Chapter 5 of 41 · 3949 words · ~20 min read

Part 5

GEORGE V., king of Hanover (1819-1878), was the only son of Ernest Augustus, king of Hanover and duke of Cumberland, and consequently a grandson of the English king George III. Born in Berlin on the 27th of May 1819, his youth was passed in England and in Berlin until 1837, when his father became king of Hanover and he took up his residence in that country. He lost the sight of one eye during a childish illness, and the other by an accident in 1833. Being thus totally blind there were doubts whether he was qualified to succeed to the government of Hanover; but his father decided that he should do so, as the law of the dissolved empire only excluded princes who were born blind. This decision was a fatal one to the dynasty. Both from his father and from his maternal uncle, Charles Frederick, prince of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1785-1837), one of the most influential men at the Prussian court, George had learned to take a very high and autocratic view of royal authority. His blindness prevented him from acquiring the shrewdness and knowledge of the world which had assisted his father, and he easily fell into the hands of unwise, and perhaps dishonest and disloyal, advisers. A man of deep religious feeling, he formed a fantastic conception of the place assigned to the house of Guelph in the divine economy, and had ideas of founding a great Guelph state in Europe. It is, therefore, not surprising that from the time of his accession in November 1851 he was constantly engaged in disputes with his _Landtag_ or parliament, and was consequently in a weak and perilous position when the crisis in the affairs of Germany came in 1866. Having supported Austria in the diet of the German confederation in June 1866, he refused, contrary to the wishes of his parliament, to assent to the Prussian demand that Hanover should observe an unarmed neutrality during the war. As a result his country and his capital were at once occupied by the Prussians, to whom his army surrendered on the 29th of June 1866, and in the following September Hanover was formally annexed by Prussia. From his retreat at Hietzing near Vienna, George appealed in vain to the powers of Europe; and supported by a large number of his subjects, an agitation was carried on which for a time caused some embarrassment to Prussia. All these efforts, however, to bring about a restoration were unavailing, and the king passed the remainder of his life at Gmunden in Austria, or in France, refusing to the last to be reconciled with the Prussian government. Whilst visiting Paris for medical advice he died in that city on the 12th of June 1878, and was buried in St George's chapel, Windsor. In February 1843 he had married Marie, daughter of Joseph, duke of Saxe-Altenburg, by whom he left a son and two daughters. His son, Ernest Augustus, duke of Cumberland (b. 1845), continued to maintain the claim of his house to the kingdom of Hanover.

By the capitulation of 1866 the king was allowed to retain his personal property, which included money and securities equal to nearly L1,500,000, which had been sent to England before the Prussian invasion of Hanover. The crown jewels had also been secretly conveyed to England. His valuable plate, which had been hidden at Herrenhausen, was restored to him in 1867; his palace at Herrenhausen, near Hanover, was reserved as his property; and in 1867 the Prussian government agreed to compensate him for the loss of his landed estates, but owing to his continued hostility the payment of the interest on this sum was suspended in the following year (see HANOVER).

See O. Klopp, _Konig Georg V._ (Hanover, 1878); O. Theodor, _Erinnerungen an Georg V._ (Bremerhaven, 1878); and O. Meding, _Memoiren zur Zeitgeschichte_ (Leipzig, 1881-1884).

GEORGE I., king of the Hellenes (1845- ), second son of King Christian IX. of Denmark, was born at Copenhagen on the 24th of December 1845. After the expulsion of King Otho in 1862, the Greek nation, by a plebiscite, elected the British prince, Alfred, duke of Edinburgh (subsequently duke of Coburg), to the vacant throne, and on his refusal the national assembly requested Great Britain to nominate a candidate. The choice of the British government fell on Prince Christian William Ferdinand Adolphus George of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg, whose election as king of the Hellenes, with the title George I., was recognized by the powers (6th of June 1863). The sister of the new sovereign, Princess Alexandra, had a few months before (10th March) married the prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward VII., and his father succeeded to the crown of Denmark in the following November. Another sister, Princess Dagmar, subsequently married the grand duke Alexander Alexandrovitch, afterwards Emperor Alexander III. of Russia. On his accession, King George signed an act resigning his right of succession to the Danish throne in favour of his younger brother Prince Waldemar. He was received with much enthusiasm by the Greeks. Adopting the motto, "My strength is the love of my people," he ruled in strict accordance with constitutional principles, though not hesitating to make the fullest use of the royal prerogative when the intervention of the crown seemed to be required by circumstances. For the events of his reign see GREECE: _History_.

