Horatii, Roman knights, and the three Curiatii, Albans, being elected by their respective countries engaged, in which the Horatii were victors, and which united Alba to Rome, 667 B.C.

AMBASSADOR.

The word ambassador is of very uncertain derivation, but is supposed to be derived from the Italian word ambasciare, to solicit. An ambassador is not only the agent of the country which sends him, but also represents personally the dignity of its Sovereign. The greater powers of Europe send ambassadors to each other with the exception of Prussia, which never employs ministers of this Class.

THE TITLE CARDINAL.

The Cardinals were originally nothing more than deacons, to whom was intrusted the care of distributing the alms to the poor of the several quarters of Rome; and as they held assemblies of the poor in certain churches of their several districts, they took the title of these churches. Thus two of the minor canons of St. Paul's, London, are still called cardinals of the choir, whose duties are to preserve order in Divine service, administer the Eucharist, and officiate at funerals. They began to be called Cardinals in the year 300, during the pontificate of St. Sylvester, by which appellation was meant the chief priests of a parish, and next in dignity to a bishop. This office grew more considerable afterwards, and by small degrees arrived at its present height; in which it is the reward of such as have served his Holiness well-even Princes thinking it no diminution of their honour to become members of the college of Cardinals.

The Cardinals compose the Pope's council, and till the time of Urban VIII., were styled Most Illustrious; but by a decree of that Pope in 1630, they had the title of Eminence conferred upon them. The privileges of the Cardinals are very great-they have an absolute power in the church during the vacancy in the Holy See— they have a right to elect a new Pope, and are the only persons on whom the choice can fall; most of the grand offices in the court of Rome are filled by Cardinals. The dress of a Cardinal is a red soutanne, a rocket, a short purple mantle, and the red hat. When they are sent to the Courts of Princes, it is in quality of legates a latere; and when they are appointed Governors of towns, their government is called by the name of Legation. The Cardinals are divided into six classes or orders; consisting of six bishops, fifty priests, and fourteen deacons, making in all seventy, which constitute the sacred college.

DIEU ET MON DROIT.

The motto of the Royal Family of England. It was first assumed by Richard I., to intimate that he held his sovereignty from

God alone. It seems to have been dropt among the immediate successors of that Prince, but it was revived by Edward III. when he first claimed the crown of France. Since which time, except in the reign of Elizabeth, William II., and Anne, it has always formed the Royal motto of England.

DEFENSOR FIDEI.

Defensor Fidei, or Defender of the Faith, was given to Henry VIII. by Pope Leo X., for the ability and zeal that he manifested in his writings in support of the Roman Catholic Church. When, at the Reformation, Henry suppressed all the Monasteries and Convents in England, the Pope deprived him of his title; but in the thirty-fifth year of his reign it was confirmed by Parliament, and it has been since constantly assumed by the sovereigns of England. Henry VIII., however, was not the first sovereign who assumed the title; for Mr. Luders, in a learned article of the Archeologia, vol. xix. part i., has traced the title up to Richard II. It simply expresses the sovereign's determination to support the Christian faith, at a time when a great part of Europe consisted of heathens. Hence it was suitably adopted by Charlemagne, A.D. 769, who styled himself, "Devotum Sanctæ Ecclesiæ Defensorum."

MOST CHRISTIAN KING.

The origin of this title of the Kings of France, as well as the "eldest son of the church," takes its data from Clovis, who was the first king of the Franks that professed Christianity.

CÆSAR, OR CZAR.

The title Cæsar, in Roman antiquity, was borne by all the Emperors from Julius Cæsar to the destruction of the empire. It was also used as a title of distinction for the intended or presumptive heir of the empire, as King of the Romans is now used for that of the German empire.

The title took its rise from the sirname of the first emperor, C. Julius Cæsar, which, by a decree of the Senate, all the succeeding emperors were to bear. Under his successor, the appellation of Augustus being appropriated to the emperors in compliment to that prince, the title Cæsar was given to the second person in the empire, though it still continued to be given to the first; and hence the difference between Cæsar used simply, and Cæsar with the addition of Imperator Augustus. The dignity of Cæsar remained second in the empire, till Alexius Commenus, having elected Nicephorus Melissenus Cæsar by contract, and it being necessary to confer some higher dignity on his own brother Isaacius, he created him Sebastocrator, with the precedency over Melissenus; ordering, that in all acclamations, &c., Isaacius

Sebastocrator should be named the second, and Melissenus Cæsar the third.

Czar, in the Russian language, means Cæsar, and it is a title assumed by the great Dukes, or as they are now styled Emperors of Russia. Beckmann makes no doubt but they took this title by corruption from Cæsar-Emperor; and accordingly they bear an eagle as the symbol of their empire, and the word Cæsar in their arms; yet they make a distinction between Czar and Cæsar, the first being taken for the King's name, and the other for the Emperor's.-The first that bore this title was Basil, the son of Basilides, under whom the Russian power began to appear about 1470.

DAUPHIN OF FRANCE.

