Part 44

After the death of Francis II. (December 1560) he accompanied the queen, Mary Stuart, to Scotland, and remained with her a year, during which time he made several journeys into England, and attempted to bring about a reconciliation between Mary and Queen Elizabeth. The wise and moderate counsels which he offered to the former were unheeded. In 1562, in consequence of the civil war in France, he returned there. He was employed against the Protestants in Brittany, was taken prisoner in an engagement with them and sent to Havre, but was soon after exchanged. In the midst of the excited passions of his countrymen, Castelnau, who was a sincere Catholic, maintained a wise self-control and moderation, and by his counsels rendered valuable service to the government. He served at the siege of Rouen, distinguished himself at the battle of Dreux, took Tancarville, and contributed in 1563 to the recapture of Havre from the English.

During the next ten years Castelnau was employed in various important missions:--first to Queen Elizabeth, to negotiate a peace; next to the duke of Alba, the new governor of the Netherlands. On this occasion he discovered the project formed by the prince of Conde and Admiral Coligny to seize and carry off the royal family at Monceaux (1567). After the battle of St Denis he was again sent to Germany to solicit aid against the Protestants; and on his return he was rewarded for his services with the post of governor of Saint-Dizier and a company of orderlies. At the head of his company he took part in the battles of Jarnac and Moncontour. In 1572 he was sent to England by Charles IX. to allay the excitement created by the massacre of St Bartholomew, and the same year he was sent to Germany and Switzerland. Two years later he was reappointed by Henry III. ambassador to Queen Elizabeth, and he remained at her court for ten years. During this period he used his influence to promote the marriage of the queen with the duke of Alencon, with a view especially to strengthen and maintain the alliance of the two countries. But Elizabeth made so many promises only to break them that at last he refused to accept them or communicate them to his government. On his return to France he found that his chateau of La Mauvissiere had been destroyed in the civil war; and as he refused to recognize the authority of the League, the duke of Guise deprived him of the governorship of Saint-Dizier. He was thus brought almost to a state of destitution. But on the accession of Henry IV., the king, who knew his worth, and was confident that although he was a Catholic he might rely on his fidelity, gave him a command in the army, and entrusted him with various confidential missions.

Castelnau died at Joinville in 1592. His _Memoires_ rank very high among the original authorities for the period they cover, the eleven years between 1559 and 1570. They were written during his last embassy in England for the benefit of his son; and they possess the merits of clearness, veracity and impartiality. They were first printed in 1621; again, with additions by Le Laboureur, in 2 vols. folio, in 1659; and a third time, still further enlarged by Jean Godefroy, 3 vols. folio, in 1731. Castelnau translated into French the Latin work of Ramus, _On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Gauls_. Various letters of his are preserved in the Cottonian and Harleian collections in the British Museum.

His grandson, JACQUES DE CASTELNAU (1620-1658), distinguished himself in the war against Austria and Spain during the ministries of Richelieu and Mazarin, and died marshal of France.

See Hubault, _Ambassade de Castelnau en Angleterre_ (1856); _Relations politiques de la France ... avec l'Ecosse au seizieme siecle_, edited by J.B.A.T. Teulet (1862); and De la Ferriere, _Les Projets de mariage d'Elisabeth_ (1883).

CASTELNAUDARY, a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Aude, 22 m. W.N.W. of Carcassonne, on the Southern railway between that city and Toulouse. Pop. (1906) 6650. It is finely situated on an elevation in the midst of a fertile and well-cultivated plain; and its commercial facilities are greatly increased by the Canal du Midi, which widens out, as it passes the town, into an extensive basin surrounded with wharves and warehouses for the timber used in the upkeep of the canal. The principal buildings are the law court, the hotel de ville, and the church of St Michel, dating from the 14th century; none of these offers any feature of unusual interest. There are a number of flour-mills, as well as manufactories of earthenware, tiles and blankets; an extensive trade is maintained in lime, gypsum, timber, grain, fruits, wine, wool, cattle and farm implements, and the building of canal boats forms an important industry. The public institutions include the sub-prefecture, tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a communal college and a farm school.