King George married, on the 27th of October 1867, the grand duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia, who became distinguished in Greece for her

## activity on behalf of charitable objects. Their children were Prince

Constantine, duke of Sparta (b. 1868), who married in 1889 Princess Sophia of Prussia, daughter of the emperor Frederick, and granddaughter of Queen Victoria; Prince George (b. 1869), from November 1898 to October 1906 high commissioner of the powers in Crete; Prince Nicholas (b. 1872), who married in 1902 the grand duchess Helen-Vladimirovna of Russia; Prince Andrew (b. 1882), who married in 1903 Princess Alice of Battenberg; Prince Christopher (b. 1888); and a daughter, Princess Marie (b. 1876), who married in 1900 the grand duke George Michailovich of Russia.

GEORGE, king of Saxony (1832-1904), the youngest son of King John of Saxony (d. 1873) and Queen Amelia, was born at Dresden on the 8th of August 1832. From an early age he received a careful scientific and military training, and in 1846 entered the active army as a lieutenant of artillery. In 1849-1850 he was a student at the university of Bonn, but soon returned to military life, for which he had a predilection. In the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 he commanded a Saxon cavalry brigade, and in the early part of the war of 1870-71 a division, but later succeeded to the supreme command of the XII. (Saxon) army corps in the room of his brother, the crown prince Albert (afterwards king) of Saxony. His name is inseparably associated with this campaign, during which he showed undoubted military ability and an intrepidity which communicated itself to all ranks under his command, notably at the battles of St Privat and Beaumont, in which he greatly distinguished himself. On his brother succeeding to the throne he became commander-in-chief of the Saxon army, and was in 1888 made a Prussian field marshal by the emperor William I. He married in 1859 the infanta Maria, sister of King Louis of Portugal, and King Albert's marriage being childless, succeeded on his death in 1902 to the throne of Saxony. He died on the 15th of October 1904, at Pillnitz.

GEORGE OF LAODICEA in Syria, often called "the Cappadocian," from 356 to 361 Arian archbishop of Alexandria, was born about the beginning of the 4th century. According to Ammianus (xxii. 11), he was a native of Epiphania, in Cilicia. Gregory Nazianzen tells us that his father was a fuller, and that he himself soon became notorious as a parasite of so mean a type that he would "sell himself for a cake." After many wanderings, in the course of which he seems to have amassed a considerable fortune, first as an army-contractor and then as a receiver of taxes, he ultimately reached Alexandria. It is not known how or when he obtained ecclesiastical orders; but, after Athanasius had been banished in 356, George was promoted by the influence of the then prevalent Arian faction to the vacant see. His theological attitude was that known as semi-Arian or Homoiousian, and his associates were Eustathius of Sebaste and Basil of Ancyra. At George's instigation the second Sirmian formula (promulgated by the third council of Sirmium 357), which was conciliatory towards strict Arianism, was opposed at the council of Ancyra in 358 (Harnack, _Hist. of Dogma_, iv. 76). His persecutions and oppressions of the orthodox ultimately raised a rebellion which compelled him to flee for his life; but his authority was restored, although with difficulty, by a military demonstration. Untaught by experience, he resumed his course of selfish tyranny over Christians and heathen alike, and raised the irritation of the populace to such a pitch that when, on the accession of Julian, his downfall was proclaimed and he was committed to prison, they dragged him thence and killed him, finally casting his body into the sea (24th of December 361). With much that was sordid and brutal in his character George combined a highly cultivated literary taste, and in the course of his chequered career he had found the means of collecting a splendid library, which Julian ordered to be conveyed to Antioch for his own use. An anonymous work against the Manicheans discovered by Lagarde in 1859 in a MS. of Titus of Bostra has been attributed to him.

