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LAAR, Pieter Van (1582-1642). Dutch painter. Painted landscapes of rural fairs and hunts, many from Italy.
LABADIE, Jean De (1610-74). French mystic. Educated as a Jesuit, he left in 1639, to become a popular preacher. He was appointed canon and teacher of theology at Amiens, but was expelled and joined the reformed Church in 1650. He was pastor at Orange, Geneva and London. In 1666, he founded the sect known as Labadists, who practised community ownership of goods and non-observance of the Sabbath, since every day should be Sabbath. He taught that children of regenerates were without original sin. Finally being suspended for refusing to subscribe to the Belgic confession, he moved to Westphalia and settled there with his followers. Following further persecution he moved to Bremen and then Altona. His followers persisted until the 18th centurey.
LABE, Louise (c. 1525-1566). French poetess. She was present, dressed as a man at the seige of Perpignan in 1542. She became the centre of a brilliant society at Lyons. Her sonnets and love poems were mainly inspired by her lover Olivier de Magny. Prose work Debat d'amour et de folie, was translated into English in 1608.
LABEO, Marcus Antistius (c. 50 B.C.-18 A.D.). Roman jurist. Having refused a belated offer of consulship, he devoted himself to jurisprudence. He was regarded by his contemporaries as the leading authority on Roman law. His most important writings were the Libri Posteriorum - dealing with common law - and the Libri ad Edictum, forming the basis of the Proculian school.
LABICHE, Eugene Maria (1815-88). French dramatist. Produced nearly 100 comedies and vaudevilles. He raised French farce to the highest level. The collected edition of his plays were published in 1879, and he became a member of the Academie Francaise in 1880.
LABLACHE, Luigi (1794-1858). Franco-Italian singer. Possessed of a magnificent bass voice, and acting ability, he became a popular singer in Italy, England, and throughout Europe.
LABORI, Fernand Gustav Gaston (1860-1917). French advocate. He was the leading advocate of his day. His clients included Dreyfus, Emile Zola, Therese Humbert, and Madam Caillaux. While defending Dreyfus in 1899 he was shot in the back, but recovered and resumed the defence. He was elected to the chamber of Deputies in 1906.
LABOUCHERE, Henry Dupre (1831-1912). English politician. He was Liberal M.P. in turn for Windsor, Middlesex and Northampton. An extreme radical he criticised everyone including the royal family and Cecil Rhodes. He was correspondent for the Daily News in Paris during the Franco-Prussian War and established Truth in 1870 in which he aired his views on politics and society. He spent his last years in Florence.
LABOULAYE, Edouard Lefervre De (1811-83) French jurist. Became a member of the Academie Francaise in 19845; professor of comparative jurisprudence at the College de France, 1849; member of the National Assembly, 1871-76; and senator for life in 1877. He edited the Revue historique de droit francais et etranger, 1855-69, and wrote Histoire politique des Etats-Unis 1855-66, a satirical novel Paris en Ameri que, 1863, and several volumes of short stories.
LABOURDONNAIS, Bertrand Francois, Count Mare De (1699-1753). French sailor. He entered the French East India company in 1718, rising to the command of a vessel. Recognition of his gallantry was given for the capture of Mahe, Malabar, 1724, by his taking the name of the town. 1735 appointed governor of the Des de France and de Bourbon. Distinguished himself in the war with Britain in 1740-48, but quarrelled with Dupleix. After 2 years imprisonment in the Bastille in 1749-51, he was tried for maladministration, but acquitted.
LA BRUYERE, Jean De (1645-96) French writer. In 1684 became tutor to the Conde family. they gave him their patronage throughout his life. In 1693 elected to the Academie Francaise. Best known work Caracteres, 1688, a satire on personalities and morality of his times. Dialogues sur le Quietisme, is a theological discussion which appeared after his death in 1698.
LACAILLE, Nicolas Louis De (1713-62). French astronomer. He went on an astronomical expedition to the Cape of Good Hope in 1750-54, and determined the solar and lunar parallaxes and observed 10,000 southern stars.
