Curb is the general term for a hard and callous swelling on various parts of a horse's leg, as the hinder part of the hock, the inside of the hoof, beneath the elbow of the hoof, etc. Research Curb
Huguenots is a term of unknown origin, applied by the Roman Catholics to the Protestants of France during the religious struggles of the 16th and 17th centuries. During the early part of the 16th century the doctrines of Calvin, notwithstanding the opposition of Francis I, spread widely in France. Under his successor Henry II, 1547-1559, the Protestant party grew strong, and under Francis II became a political force headed by the Bourbon family, especially the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde. At the head of the Catholic party stood the Guises, and through their influence with the weak, young king, a fanatical persecution of the Huguenots commenced. The result was that a Huguenot conspiracy, headed by Prince Louis of Conde, was formed for the purpose of compelling the king to dismiss the Guises and accept the Prince of Conde as regent of the realm. But the plot was betrayed, and many of the Huguenots were executed or imprisoned.
In 1560 Francis II died, and during the minority of the next king, Charles IX, it was the policy of the queen mother, Catharine de Medici, to encourage the Protestants in the free exercise of their religion in order to curb the Guises. But in 1562 an attack on a Protestant meeting made by the followers of the Duke of Guise commenced a series of religious wars which desolated France almost to the end of the century. Catharine, however, began to fear that Protestantism might become a permanent power in the country, and suddenly making an alliance with the Guises between them they projected and carried out the massacre of St. Bartholomew's on August the 25th, 1572. The Protestants fled to their fortified towns and carried on a war with varying success.
On the death of Charles IX, Henry III., a feeblesovereign, found himself compelled to unite with the King of Navarre, head of the house of Bourbon and heir-apparent of the French crown, against the ambitious Guises, who openly aimed at the throne, and had excited the people against him to such a degree that he was on the point of losing the crown. After the assassination of Henry III the King of Navarre was obliged to maintain a severe struggle for the vacant throne; and not until he had, by the advice of Sully, embraced the Catholic religion in 1593, did he enjoy quiet possession of the kingdom as Henry IV.
Five years afterwards he secured to the Huguenots their civil rights by the Edict of Nantes, which confirmed to them the free exercise of their religion, and gave them equal claims with the Catholics to all offices and dignities. They were also left in possession of the fortresses which had been ceded to them for their security. This edict afforded them the means of forming a kind of republic within the kingdom, which Richelieu, who regarded it as a serious obstacle to the growth of the royal power, resolved to crush. The war raged from 1624 to 1629, when Rochelle, after an obstinate defence, fell before the royal troops; the Huguenots had to surrender all their strongholds, although they were still allowed freedom of conscience under the ministries of Richelieu and Mazarin. But when Louis XIV and Madame de Maintenon set the fashion of devoutness, a new persecution of the Protestants commenced. They were deprived of their civil rights, and bodies of dragoons were sent into the southern provinces to compel the Protestant inhabitants to abjure their faith.
The first Huguenots to settle in America were a small band who had been induced to emigrate under the charter of the Carolinas granted to Sir Robert Heath in 1630. Upon reaching Virginia their means of transportation failed, so they remained in that colony. The Edict of Nantes was revoked in 1685, and by this act more than 500,000 Protestant subjects were driven out to carry their industry, wealth, and skill to other countries. In Massachusetts they made a settlement at Oxford in 1686, but were massacred and driven away by the Indians. Parties went to Virginia about 1700 under Claude Philippe de Richebourg. By 1737, they had become an important element in South Carolina, where they founded at Charleston the 'South Carolina Society', a benevolent organization. They also made early settlements in the Middle States, notably in New York.
In the reign of Louis XV a new edict was issued repressive of Protestantism, but so many voices were raised in favour of toleration that it had to be revoked. The revolution first put the Protestants on an equality with their Catholic neighbours. Research Huguenots
John Adams was an American politician. He was born in 1735 at Braintree (now Quincy) Massachusetts and died in 1826. He was educated at Harvard University, and adopted the law as a profession. His attention was directed to politics by the question as to the right of the English parliament to tax the colonies, and in 1765 he published some essays strongly opposed to
the claims of the mother country. As a member of the new American congress in 1774, 1775, and 1776 he was strenuous in his opposition to the home government, and in organizing the various departments of the colonial government. On 13th May, 1776, he seconded the motion for a declaration of independence proposed by Lee of Virginia, and was appointed a member of committee to draw it up. The declaration was actually drawn up by Jefferson, but it was John Adams who fought it through congress.