The original sources for the facts of the life of George of Laodicea are Ammianus, Gregory Nazianzen, Epiphanius and Athanasius. His character has been drawn with graphic fidelity by Gibbon in the 23rd chapter of the _Decline and Fall_; but the theory, accepted by Gibbon, which identifies him with the patron saint of England is now rejected (see GEORGE, SAINT). See C.S. Hulst, _St George of Cappadocia in Legend and History_ (1910).

GEORGE OF TREBIZOND (1395-1484), Greek philosopher and scholar, one of the pioneers of the revival of letters in the Western world, was born in the island of Crete, and derived his surname Trapezuntios from the fact that his ancestors were from Trebizond. At what period he came to Italy is not certain; according to some accounts he was summoned to Venice about 1430 to act as amanuensis to Francesco Barbaro, who appears to have already made his acquaintance; according to others he did not visit Italy till the time of the council of Florence (1438-1439). He learned Latin from Vittorino da Feltre, and made such rapid progress that in three years he was able to teach Latin literature and rhetoric. His reputation as a teacher and a translator of Aristotle was very great, and he was selected as secretary by Pope Nicholas V., an ardent Aristotelian. The needless bitterness of his attacks upon Plato (in the _Comparatio Aristotelis et Platonis_), which drew forth a powerful response from Bessarion (q.v.), and the manifestly hurried and inaccurate character of his translations of Plato, Aristotle and other classical authors, combined to ruin his fame as a scholar, and to endanger his position as a teacher of philosophy. The indignation against him on account of his first-named work was so great that he would probably have been compelled to leave Italy had not Alphonso V. given him protection at the court of Naples. He subsequently returned to Rome, where he died in great poverty on the 12th of August 1484. He had long outlived his reputation, and towards the end of his life his intellect failed him. From all accounts he was a man of very disagreeable character, conceited and quarrelsome.

See G. Voigt, _Die Wiederbelebung des klassischen Altertums_ (1893), and article by C.F. Bahr in Ersch and Gruber's _Allgemeine Encyklopadie_. For a complete list of his numerous works, consisting of translations from Greek into Latin (Plato, Aristotle and the Fathers) and original essays in Greek (chiefly theological) and Latin (grammatical and rhetorical), see Fabricius, _Bibliotheca Graeca_ (ed. Harles), xii.

GEORGE THE MONK [GEORGIOS MONACHOS], called Hamartolos (Greek for "sinner"), Byzantine chronicler, lived during the reign of Michael III. (842-867). He wrote a _Chronicle_ of events, in four books, from the creation of the world to the death of the emperor Theophilus (842), whose widow Theodora restored the worship of images in the same year. It is the only original contemporary authority for the years 813-842, and therefore so far indispensable; the early parts of the work are merely a compilation. In the introduction the author disclaims all pretensions to literary style, and declares that his only object was to relate such things as were "useful and necessary" with a strict adherence to truth. Far too much attention, however, is devoted to religious matters; the iconoclasts are fiercely attacked, and the whole is interlarded with theological discussions and quotations from the fathers. The work was very popular, and translations of it served as models for Slavonic writers. The MSS. give a continuation down to 948, the author of which is indicated simply as "the logothete," by whom probably Symeon Metaphrastes (second half of the 10th century) is meant. In this religious questions are relegated to the background, more attention is devoted to political history, and the language is more popular. Still further continuations of little value go down to 1143. The large circulation of the work and its subsequent reissues, with alterations and interpolations, make it very difficult to arrive at the original text.

EDITIONS: E. de Muralt (St Petersburg, 1859); J.P. Migne, _Patrologia Graeca_, cx.; C. de Boor (in Teubner series, 1904- ). See F. Hirsch, _Byzantinische Studien_ (1876); C. de Boor in _Historische Untersuchungen_ (in honour of Arnold Schafer, Bonn, 1882); C. Krumbacher, _Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur_ (1897).

