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More distinct are the bisons, forming the sub-genus Bison, represented by the European and the American species (see BISON), the forehead of the skull being much shorter and wider, and the horns not arising from a crest on the extreme vertex, while the number of ribs is different (14 pairs in bisons, only 13 in oxen), and the hair on the head and neck is long and shaggy. Very close to this group, if indeed really separable, is the Tibetan yak (q.v.), forming by itself the sub-genus Pöephagus.

The most widely different from the true oxen are, however, the buffaloes (see BUFFALO), which have consequently the most claim to generic distinction. From all other Bovinae they differ by the triangular section of their horns. They are divisible into two groups, an African and an Asiatic, both of which are generally included in the sub-genus, or genus, Bubalus, although the latter are sometimes separated as Buffelus. The smallest member of the group is the anoa (q.v.) of Celebes.

As regards the origin of the ox-tribe we are still in the dark. The structure of their molar teeth affiliates them to the antelopes of the Oryx and Hippotragus groups; but the early bovines lack horns in the female, whereas both sexes of these antelopes are horned.

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decomposition being also brought about by heating oxalic acid with concentrated sulphuric acid. The anhydrous acid melts at 189.5° C. (E. Bamberger, Ber., 1888, 21, p. 1901) and is frequently used as a condensing agent. Phosphorus pentachloride decomposes it into carbon monoxide and dioxide, the reaction being the one generally applied for the purpose of preparing phosphorus oxychloride. When heated with glycerin to 100° C. it yields formic acid and carbon dioxide; above this temperature, allyl alcohol is formed. Nascent hydrogen reduces it to glycolic acid. Potassium permanganate in acid solution oxidizes it to carbon dioxide and water; the manganese sulphate formed has a catalytic accelerating effect on the decomposition. Oxalic acid is very poisonous, and by reason of its great similarity in appearance to Epsom salts, it has been very frequently mistaken for this substance with, in many cases, fatal results. The antidotes for oxalic acid poisoning are milk of lime, chalk, whiting, or even wall-plaster, followed by evacuation brought about by an enema or castor oil. Only the salts of the alkali metals are soluble in water. Beside the ordinary acid and neutral salts, a series of salts called quadroxalates is known, these being salts containing one molecule of acid salt, in combination with one molecule of acid, one of the most common being "salt of sorrel," KHC2O, · H2 C2 O1 ·2H2O. The oxalates are readily decomposed on heating, leaving a residue of carbonate, or oxide of the metal. The silver salt decomposes with explosive violence, leaving a residue of the metal.