Castelnaudary probably represents the ancient town of _Sostomagus_, taken during the 5th century by the Visigoths, who, it is conjectured, rebuilt the town, calling it _Castrum Novum Arianorum_, whence the present name. Early in the 13th century the town was the scene of several struggles during the war against the Albigenses, between Simon IV., count of Montfort, and Raymond VI., count of Toulouse, and their supporters. In 1229 it was deprived of its ramparts, and after these had been rebuilt, it was captured and burned by the Black Prince in 1355, but again rebuilt in 1366. In 1632 it was the scene of a cavalry engagement in which the rebel Henry II., duke of Montmorency, was defeated and captured by the royal troops.

CASTELSARRASIN, a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Tarn-et-Garonne, 12 m. W. of Montauban on the Southern railway. Pop. (1906) town, 3189; commune, 7496. Castelsarrasin, situated on the left bank of the lateral canal of the Garonne and about a mile from the right bank of that river, is surrounded by promenades occupying the site of the old fortifications. Its chief building is the brick-built church of St Sauveur, which dates from the 13th century. The administrative buildings are modern. The town has a sub-prefecture, a tribunal of first instance, and a communal college. The principal industrial establishment is the metal-foundry of Sainte-Marguerite, where copper, tin and other metals are worked; there are also flour-mills, saw-mills and dye-works. Trade is in cattle, agricultural produce, wine, baskets and game.

The name Castelsarrasin appears in the 13th century, when the village of Villelongue was replaced by the present bastide. Castrum Cerrucium, Castel-sur-Azine (from the neighbouring stream, Azine) and Castellum Sarracenum are suggested derivations, no one of which can be adopted with certainty.

CASTI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1721-1803), Italian poet, was born of humble parents at Montefiascone, in the states of the church, in 1721. He rose to the dignity of canon in the cathedral of his native place, but gave up his chance of church preferment to satisfy his gay and restless spirit by visiting most of the capitals of Europe. In 1782, on the death of Metastasio, he was appointed _Poeta Cesario_, or poet-laureate of Austria, in which capacity he applied himself with great success to the opera bouffe; but in 1796 he resigned this post, in order that he might not be hampered by political relations; and he spent the close of his life as a private gentleman at Paris, where he died in 1803. Casti is best known as the author of the _Novelle galanti_, and of _Gli Animali parlanti_, a poetical allegory, over which he spent eight years (1794-1802), and which, notwithstanding its tedious length, excited so much interest that it was translated into French, German and Spanish, and (very freely and with additions) into English, in W.S. Rose's _Court and Parliament of Beasts_ (Lond., 1819). Written during the time of the Revolution in France, it was intended to exhibit the feelings and hopes of the people and the defects and absurdities of various political systems. The _Novelle Galanti_ is a series of poetical tales, in the _ottava rima_--a metre largely used by Italian poets for that class of compositions. The sole merit of these poems consists in the harmony and purity of the style, and the liveliness and sarcastic power of many passages. They are, however, characterized by the grossest licentiousness; and there is no originality of plot--that, according to the custom of Italian novelists, being taken from classical mythology or other ancient legends. Among the other works of Casti is the _Poema Tartaro_, a mock-heroic satire on the court of Catherine II., with which he was personally acquainted.