LACAITA, Sir James (1813-95). Anglo Italian politician. He was arrested at Naples in 1851 on a charge of supplhying evidence of bourbon misrule to Gladstone. He was freed through Russian and English intervention, and settled in London in 1852, and was naturalised in 1855. Secretary to Gladstone's Ionian Island Mission in 1858 he was knighted in 1859. He persuaded Lord John Russell to refuse to co-operate with France in preventing Garibaldi from crossing into Italy in 1860 and returned to Naples to become a deputy for the first Italian parliament. He was created a senator in 1876. Lacatta was an editor of Dante, completing the edition of the Inferno begun by Lord Vernon.
LACEPEDE, Bernard Germain Etienne de La Ville, Comte De (1756-1825). French naturalist. He was chosen by Buffon in 1785 to continue the latter's famous Natural History, which he did in 3 volumes: Histoire des quadrupedes ovipares et des serpents, 2 vols., 1788-89; and Historie naturelle des repitles, 1789. Turning to politics he became president of the senate, 1801, minister of state, 1809, and a peer of France at the Restoration in 1814. He also wrote the Histoire naturelle des poissons, 1795-1803.
LA CHAISE, Francois De (1624-1709) French Jesuit. He was father confessor to Louis XIV and was largely responsible for the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685, and one of the protagonists of the Gallican Church in its struggle with the papacy. The cemetery called Pere-Lachaise is named after him.
LA CHAUSSEE, Pierre Claude Nivelle De (1692-1754) French dramatist. He wrote sentimental plays which were very popular at the time. Most successful were Le Prejuge a la Mode, 1735; Melanide, 1741; and L'Ecole des Meres, 1774. They were the first examples of the tearful comedy.
LACHMANN, Karl Konrad Friedrich wilhelm (1793-1851). German philologist. He was professor of philology at Berlin from 1825 until his death. As a textual critic he was unrivalled, his editions of Propertius, 1816 and Lucretius, 1850 being especially notable. He is chiefly remembered for his works on the Nibelungenlied, which advanced the study of the old German language; and for his Betrachtungen uber Homers ilias, 1837 and 1841 in which he maintained the the Iliad consisted of 10 independent lays.
LA CLOCHE, James De (d. 1669). English imposter. He pretended to be a natural son of Charles II, presenting forged letters to Oliva, general of the Jesuits, at Rome in 1668. Lataer he called himself Prince James Stuart, appeared in Naples and was arrested on suspicion of being a coiner. When he again put forward the same claim. it was denied by Charles II.
LACORDAIRE, Jean Baptiste Henri (1802-61). French ecclesiastic. He was at first a deist and a follower of Rousseau, but the reading of Lammenais' Essai our l'indifference, caused a sudden conversion and he was ordained priest in 1827. He became with Montalembert and Lammenais leader of the liberal Catholics and edited with the latter L'Avenir, which was denounced by the pope. In a course of lectures at the College Stanislas and as a preacher at Notre Dame, he won fame for his eloquence and for his liberal views. In 1839 he entered the dominican order, resolving to re-establish that order in France. This met with little success and he begaan again to preach at Notre Dame in 1841. Made provincial of his order at Rome in 1850, he was elected to the Academie Francaise in 1860.
LACTANTIUS, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus. Christian apologist. Brought up in Afrtica, he lived in the 4th century, becoming a Christian in middle life, and went to Gaul, where he became tutor of Crispus, son of the emperor Constantine. His chief work is the Insititues of divinity, an exposition of Christianity. In another work attributed to him, De Mortibus Persecutorum, occurs the first mention of the famous vision seen by Constantine at the Milvian Bridge, as a result of which the emperor is said to have converted to Christianity.
LACY, Francis Maurice [1735-1801]. Austrian soldier. The son of Peter Lacy, an Irishman, who became a Russian field-marshal, he entered the Austrian army, rose to be a general in the Seven Years War, initiating much of the Austrian strategy. In 1763 he re-organised the Austrian army. He became a confidant of Maria Theresa and later of her son Joseph II.
LADISLAUS I (1040-95) extended the frontiers of his kingdom in Transylvania, and annexed Croatia, where he established Catholicism. For this, as well as for his support of the pope against the emperor Henry IV and his destruction of heathenism in Hungary, he was canonized after his death.
LADISLAUS IV. [1262-90] he was King from 1272. He provoked civil war by supporting the Cumans against the Magyars.A crusade was proclaimed against him by the Pope Nicholas IV in 1288, and he was murdered.