GEORGE THE SYNCELLUS [GEORGIOS SYNKELLOS], of Constantinople, Byzantine chronicler and ecclesiastic, lived at the end of the 8th and the beginning of the 9th century A.D. He was the _syncellus_ (cell-mate, the confidential companion assigned to the patriarchs, sometimes little more than a spy; see SYNCELLUS) or private secretary of Tara(u)sius, patriarch of Constantinople (784-806), after whose death he retired to a convent, and wrote his _Chronicle_ of events from Adam to Diocletian (285). At his earnest request, the work, which he doubtless intended to bring down to his own times, was continued after his death by his friend Theophanes Confessor. The _Chronicle_, which, as its title implies, is rather a chronological table (with notes) than a history, is written with special reference to pre-Christian times and the introduction of Christianity, and exhibits the author as a staunch upholder of orthodoxy. But in spite of its religious bias and dry and uninteresting character, the fragments of ancient writers and apocryphal books preserved in it render it specially valuable. For instance, considerable portions of the original text of the _Chronicle_ of Eusebius have been restored by the aid of Syncellus. His chief authorities were Annianus of Alexandria (5th century) and Panodorus, an Egyptian monk, who wrote about the year 400 and drew largely from Eusebius, Dexippus and Julius Africanus.

Editio princeps, by J. Goar (1652); in Bonn _Corpus scriptorum hist. Byz._, by W. Dindorf (1829). See also H. Gelzer, _Sextus Julius Africanus_, ii. 1 (1885); C. Krumbacher, _Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur_ (1897).

GEORGE, HENRY (1839-1897), American author and political economist, was born in Philadelphia, Penn., on the 2nd of September 1839. He settled in California in 1858; removed to New York, 1880; was first a printer, then an editor, but finally devoted all his life to economic and social questions. In 1871 he published _Our Land Policy_, which, as further developed in 1879 under the title of _Progress and Poverty_, speedily attracted the widest attention both in America and in Europe. In 1886 he published _Protection or Free Trade_. Henry George had no political ambition, but in 1886 he received an independent nomination as mayor of New York City, and became so popular that it required a coalition of the two strongest political parties to prevent his election. He received 68,000 votes, against 90,000 for the coalition candidate. His death on the 29th of October 1897 was followed by one of the greatest demonstrations of popular feeling and general respect that ever attended the funeral of any strictly private citizen in American history. The fundamental doctrine of Henry George, the equal right of all men to the use of the earth, did not originate with him; but his clear statement of a method by which it could be enforced, without increasing state machinery, and indeed with a great simplification of government, gave it a new form. This method he named the _Single Tax_. His doctrine may be condensed as follows: The land of every country belongs of right to all the people of that country. This right cannot be alienated by one generation, so as to affect the title of the next, any more than men can sell their yet unborn children for slaves. Private ownership of land has no more foundation in morality or reason than private ownership of air or sunlight. But the private occupancy and use of land are right and indispensable. Any attempt to divide land into equal shares is impossible and undesirable. Land should be, and practically is now, divided for private use in parcels among those who will pay the highest price for the use of each parcel. This price is now paid to some persons annually, and it is called _rent_. By applying the rent of land, exclusive of all improvements, to the equal benefit of the whole community, absolute justice would be done to all. As rent is always more than sufficient to defray all necessary expenses of government, those expenses should be met by a tax upon rent alone, to be brought about by the gradual abolition of all other taxes. Landlords should be left in undisturbed possession and nominal ownership of the land, with a sufficient margin over the tax to induce them to collect their rents and pay the tax. They would thus be transformed into mere land agents. Obviously this would involve absolute free trade, since all taxes on imports, manufactures, successions, documents, personal property, buildings or improvements would disappear. Nothing made by man would be taxed at all. The right of private property in all things made by man would thus be absolute, for the owner of such things could not be divested of his property, without full compensation, even under the pretence of taxation. The idea of concentrating all taxes upon ground-rent has found followers in Great Britain, North America, Australia and New Zealand. In practical politics this doctrine is confined to the "Single Tax, Limited," which proposes to defray only the needful public expenses from ground-rent, leaving the surplus, whatever it may be, in the undisturbed possession of landowners.