CASTIGLIONE, BALDASSARE (1478-1529), Italian diplomatist and man of letters, was born at Casanatico near Mantua, and was educated at Milan under the famous professors Merula and Chalcondyles. In 1496 he entered the service of Lodovico Sforza, duke of Milan, returning to Mantua in 1500 when Lodovico was carried prisoner into France. In 1504 he was attached to the court of Guidobaldo Malatesta, duke of Urbino, and in 1506 he was sent by that prince on a mission to Henry VII. of England, who had before conferred on Federigo Malatesta, "the Good Duke," the most famous mercenary of his age, the order of the Garter. Guidobaldo dying childless in 1508, the duchy of Urbino was given to Francesco Maria della Rovere, for whom Castiglione, envoy at the court of Leo X. (Medici), obtained the office of generalissimo of the Papal troops. Charged with the arrangement of the dispute between Clement VII. (Medici) and Charles V., Castiglione crossed, in 1524, into Spain, where he was received with highest honours, being afterwards naturalized, and made bishop of Avila. In 1527, however, Rome was seized and sacked by the Imperialists under Bourbon, and in July of the same year the surrender of the castle of Sant' Angelo placed Clement in their hands. Castiglione had been tricked by the emperor, but there were not wanting accusations of treachery against himself. He had, however, placed fidelity highest among the virtues of his ideal "courtier," and when he died at Toledo in 1529 it was said that he had died of grief and shame at the imputation. The emperor mourned him as "one of the world's best cavaliers." A portrait of him, now at the Louvre, was painted by Raphael, who disdained neither his opinion nor his advice.

Castiglione wrote little, but that little is of rare merit. His verses, in Latin and Italian, are elegant in the extreme; his letters (Padua, 1769-1771) are full of grace and finesse. But the book by which he is best remembered is the famous treatise, _Il Cortegiano_, written in 1514, published at Venice by Aldus in 1528, and translated into English by Thomas Hoby as early as 1561. This book, called by the Italians _Il Libra d'oro_, and remarkable for its easy force and undemonstrative elegance of style no less than for the nobility and manliness of its theories (see the edition by V. Cian, Florence, 1894), describes the Italian gentleman of the Renaissance under his brightest and fairest aspect, and gives a charming picture of the court of Guidobaldo da Montefeltre, duke of Urbino, "confessedly the purest and most elevated court in Italy." In the form of a discussion held in the duchess's drawing-room--with Elizabetta Gonzaga, Pietro Bembo, Bernardo Bibbiena, Giuliano de' Medici, Emilia Pia, and Ceretino the Unique among the speakers--the question, What constitutes a perfect courtier? is debated. With but few differences, the type determined on is the ideal gentleman of the present day.

See P.L. Ginguene, _Histoire litteraire de l'Italie_, vi., vii.; J.A. Symonds, _The Renaissance in Italy_ (London, 1875); C. Hare, _Courts and Camps of the Italian Renaissance_ (1908); Julia Cartwright, _B. Castiglione, the Perfect Courtier_ (1908), with good bibliography.

CASTIGLIONE, CARLO OTTAVIO, COUNT (1784-1849), Italian philologist, was born at Milan of an ancient family. His principal work was done in connexion with the Arabic and other Oriental languages, but he also performed good service in several other departments. In 1819 he published _Monete cufiche del Museo di Milano_, and assisted Cardinal Mai in his _Ulphilae partium ineditarum in Ambrosianis palimpsestis repertarum editio_. A learned _Memoire geographique et numismatique sur la partie orientale de la Barbarie appelee Afrikia par les Arabes_ appeared in 1826, and established his reputation. In 1829 he published by himself the Gothic version of the second epistle of Paul to the Corinthians; and this was followed by the Gothic version of the epistle to the Romans, the first epistle to the Corinthians, and the epistle to the Ephesians in 1834, by Galatians, Philippians, and 1 Thessalonians in 1835, and by 2 Thessalonians in 1839. He died at Genoa on the 10th of April 1849.

His _Life_, by Biondelli, appeared at Milan in 1856.

CASTIGLIONE, GIOVANNI BENEDETTO (1616-1670), called in Italy Il Grechetto, and in France Le Benedette, Italian painter of the Genoese school, was born in Genoa, and studied for some time under Vandyck. He painted portraits, historical pieces and landscapes, but chiefly excelled in fairs, markets and rural scenes with animals. Noah and the animals entering the Ark was a favourite subject of his. His paintings are to be found in Rome, Venice, Naples, Florence, and more especially Genoa and Mantua. He also executed a number of etchings, which are spirited, free and full of taste; "Diogenes searching for a Man" is one of the principal of these. The etchings are remarkable for light and shade, and have even earned for Castiglione the name of "a second Rembrandt." The _Presepio_ (Nativity of Jesus) in the church of San Luca, Genoa, ranks among his most celebrated paintings, and the Louvre contains eight characteristic examples. In his closing years he lived in Mantua, painting for the court; here he received his name of "Grechetto," from the classic air of his pastorals, and here he died of gout in 1670. His brother Salvatore and his son Francesco excelled in the same subjects; and it is thought that many paintings which are ascribed to Benedetto are only copies after him, or perhaps originals by his son or brother.