Remains of the wild ox or aurochs are abundant in the superficial deposits of Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa; those from the brick-earths of the Thames valley indicating animals of immense proportions. Side by side with these are found remains of a huge_bison, generally regarded as specifically distinct from the living European animal and termed Bos (Bison) priscus. In the Pleistocene of India occurs a large ox (Bos namadicus), possibly Potassium ferrous oxalate, FeK:(C2O1)2•H2O, is a strong reducing showing some affinity with the Bibos group, and in the same forma- agent and is used as a photographic developer. Potassium ferric tion are found remains of a buffalo, allied to, but distinct from the oxalate, FeK (C2O4)3, is used in the preparation of platinotypes, living Indian species. Large oxen also occur in the Lower Pliocene owing to the fact that its solution is rapidly decomposed by sunof India, although not closely allied to the living kinds; while in light, 2FeK,(CO), =2FeK,(C2O4)2+K2C2O+2CO2. Ethyl oxalate, the same formation are found remains of bison (or [?] yak) and (CO-OC2H3)2, prepared by boiling anhydrous oxalic acid with buffaloes, some of the latter being nearly akin to the anoa, although absolute alcohol, is a colourless liquid which boils at 186° C. Methyl much larger. Perhaps, however, the most interesting are the oxalate (CO-OCH3)2, which is prepared in a similar manner, is a remains of certain oxen from the Lower Pliocene of Europe and solid melting at 54° C. It is used in the preparation of pure methyl India, which have been described under the sub-generic (or generic) alcohol. On treatment with zinc and alkyl iodides or with zinc title of Leptobos, and are characterized by the absence of horns alkyls they are converted into esters of hydroxy-dialkyl acetic acids. in the females. In other respects they appear to come nearest to An impure oxalyl chloride, a liquid boiling at 70° C., has been obthe bantin. Remains of extinct bisons, some of gigantic size, occur tained by the action of phosphorus pentachloride on ethyl oxalate. in the superficial formations of North America as far south as Texas. Oxamic acid, HO,C-CONH2, is obtained on heating acid ammonium See R. Lydekker, Wild Oxen, Sheep and Goats (London, 1898). oxalate; by boiling oxamide with ammonia; and among the (R. L.*) products produced when amino-acids are oxidized with potassium OXALIC ACID, H2 C2O, 2H2O, one of the oldest known organic permanganate (J. T. Halsey, Zeit. f. physiol. Chem., 1898, 25, p. 325). acids. Scheele prepared it by oxidizing sugar with nitric acid, It is a crystalline powder difficultly soluble in water and melting at 210° C. (with decomposition). Its ethyl ester, known as oxamaeand showed it to be identical with the acetosellic acid obtained thane, crystallizes in rhombic plates which melt at 114-115° C. from wood-sorrel. It is found in the form of its acid potassium Phosphorus pentachloride converts it into cyan-carbonic ester, the salt in many plants, especially in wood-sorrel (Oxalis acetosella) ethyl oxamine chloride first formed being unstable: ROOC CONH, and in varieties of Rumex; as ammonium salt in guano; as →ROOC C(CI2) NH2→→ÇN.COOR. Oximide [CO]NH, produced by the action of a mixture of phosphorus pentachloride and oxychloride calcium salt in rhubarb root, in various lichens and in plant on oxamic acid (H. Ost and A. Mente, Ber., 1886, 19, p. 3229), cells; as sodium salt in species of Salicornia and as free acid crystallizes in prisms, and when boiled with water is rapidly hydroin varieties of Boletus. It is also present in urine and in urinary lysed to oxamide and oxalic acid. Oxamide, (CONH2)2, is best precalculi. It is formed in the oxidation of many organic compounds pared by the action of ammonia on the esters of oxalic acid. It is also obtained by the action of hydrogen peroxide on hydrocyanic (e.g. sugar, starch and cellulose) by nitric acid, and also by the acid, or of manganese dioxide and sulphuric acid on potassium fusion of many oxygen-holding compounds with caustic alkalis, cyanide. It is a white crystalline powder which is almost insoluble this latter method being employed for the manufacture of oxalic in cold water. It melts at 417-419° C. (with decomposition) when acid. In this process cellulose (in the form of sawdust) is made heated in a scaled tube (A. Michael, Ber., 1895, 28, p. 1632). When heated with phosphorus pentoxide it yields cyanogen. It is readily into a stiff paste with a mixture of strong caustic potash and soda hydrolysed by hot solutions of the caustic alkalis. Substituted solution and heated in flat iron pans to 200-250° C. The some- oxamides are produced by the action of primary amines on ethyl what dark-coloured mass is lixiviated with a small amount of oxalate. Semioxamazide, H2N.CO·CO·NH-NH2, is prepared by the warm water in order to remove excess of alkali, the residual action of hydrazine hydrate on oxamaethane (W. Kerp and K. alkaline oxalates converted into insoluble calcium oxalate by at 220-221° C. (with decomposition). It is only slightly soluble in Unger, Ber. 1897, 30, p. 586). It crystallizes in plates which melt boiling with milk of lime, the lime salt separated, and decom-water, but is readily soluble in acids and alkalis. It reduces silver posed by means of sulphuric acid. It is found that the sawdust salts rapidly. It condenses with aldehydes and ketones to produce semioxamazones. obtained from soft woods is the best material for use in this process. It may be obtained synthetically by heating sodium in a current of carbon dioxide to 360° C.; by the oxidation of ethylene glycol; by heating sodium formate to 400° C. (V. Merz and W. Weith, Ber., 1882, 15, p. 1513), and by the spontaneous hydrolysis of an aqueous solution of cyanogen gas.

OXALIS, in botany, a large genus of small herbaceous plants, comprising, with a few small allied genera, the natural order Oxalidaceae. The name is derived from Gr. ötus, acid, the plants being acid from presence of acid calcium oxalate. It contains about 220 species, chiefly South African and tropical and South American. It is represented in Britain by the woodsorrel, a small stemless plant with radical trefoil-like leaves

The hydrated acid crystallizes in prisms which effloresce in air, and are readily soluble in water. It loses its water of crystallization at 100° C., and begins to sublime at about 150-growing from a creeping scaly rootstock, and the flowers borne 160° C., whilst on heating to a still higher temperature it partially decomposes into carbon dioxide and formic acid, or into carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and water; the latter

singly on an axillary stalk; the flowers are regular with five sepals, five obovate, white, purple-veined, free petals, ten stamens and a central five-lobed, five-celled ovary with five

free styles. The fruit is a capsule, splitting by valves; the seeds have a fleshy coat, which curls back elastically, ejecting the true seed. The leaves, as in the other species of the genus, show a" sleep-movement," becoming pendulous at night.

Oxalis crenata, Oca of the South Americans, is a tuberous-rooted half-hardy perennial, native of Peru. Its tubers are comparatively small, and somewhat acid; but if they be exposed in the sun from six to ten days they become sweet and floury. In the climate of England they can only be grown by starting them in heat in March, and planting out in June in a light soil and warm situation. They grow freely enough, but few tubers are formed, and these of small size. The fleshy stalks, which have the acid flavour of the family, may, however, be used in the same way as rhubarb for tarts. The leaves may be eaten in salads. It is easily propagated by cuttings of the stems or by means of sets like the potato. Oxalis Deppei or O. tetraphylla, a bulbous perennial, native of Mexico, has scaly bulbs,

1, Fruit

Wood-sorrel (Oxalis Acetosella). which has split open; the seeds are shot out by the elastic contractions of their outer coat, s.

from which are

length and 3 to 4 in. in diameter. They strike down into the soil, which should therefore be made light and rich with abundance of decayed vegetable matter. The bulbs should be planted about the end of April, 6 in. apart, in rows 1 ft. asun

a

[blocks in formation]

amino-oxazoline oxazolidines.