In the times of the feudal system, the kingdom of France was divided into many petty sovereignties, as the empire of Germany is at present. Humbert, or Hubert II., the Count of Dauphiny, married in 1332 Mary de Baux, who was allied to the house of France, and by her he had an only son. One day, it is said, being playing with this child at Lyons he let him accidentally fall into the Rhone, in which he was drowned. From that fatal period, he was a prey to all the horrors of grief; and feeling, moreover, a deep resentment for the affronts he had received from the house of Savoy, he resolved to give his dominions to that of France. This cessiou, made in 1343, to Philip of Valois, was confirmed in 1349, on condition that the eldest sons of the kings of France should bear the title of Dauphin. Philip, in gratitude for a cession which thus united Dauphiny to the Crown, gave the donor 40,000 crown pieces of gold, and a pension of 10,000 livres. Humbert next entered among the Dominicans, and on Christmas day, 1351, received the sacred orders from the hands of Pope Clement VI., who created him patriarch of Alexandria, and gave him the administration of the archbishopric of Rheims. Humbert passed the remainder of his days in tranquillity, and in the exercises of piety, and died at the age of 43, at Clermont, in the province of Auvergne.

DUKE OF CLARENCE.

The origin of this title is possibly but little known. Clarentia, or Clarence, once a country village in Suffolk, has long been celebrated for the great men who have borne the titles of earls, or dukes of it, and possessed formerly a castle of great strength and considerable extent. There was an interregnum in the title from George, Edward the Fourth's brother, who was drowned in the butt of Malmsey, until its revival in the late possessor. The surname of Clarencieux, adopted by the second king at arms, arises also from its having formerly appertained to the dukes of Clarence.

ROYAL TITLES,

The following is the succession in which the royal titles swelled in England; Henry IV. had the title of Grace conferred on him; Henry VI. that of Excellent Grace; Edward IV. that of High and Mighty Prince; Henry VII. Highness; Henry VIII. Majesty (and was the first that was styled Dread Sovereign); and James I. that of Sacred, or Most Excellent Majesty. That of Majesty was first given to Louis XI. of France; before, it was the title only of Emperors. The kings of Arragon, Castile, and Portugal, had the title only of Highness; those of England, Your Grace; those of France, Your Despotism.

BLACK PRINCE.

From this time (Crecy), says a writer,* the French began to call the young Prince of Wales, Le Noir, or the Black; and in a record, 2 Richard II. n. 12, he is called the Black Prince. Yet this title does not appear to have originated, as generally supposed, from his wearing black armour, nor indeed is there any thing to show he ever wore such at all. When, however, he attended at tournaments in France or England, he appeared in a surcoat with a shield, and his horse in a caparison, all black, with white feathers on them, so that it must have been from the covering of his armour that he was so called. Yet in the field of battle, and on all other occasions, his surcoat or guipon was emblazoned with the arms of England labelled. The terrible effort of his prowess seems to have given another meaning to his epithet; for Froissart having described the battle of Poictiers in 1356, adds "Thus did Edward the Black Prince, now doubly dyed black by the terror of his arms."

ICH DIEN.-"I SERVE."

The motto of the Prince of Wales, which was originally adopted by Edward the Black Prince in proof of his subjection to his Father Edward III., and has been continued without interruption down to the present time. Sir H. Nicolas, in the Archeologia, vol. xxxi. p. 372, expresses his belief that both the Prince of Wales feathers, and the mottoes "Ich Dien" and "Houmont," were derived from the House of Hainault, possibly from the *Quarterly Review.

In the painting of him, discovered on the wall of St. Stephen's Chapel, his armour is gilt; and yet Eustace and Mercœur are there represented in black armour. Thus, in the initial letter of this reign, which is taken from the original one of the grant of the Duchy of Acquitaine by Edward III. to the Black Prince, the King appears on a throne of marble, ornamented with a frame of gilt; but both his armour and that of his son are steel, with gilt knee and elbow caps.-Grant is in the Cottonian Library, marked Nero DVII.

L

Comté of Ostrevant, which formed the appanage of the eldest sons of the Counts of that province.

66

SEMPER EADEM.

Semper Eadem, i. e., “ always the same," was first used as the motto of the arms of England, Dec. 13th, 1702.

BISHOP OF OSNABURG.

The bishopric of Osnaburg was founded by Charlemague, and was filled by various princes until 1625, when Cardinal Francis William, Count of Wurtemberg, was elected by the chapter. It was held by the late Duke of York, and is an alternative between the Roman Catholics and Protestants, made so at the treaty of Westphalia, in 1648. On that occasion, the house of Brunswick made some great sacrifices for the sake of a general peace, in consideration of which the See of Osnaburgh was given, to be held alternately by the Brunswick family, and others of the German empire. But, although this bishopric is alternately hereditary in our royal family, it is not so with regard to its Roman Catholic bishops; for they are chosen out of different families by a chapter of 25 canons. When they have a popish bishop, he is a suffragan to the archbishop of Cologne; but the Protestant bishop, who is a temporal prince indeed, has little to demonstrate him an ecclesiastic but the title. The bishopric is 45 miles long, and 25 broad, and is in one of the fruitfulest parts of Westphalia.

DUKE OF CORNWALL.

In a parliament held in 1337, king Edward III. created Prince Edward, his eldest son, Duke of Cornwall, being the first in England that bore the title of duke. He was vested with the dukedom by a wreath on his head, a ring on his finger, and a silver verge in his hand; since which time, the eldest son of the king of England is born duke of Cornwall; the title of prince of Wales being given some days after.

ALDERMAN.

Formerly one of the three degrees of nobility among the Saxons. Athelm was the first, Thane the lowest, and Alderman the same as earl among the Danes, and answering to our earl or count at present. It was also used in the time of king Edgar for a judge or justice; in which sense Alwin is called aldermannus totius Anglia. But now aldermen are associates to the chief civil magistrates of a city, or town corporate. The number of these magistrates is not limited, but more or less according to the