CASTIGLIONE DELLE STIVIERE, a town of Lombardy, Italy, in the province of Mantua, 20 m. N.W. of Mantua by road. Pop. (1901) 4122 (town), 5940 (commune). It has an old castle, much altered and restored, especially by the Gonzaga family of Mantua in the 16th century. During the War of the Spanish Succession, the French under the duke of Vendome occupied it; and during the siege of Mantua in 1796, the Austrians under Wurmser were defeated here by the French under Augereau, who was later created by Napoleon duke of Castiglione.

CASTIGLIONE OLONA, a town of Lombardy, Italy, in the province of Como, 27 m. N.E. of Milan by rail. Pop. (1901) 1806. The choir of the collegiate church, erected about 1428 by Cardinal Branda Castiglione, contains fine frescoes by Masolino of Florence: there are other works by the same master in the baptistery. The tomb of the cardinal (1443) is good. The church of S. Sepolcro, in the lower part of the town, has two large stone figures of saints on its facade (of the end of the 13th century) and, within, painted wooden figures and the tomb of Guido Castiglione (d. 1485) with fine sculptures of the school of Amadeo. The palace erected by Cardinal Castiglione has good terra-cotta decorations.

CASTILE, or CASTILLE (_Castilla_), an ancient kingdom of Spain, occupying the central districts of the Iberian Peninsula; and bounded on the N. by the Bay of Biscay, N.E. by the Basque Provinces and Navarre, E. by Aragon, S.E. by Valencia and Murcia, S. by Andalusia, W. by Estremadura and Leon, and N.W. by Asturias. Pop. (1900) 3,708,713; area, 55,307 sq. m. The name _Castile_ is commonly said to be derived from the numerous frontier forts (_castillos_) erected in the middle ages as a defence against the Moors. The northern part of the kingdom, which was first freed from Moorish rule, is called Old Castile (_Castilla la Vieja_); the southern, acquired later, is called New Castile (_Castilla la Nueva_). These two divisions, with a third known as North Castile, now rank as military districts or captaincies-general; but the term "North Castile," which covers the northern extremity of Old Castile, is not generally used. In 1833 Old Castile was divided into the provinces of Avila, Burgos, Logrono, Palencia, Santander, Segovia, Soria and Valladolid; while New Castile was similarly divided into Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Madrid and Toledo. The modern progress of commerce, communications, &c. in these thirteen provinces is described in the separate articles upon each of them.

Castile extends for about 300 m. from north to south, and 160 m. from east to west. It consists of a vast central plateau, with an average altitude of about 2500 ft. This plateau has a natural frontier of high mountains on all sides, except on the borders of Leon and Murcia; it is also bisected by the Sierra de Guadarrama and Sierra de Gredos, which extend in a south-westerly direction across the central districts, and form the dividing line between Old and New Castile. Geographically it includes also the high plains of Leon, towards the north-west, and of Murcia on the south-east. The existing frontier is marked on the north by the Cantabrian Mountains (q.v.); on the east by the Sierra de la Demanda with its offshoots, and by the Serrania de Cuenca; on the south by the Sierra Morena; and on the west by various minor ranges which link together the three more or less parallel chains of the Sierra de Gredos, Sierra de Guadalupe and Sierra Morena. Three great rivers, the Douro, which traverses Old Castile, with the Tagus and Guadiana, which respectively drain the central and southern regions of New Castile, flow westward into Portugal, and finally reach the Atlantic; while the Ebro, which rises in the north of the kingdom, skirts the north-eastern frontier on its way to the Mediterranean. These rivers are described under their own names.

