chapter 1._

See SCOTLAND: 8TH-9TH CENTURIES.

ALBIS, The. The ancient name of the river Elbe.

ALBOIN, King of the Lombards, A. D. 569-573.

ALCALDE. ALGUAZIL. CORREGIDOR.

"The word alcalde is from the Arabic 'al cadi,' the judge or governor. … Alcalde mayor signifies a judge, learned in the law, who exercises [in Spain] ordinary jurisdiction, civil and criminal, in a town or district." In the Spanish colonies the Alcalde mayor was the chief judge. "Irving (Columbus, ii. 331) writes erroneously alguazil mayor, evidently confounding the two offices. … An alguacil mayor, was a chief constable or high sheriff." "Corregidor, a magistrate having civil and criminal jurisdiction in the first instance ('nisi prius') and gubernatorial inspection in the political and economical government in all the towns of the district assigned to him."

_H. H. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, volume 1, pages 297 and 250, foot-notes._

ALCANIZ, Battle of.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1809 (FEBRUARY-JUNE).

ALCANTARA, Battle of the (1580).

See PORTUGAL; A. D. 1579-1580.

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ALCANTARA, Knights of.

"Towards the close of Alfonso's reign [Alfonso VIII. of Castile and Leon, who called himself 'the Emperor,' A. D. 1126-1157], may be assigned the origin of the military order of Alcantara. Two cavaliers of Salamanca, don Suero and don Gomez, left that city with the design of choosing and fortifying some strong natural frontier, whence they could not only arrest the continual incursions of the Moors, but make hostile irruptions themselves into the territories of the misbelievers. Proceeding along the banks of the Coales, they fell in with a hermit, Amando by name, who encouraged them in their patriotic design and recommended the neighbouring hermitage of St. Julian as an excellent site for a fortress. Having examined and approved the situation, they applied to the bishop of Salamanca for permission to occupy the place: that permission was readily granted: with his assistance, and that of the hermit Amando, the two cavaliers erected a castle around the hermitage. They were now joined by other nobles and by more adventurers, all eager to acquire fame and wealth in this life, glory in the next. Hence the foundation of an order which, under the name, first, of St. Julian, and subsequently of Alcantara, rendered good service alike to king and church."

_S. A. Dunham, History of Spain and Portugal, book 3, section 2, chapter 1, division. 2._

ALCAZAR, OR "THE THREE KINGS," Battle of (1578 or 1579).

See MAROCCO: THE ARAB CONQUEST AND SINCE.

ALCIBIADES, The career of.

See GREECE: B. C. 421-418, and 411-407; and ATHENS: B. C. 415, and 413-411.

ALCLYDE.

Rhydderch, a Cumbrian prince of the sixth century who was the victor in a civil conflict, "fixed his headquarters on a rock in the Clyde, called in the Welsh Alclud [previously a Roman town known as Theodosia], whence it was known to the English for a time as Alclyde; but the Goidels called it Dunbrettan, or the fortress of the Brythons, which has prevailed in the slightly modified form of Dumbarton. … Alclyde was more than once destroyed by the Northmen."

_J. Rhys; Celtic Britain,