingen had three brothers and fifteen sisters. At an early age he was introduced as a page at the court of Sigismund of Austria, count of Tyrol, and afterwards he became chamberlain to Albert of Austria, duke of Carinthia. He soon wearied of the life of a courtier, and while yet a lad, his heart burned at the recital of martial adventures. Having learned that the knights of St. John were meditating a campaign against the Turks, he joined the suite of one of the commanders of that famous order, and repaired to Venice, where he took ship for Rhodes. The enterprise of the knights having been postponed, he remained in Rhodes twelve months; and when it was altogether abandoned he embarked for Syria, with the view of making the tour of the Holy Land. He visited Tyre, Neapolis, Nazareth, and Jerusalem, and had made preparations for extending his travels to Babylon, when he was robbed by a party of Arabs, and compelled to make the best of his way to Alexandria. He returned to Germany in 1454, but it was only to delight his father with the recital of his adventures and be gone again. The following year, in company with Georg von Rampsiden, and attended by a small retinue, he resumed his travels, taking this time a westerly direction. The little band of adventurers, in the course of their journey, paid court first to Charles VII. of France, then to René of Sicily, then to one of the rival kings of Navarre, and then to Alfonso V. of Portugal, who was at the moment engaged in war with the Saracens, and therefore willing to give martial visitors a warm reception. Ehingen, who was made a captain in the Portuguese service, and his trusty companions, shared the dangers of a campaign which lasted seven months, and which was concluded by an encounter of two champions; Ehingen standing forth for the Portuguese, and after a hard fight bearing down his Mussulman opponent. Loaded with honours by Alfonso, the German knights then took the road for Castile, and after seeing some service against the Moors of Grenada returned to Portugal, traversed the north of Spain, and embarking at a French port, sailed for Britain, where they visited the courts of the English and Scottish kings. They returned to Germany in 1457. Ehingen left an account of his travels, published in Germany under the title of "Itinerarium, das ist historische Beschreibung weiland," &c. An abridged French version was published at Paris in 1855.—J. S., G.
* EHRENBERG, Christian Godfried, a celebrated German naturalist, distinguished for his extensive employment of the microscope. He was born on the 19th of April, 1795, at Delitsch in Prussian Saxony. He commenced the study of medicine at Leipzig in 1815. In 1817 he went to Berlin, where he made the acquaintance of Hemprich, the traveller, and accompanied him in his journey to the East. His first studies in natural history were more especially directed to plants, but those that required the microscope for their investigation were preferred. His first published scientific paper was "On the structure and classification of the Fungi." On the occasion of his taking the degree of doctor of medicine, he took for the subject of his inaugural thesis, "The Fungi of the neighbourhood of Berlin." He subsequently published several papers on Cryptogamic Botany. Having graduated at Berlin he embarked on his travels with Hemprich in 1820, and after having travelled through Egypt and visited Alexandria, Cairo, Sinai, and made excursions into Syria and Arabia, he returned to Berlin in 1826. He came back from this expedition loaded with treasures, the most important of which were his drawings from microscopic specimens. On his return he was appointed one of the professors of the university of Berlin, and immediately commenced publishing the results of his observations made during his travels. These consisted of important papers on various departments of natural history, but more especially of a work giving an account of his travels. In 1829, Ehrenberg again set out on his travels, accompanied on this occasion by the distinguished Humboldt. They travelled through the Ural and Altai mountains, and during this journey Ehrenberg's attention was particularly directed to observations made with the microscope. From this