The principal books by Henry George are: _Progress and Poverty_ (1879), _The Irish Land Question_ (1881), _Social Problems_ (1884), _Protection or Free Trade_ (1886), _The Condition of Labor_ (1891), _A Perplexed Philosopher_ (1892), _Political Economy_ (1898). His son, Henry George (b. 1862), has written a _Life_ (1900). For the Single Tax theory see Shearman's _Natural Taxation_ (1899). (T. G. S.)

GEORGE PISIDA [GEORGIOS PISIDES], Byzantine poet, born in Pisidia, flourished during the 7th century A.D. Nothing is known of him except that he was a deacon and chartophylax (keeper of the records) of the church of St Sophia. His earliest work, in three cantos ([Greek: akroaseis]), on the campaign of the emperor Heraclius against the Persians, seems to be the work of an eyewitness. This was followed by the _Avarica_, an account of a futile attack on Constantinople by the Avars (626), said to have been repulsed by the aid of the Virgin Mary; and by the _Heraclias_, a general survey of the exploits of Heraclius both at home and abroad down to the final overthrow of Chosroes in 627. George Pisida was also the author of a didactic poem, _Hexaemeron_ or _Cosmourgia_, upon the creation of the world; a treatise on the vanity of life, after the manner of _Ecclesiastes_; a controversial composition against Severus, bishop of Antioch; two short poems upon the resurrection of Christ and on the recovery of the sacred crucifix stolen by the Persians. The metre chiefly used is the iambic. As a versifier Pisida is correct and even elegant; as a chronicler of contemporary events he is exceedingly useful; and later Byzantine writers enthusiastically compared him with, and even preferred him to Euripides. Recent criticism, however, characterizes his compositions as artificial and almost uniformly dull.

Complete works in J.P. Migne, _Patrologia Graeca_, xcii.; see also _De Georgii Pisidae apud Theophanem aliosque historicos reliquiis_. (1900), by S.L. Sternbach, who has edited several new poems for the first time from a Paris MS. in _Wiener Studien_, xiii., xiv. (1891-1892); C. Krumbacher, _Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur_ (1897); C.F. Bahr in Ersch and Gruber's _Allgemeine Encyklopadie_.

GEORGE, LAKE, a lake in the E. part of New York, U.S.A., among the S.E. foothills of the Adirondack Mountains. It extends from N.N.E. to S.S.W. about 34 m., and varies in width from 2 to 4 m. It has a maximum depth of about 400 ft., and is 323 ft. above the sea and 227 ft. above Lake Champlain, into which it has an outlet to the northward through a narrow channel and over falls and rapids. The lake is fed chiefly by mountain brooks and submerged springs; its bed is for the most part covered with a clean sand; its clear water is coloured with beautiful tints of blue and green; and its surface is studded with about 220 islands and islets, all except nineteen of which belong to the state and constitute a part of its forest reserve. Near the head of the lake is Prospect Mountain, rising 1736 ft. above the sea, while several miles farther down the shores is Black Mountain, 2661 ft. in height. Lake George has become a favourite summer resort. Lake steamers ply between the village of Lake George (formerly Caldwell) at the southern end of the lake and Baldwin, whence there is rail connexion with Lake Champlain steamers.

Lake George was formed during the Glacial period by glacial drift which clogged a pre-existing valley. According to Prof. J.F. Kemp the valley occupied by Lake George was a low pass before the Glacial period; a dam of glacial drift at the southern end and of lacustrine clays at the northern end formed the lake which has submerged the pass, leaving higher parts as islands. Before the advent of the white man the lake was a part of the war-path over which the Iroquois Indians frequently made their way northward to attack the Algonquins and the Hurons, and during the struggle between the English and the French for supremacy in America, waterways being still the chief means of communication, it was of great strategic importance (see CHAMPLAIN, _Lake_). Father Isaac Jogues, Rene Goupil and Guillaume Couture seem to have been the first white men to see the lake (on the 9th of August 1642) as they were being taken by their Iroquois captors from the St Lawrence to the towns of the Mohawks, and in 1646 Father Jogues, having undertaken a half-religious, half-political mission to the Mohawks, was again at the lake, to which, in allusion to his having reached it on the eve of Corpus Christi, he gave the name Lac Saint Sacrement. This name it bore until the summer of 1755, when General William Johnson renamed it Lake George in honour of King George II.