Ladislaus V [1440-57] was chosen King in 1444. He was under the guardianship of the emperor Frederick III, who did not let him return to Hungary until 1422. Crowned King of Bohemia in 1453, he became jealous of the popular Janos Hunyadi, and after the latter's death caused his brother Laszlo Hunyadi to be murdered. Popular fury at this deed caused his flight to Prague where he died in 1457.
WLADISLAUS, LADISLAUS I . (1260-1333), Polish king. With the aid of the papacy, reunited the 14 principalities of Poland and by defeating the Teutonic Order in 1332 laid the foundations of Poland's greatness. He ws crowned king in 1320.
LADISLAUS II (1350-1434) grand-duke of Lithuania from 1377 became king by his marriage with Jadwiga, reigning queen of Poland, with whom he shared the crown. He secured the allegiance of the hospodars of Wallachia and Moldavia, defeated the knights of the Teutonic Order and at his death had raised Poland to a position of importance in Europe.
LADISLAUS III (1424-44) became king in 1434 and was chosen king of Hungary in 1440. With Janos Hunyadi he conducted a victorious campaign against the Turks in 1443, but in a second campaign was killed at the battle of Varna.
LADISLAUS IV (1595-1648), during a reign of 16 years (1632-48) gained successes against the Russians and the Turks but his reign was marred by internal dissensions.
LAELIUS, Gaius. Roman administrator. A friend of Scipio Africanus the elder, he took part in his Spanish and African campaigns, distinguishing himself at Zama, 202 B.C. as a cavalry leader. Practor of Sicily in 196, as consul, 190, he organised the newly conquered province of Cis-Alpine Gaul. His son, also Gaius Laelius, was the patron of Terence and the chief interlocutor in Cicero's dialogue On Friendship. He did much to introduce Greek culture into Rome.
LAENNEC, Rene Theophile Hyacinthe (1781-1826). French physician. He was made professor of medicine at the College de France in 1823. He is known as the inventor of the stethoscope and as the author of De l'auscultation mediate, 1819, which first described diagnosis by listening to the sounds made by the heart, lungs, and other organs. His discovery of auscultation began modern physical diagnosis and revolutionised the pathology of the heart, lungs and abdomen.
LAETUS, Julius Pomponius (1425-98). Italian humanist. He became professor of eloquence at the Gymnasium Rominanum in 1457. By his teachings and writings, and by the foundation of an academy, which was for a while suppressed on a charge of paganism, and the members of which adopted classical names and discussed classical subjects, he did much to stimulate the study of classical philology.
LA FARGE, John (1835-1910). American painter. He painted landscapes, flower studies, and figure subjects, and made experiments in glass painting, in accordance with his theories of the representation of light. He also executed numerous windows in New York and elsewhere.
LA FARINA Giuseppe (1815-63). Italian patriot. He had to flee three time from Sicily on account of his revolutionary activities and publications. One of the earliest advocates of Italian unity he founded the Piccolo Corriere d"Italia at Turin in 1856, persuaded Cavour to appoint Garibaldi to a command in 1859 and became a member of the first Italian parliament in 1860, and shortly afterwards was made, a councillor of state. His writings include a History of Italy from 1815 to 1848 published in six volumes.
LA FAYETTE, Gilbert Motier de (1380-1462). French soldier. He fought with success against the English and Burgundians on the Loire in 1420, and became governor of Dauphiny and marshallof France. Later he fought with Joan of Arc at Orleans and Patay 1429.