In 1778 he went to France on a special mission, but soon came back and again returned, and for nine years resided abroad as representative of his country in France; Holland, and England. After taking part in the peace negotiations he was appointed, in 1785, the first ambassador of the United States to the court of St James. He was recalled in 1788, and the following-year elected vice-president of the republic under George Washington. In 1792 he was re-elected vice-president, and at the following election in 1797 he became president in succession to George Washington. The commonwealth was then divided into two parties, the federalists, who favoured aristocratic and were suspected of monarchic views, and the republicans. Adams adhered to the former party, with which his views of government had always been in accordance, but the real leader of the party was Alexander Hamilton, with whom John Adams did not agree, and who tried to prevent his election. John Adams was a leader in the movement for independence an his presidency was marked by rivalry with fellow-Federalist Alexander Hamilton, controversy over government measures taken to curb political opposition, and a crisis in American relations with France.
His term of office proved a stormy one, which broke up and dissolved the federalist party. His re-election in 1801 was again opposed by the efforts of Alexander Hamilton, which ended in effecting the return of the republican candidate Jefferson. Thus it happened that when John Adams retired from office his influence and popularity with both parties were at an end, and he sunk at once into the obscurity of private life. He had the consolation, however, of living to see his son president. He died on the 4th of July, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and on the same day as Jefferson. His works were ably edited by his grandson Charles Francis Adams.
John Couch Adams was a British astronomer. He was born in 1819 and died in 1892. He studied at Cambridge, and was senior wrangler in 1843. His investigations into the irregularities in the motion of the planetUranus led him to the conclusion that they must be caused by another more distant planet, and the results of his labours were communicated in September and October, 1845, to Professor Challis and Airy the astronomer royal. The French astronomer Leverrier had by this time been engaged in the same line of research, and had come to substantially the same results, which, being published in 1846, led to the actual discovery of the planetNeptune by Galle of Berlin. In 1858 John Adams was appointed Lowndean professor of astronomy and geometry at Cambridge.
John Bodkin Adams was an English physician and alleged murderer. He was born in 1899 and died in 1983. In 1957 he was tried for the murder of an elderly patient who died in suspicious circumstances shortly after making Dr Adams a beneficiary in her will. Although he was acquitted, most students of the case believe the trial was a miscarriage of justice, and his guilt proven. Further investigations suggest that at least nine elderly ladies were poisoned by Dr Adams for financial gain. Research John Adams
A bridoon is the snaffle and rein of a military bridle, which acts independently of the bit, at the pleasure of the rider. It is used in connection with a curbbit, which has its own rein. Research Bridoon
The curb-sender was an automatic signalling apparatus invented by Sir W Thomson (LordKelvin) and Professor Fleeming Jenkin of Edinburgh, and used in submarine telegraphy. The message was punched on a paper ribbon, which was then passed through the transmitting apparatus by clockwork. The name is due to the fact that when a current of one kind of electricity is sent by the instrument another of the opposite kind is sent immediately after to curb the first, the effect of the second transmission being to make the indication produced by the first sharp and distinct, instead of slow and uncertain. Research Curb-Sender
The Chalk Garden is a melodrama starring Deborah Kerr, Hayley Mills and John Mills in a story about a mysterious governess arriving in a household to curb a teenage girl's violence. The Chalk Garden was directed by Ronald Neame in 1964. Research The Chalk Garden
In architecture, a curb is an assemblage of three or more pieces of timber, or a metal member, forming a frame around an opening, and serving to maintain the integrity of that opening. The term also describes a ring of stone serving a similar purpose, as at the eye of a dome. Research Curb
In architecture, a curb roof is a roof in which the rafters, instead of continuing straight down from the ridge to the walls, are at a given height received on plates, which in their turn are supported by rafters less inclined to the horizon, so that this kind of roof presents a bent appearance, whence its name. It is also called also a Mansard Roof, from the name of its French inventor. Research Curb Roof
In architecture a gambrel roof is a curbroof having the same section in all parts, with a lower steeper slope and an upper and flatter one, so that each gable is pentagonal in form. Research Gambrel Roof
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Curb
