The Great Events by Famous Historians [Volumes 1-14]

74 Charles IV.

75 Allusion to John Ziska, leader of the Hussites, who waged a fierce war against Wenzel and the empire.

76 Head of the House of Hohenzollern, Burggraves of Nuremberg.

77 This was the Dauphin, afterward Charles VII, whose brother Jean, Duke of Burgundy, had, in 1407, procured the murder of the Duke of Orleans.

78 To houspiller is to maul, pull about, abuse, "worry like a dog"; hence the name houspilleur.

79 The English cardinal, most powerful ecclesiastic of the time.

80 Assistant judges.

81 Tipstaffs, constables.

82 The Duke of Bedford (John of Lancaster), third son of Henry IV of England, was regent of England and France, which office he assumed on the death of Henry V, in 1422.

83 The memory of Jeanne d'Arc was long and shamefully traduced by descendants of those enemies of France whom she baffled. Even Shakespeare (Henry VI) is so unjust to her—refining upon the brutal calumnies of the historians—as to grieve his most loving critics. It remained for the opening years of the twentieth century to see the Maid canonized by the Church which, as the agent of her country's foes, was instrumental in her destruction.—Ed.

84 Translated by Chauncey C. Starkweather, M.A., LL.B.

85 The Catalan Grand Company was a formidable body of mercenary soldiers; it arose in Sicily during the wars that followed the Sicilian Vespers.

86 See 1291.

87 Date uncertain.

88 Date uncertain.

89 A specimen of an early speaking-tube exists, connecting the room said to have been occupied by Isabella with the old brewhouse, now a tavern, by means of which Mortimer was wont to communicate with his mistress. The castle stands upon a mount of 280 feet, sheer rock, and the brewhouse is at its base. A peculiarity of the tube, bored through the live rock, is an elbow-joint, which is a puzzle to scientists.

90 Date uncertain.

91 Often erroneously given as 1370, neglecting the fact that, by the old manner of reckoning, the year began on March 25th.

92 Date uncertain.

93 By the French it is claimed that Jean Charlier de Gerson was the author of de Imitatione Christi, usually attributed to Thomas à Kempis.

END OF VOLUME VII