LAAFAYETTE, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier Marquis De (1757-1834). French soldier and statesman. Born of an ancient and wealthy family, he became an orphan and financially independent. At the age of 13. He entered the Army, and by 1776 had risen to be a captain of dragoons. In that year, he determined to go to the assistance of the revolted American colonists, and he made an agreement with the American agent in Paris to cross to America, where he was to become a major general. He fitted out a ship at Bordeaux, but the king vetoed his departure and ordered his ship to be seized. Lafayette was arrested, but escaped, and the ship having been sent to a Spanish port he set sail, landing at Georgetown, South Carolina, in April 1777. He was made a major general, though he offered to serve as a simple volunteer, gained the friendship of Washington, was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine, September 1777, was made commander of the division, and conducted a masterly retreat from Barren Hill may 1778. He returned to France in 1779, being acclaimed as a hero, but was back in America in the same year, his return being the occasion for a complimentary resolution of Congress. he fought at Yorktown, but the conclusion of peace shortly after his second return to France, 1783, put an end to his immediate activities, though he visited America as a guest of the nation in 1784. Lafayette sat in the Assembly of Notables, 1787, and was the only one to sign the demand that the King should summon the states General to which he was elected 1789. He became vice president of the National Assembly, and as first Colonel General of the National Guard of Paris originated the tricolor, the national emblem of modern France. Though he grew less popular by his suppression of the riot on the Champ de Mars in 1791, he was made a lieutenant-general, and he issued the order to stop the King's flight to Varennes. He commanded one of the armies against Austria,, Dec., 1791, but his obvious dislike of the extreme Jacobins led to his being proclaimed a traitor, August, 1792, and he took refuge with the enemy forces, being imprisoned till Napoleon secured his release in 1797. Returning to France in 1799, he opposed the assumption of the consular and later imperial title by Napoleon, but his role throughout the Napoleonic period was a passive one. A deputy to the chamber, 1818-24, and from 1825, until his death. He revisited America receiving a national welcome and commanded the National Guard in the revolution of 1830.
LA FAYETTE, Marie-Madeleine Pioche De La Verone, Comtesse De (1634-92). French authoress. The daughter of the Commandant of Havre, she married the Comte de Lafayette in 1655. She became the intimate friend of Madame de Sevigne and of the duc de la Rochefoucauld. Her early novels were, the current romantic type, but later, under the name of De Segrais she published La princesse de Cleves, 1678, which marked an almost complete break with tradition, and is by many considered the first French psychological novel.
LAFFITTE, Jacques (1767-1844). French statesman. He was Governor of the Bank of France and president of the Chamber of Commerce, 1814-19, and was elected to the chamber of deputies in 1816. He took an active part in the Revolution of 1830, and became Minister of Finance and president of the Council in the new government resigning in 1831.
LAFFITTE, Pierre (1823-1903) French philosopher. He became the chief disciple of Comte and after the split in the Positivist ranks that followed Comte's death, became leader of the group that accepted the full Positivist doctrine. He became professor of the history of science at the College de France in 1893. His publications include Les Grands types de l'humanite, 1875.
LA FOLETTE, Robert Marion (1855-1925). American politician. He was governor of Wisconsin, 1901-07, and was elected USA Senator in 1905. Strongly averse to American participation in World War I he opposed the Armed Ship Bill in 1917, and the resolution for war in the same year. A radical, he advocated electoral reform, equalisation of taxation, and state control of railways.
LA FONTAINE, Jean De (1621-95) French poet and fabulist. At first he was educated for the church. He turned however to the law, which he abandoned on succeeding to his father's rangership of the forest of the duchy of Chateau-Thierry in Champagne in 1647. in the same year he married but he soon separated from his wife, and from about 1660 lived chiefly in Paris. It was comparatively late in life that he turned to literature. Having secured an introduction to and a pension from Fouquet, the chief literary patron of the age in France, he began to ride light verses and translate some classical works. His first valuable work the first volume of his Contes, did not appear until 1664although he had produced other works. In 1668 claim his second series of Contes, and the first six books of the famous Fables which were to prove their author's most enduring monuments; a second series of Fables followed in 1679 and a third in 1693. La Fontaine passed from patron to patron and salon to salon with ever-increasing popularity, and in 1684 despite the laxity of the Contes, which had been criticized, was elected a member of the French Academy. He had a genius for friendship and with Moliere, Racine, and Boileau formed an intimate quartet notable in the history of literature.
LAFONTAINE, Sir Louis Hippolyte (1807-64). Canadian politician. He entered the Legislature of Québec in 1830 and followed Papineau. He did not, however, support the Revolution of 1837-38, though his connection with his leader led to his imprisonment. After the union of the two Canadas in 1841 Lafontaine became the leader of the French Canadians, and he was joined head of a government with Robert Baldwin 1842-43 and 1848-51. He was made chief justice of Québec in 1853, and in 1854 was created a baronet.
LAFOSSE, Charles De )(1636-1716). French painter. He became the leading decorative French painter of his day. His decorative work can still be seen on the dome of Les Invalides in Paris. In his pictures he was strongly influenced by Veronese, whose work he studied in Venice, and his Finding of Moses, and his Rape of Proserpine, show him to have excelled most of his countrymen as a colourist.