The climate of Old Castile is healthy, but liable to severe cold and heat. Snow falls early and lies late in the mountains, and there is a heavy rainfall in the north-west. New Castile has a still more rigorous climate, for although the mean annual temperature is about 59 deg. Fahr., the summer heat in the valleys is peculiarly oppressive, and the highlands are swept by scorching or icy gales, laden with dust. The rainfall rarely exceeds 10 in. in a year.

In both the Castiles the central plateau has a naturally fertile soil, for after rain a luxuriant vegetation appears; but drought is common, owing to the insufficient volume of the rivers, and the failure of the Spaniards to extend the fine system of irrigation which the Moors originated. Certain districts, indeed, in which a layer of heavy loam underlies the porous and friable surface, are able to retain the moisture which elsewhere is absorbed. Such land is found in Palencia, and in the Mesa de Ocana, where it yields abundant crops; and many of the northern mountains are well wooded. But vast tracts of land are useless except as pasture for sheep, and even the sheep are driven by the severe winters to migrate yearly into Estremadura (q.v.). The normal Castilian landscape is an arid and sterile steppe, with scarcely a tree or spring of water; and many even of the villages afford no relief to the eye, for they are built of sunburnt unbaked bricks, which share the dusty brownish-grey tint of the soil. Especially characteristic is the great plain of La Mancha (q.v.).

The transformation of Castile from a small county in the north of what is now Old Castile into an independent monarchy, was one of the decisive events in the reconquest of Spain from the Moors. The successful resistance offered by Asturias to the invaders had been followed by the liberation of Galicia and Leon, when Ferdinand I. of Castile (1035-1065), by his marriage with Sancha, widow of the last king of Leon, was enabled to unite Leon and Castile in a single kingdom, with its capital at Burgos. New territories were annexed on the south, until, after the capture of Toledo in 1085, and the consequent formation of a New Castile, the kingdom comprised the whole of central Spain. Thenceforward its history is inseparable from that of the whole country; and it is therefore described in full, together with the language and literature of Castile, under SPAIN (q.v.).

Castilian, which is the literary language of Spain, and with certain differences, of Spanish America, is spoken in Old and New Castile, Aragon, Estremadura, and the greater part of Leon; in Andalusia it is subject to various modifications of accent and pronunciation. As there is little, if any, difference of racial origin, character and physical type, among the inhabitants of this region, except in Andalusia, and, to a less extent, in Estremadura, the Castilian is justly regarded as the typical Spaniard. Among the Castilian peasantry, where education and foreign influence have never penetrated deeply, the national character can best be studied. Its intense pride, its fatalistic indolence and ignorance, its honesty and its bigotry, tempered by a keen sense of humour, are well-known characteristics. Apart from the peasant class, Castilians have contributed more to the development of Spanish art and literature than the inhabitants of any other region except, perhaps, Andalusia, which claims to be regarded as supreme in architecture and painting. Of the two great Spanish universities, Alcala de Henares belonged in all respects to Castile, and Salamanca rose to equality with Paris, Oxford or Bologna, under the purely Castilian influence of Alphonso X. (1252-1284).

For a general description of Castile and its inhabitants, antiquities, commerce, &c., see _Castillo la Nueva_, three illustrated volumes in the series _Espana_, by J.M. Quadrado and V. de la Fuente (Barcelona, 1885-1886), and the _Guia del antiguo reino de Castilla_, by E. Valverde y Alvarez (Madrid, 1886), which deals with the provinces of Burgos, Santander, Logrono, Soria, Avila and Segovia. For the history, see in addition to the works cited under SPAIN (section _History_), _Cronicas de los reyes de Castilla_, by C. Rosell (Madrid, 1875-1877, 2 vols.); _Coleccion de las cronicas y memorias de los reyes de Castilla_ (Madrid, 1779-1787, 7 vols.); and _Historia de las communidades de Castilla_ (Madrid, 1897).