The benzoxazoles are formed when ortho-aminophenols are condensed with organic acids (A. Ladenburg, Ber. 1876, 9, p. 1524: 1877, 10, p. 1113), or by heating aldehydes and ortho-aminophenols to high temperature (G. Mazzara and A. Leonardi, Gazz. 1871, 21, p. 251). They are mostly crystalline solids which distil unchanged. When warmed with acids they split into their components. They behave as weak bases. By the condensation of ortho-aminophenols with phosgene or thiophosgene, oxy and thio-derivatives obtained, the (OH) and (SH) groups being situated in the position, and these compounds on treatment with amines yield amino derivatives.

are

OXE, PEDER (1520-1575), Danish Finance Minister, was born in 1520. At the age of twelve he was sent abroad to complete produced fleshy, his education, and resided at the principal universities of Germany, tapering, white, Holland, France, Italy and Switzerland for seventeen years. semi-transparent On his return he found both his parents dead, and was roots, about 4 in. in appointed the guardian of his eleven young brothers and sisters, in which capacity, profiting by the spoliation of the church, he accumulated immense riches. His extraordinary financial abilities and pronounced political capacity soon found ample scope in public life. In 1552 he was raised to the dignity of Rigsraad (councillor of state); in 1554 he successfully accomplished his first diplomatic mission, by adjusting the differences between the elector of Saxony and the margrave of Brandenburg. The same year he held the post of governor of Copenhagen and shared with Byrge Trolle the control of the treasury. A few years later he incurred the royal disfavour for gross inalversation in the administration of public property, and failing to compromise matters with the king, fled to Germany and engaged in political intrigues with the adventurer Wilhelm von Grumbach (1503-1567) for the purpose of dethroning Frederick II. in favour of Christina of Lorraine, the daughter of Christian II. But the financial difficulties of Frederick II. during the stress of the Scandinavian Seven Years' War compelled him, in 1566, to recall the great financier, when his confiscated estates were dignities. A change for the better immediately ensued. The restored to him and he was reinstated in all his offices and finances were speedily put on an excellent footing, means were provided for carrying on the war to a successful issue (one of the chief expedients being the raising of the Sound tolls) and on the conclusion of peace Oxe, as lord treasurer, not only reduced the national debt considerably, but redeemed a large portion of the alienated crown-lands. He reformed the coinage, developed trade and commerce and introduced numerous agricultural reforms, especially on his own estates, which he was never weary of enlarging, so that on his death he was the wealthiest landafter contributing, more than any other statesman of his day, owner in Denmark. Oxe died on the 24th of October 1575, to raise Denmark for a brief period to the rank of a great power. See P. Oxe's live og levnet (Copenhagen, 1675); Danmarks riges historie, vol. 3 (Copenhagen, 1897-1905).

der, being only just covered with soil and having a situation with southern aspect. The roots should they become affected by frost, but if protected they will continue be dug up before to increase in size till November. When taken up the bulbs should be stored in a cool dry place for replanting and the roots for use. The roots are gently boiled with salt and water, peeled and eaten like asparagus with melted butter and the yolks of eggs, or served up like salsafy and scorzonera with white sauce. Many other species are known in cultivation for edgings, rockwork or as pot-plants for the greenhouse, the best hardy and half-hardy kinds being O. arenaria, purple; O. Bowici, crimson; O. ennedphylla, white or pale rose; O. floribunda, rose; O. lasiandra, pink; O. luteola, creamy yellow; O. variabilis, purple, white, red; and O. violacea, violet.

OXAZOLES, a group of organic compounds containing a ring complex (shown below) composed of three carbon atoms, and one oxygen and one nitrogen atom; they are isomeric with the isoxazoles (q.v.). They are obtained by condensing a halogen derivatives of ketones with acid-amides (M. Lewy, Ber. 1887, 20, p. 2576; 1888, 21, p. 2195)

NHHO-C·R'

R.COH

N-CR'

Br CH →R.C <O.CH ;

by the action of concentrated sulphuric acid on nitriles and benzoin (F. Japp, Jour. Chem. Soc. 1893, 63, p. 469); and by passing hydrochloric acid gas into a mixture of aromatic aldehydes and their cyanhydrins (E. Fischer, Ber. 1896, 29, p. 205). CH-N

CN

R.CH<
KOH

+OHC.RR.CO-CR They are weak bases, and the ring system is readily split by evaporation with hydrochloric acid, or by the action of reducing and oxidizing agents.

The dihydro-oxazoles or oxazolines are similarly formed when B-halogen alkyl amides are condensed with alkali (S. Gabriel, Ber. 1889, 22, p. 2220), or by the action of alkali on the compounds formed by the interaction of ethylene chlorhydrin on nitriles. They

divine, was born at Daventry, Northamptonshire, on the 30th OXENBRIDGE, JOHN (1608-1674), English Nonconformist of January 1608, and was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and Magdalen Hall, Oxford (B.A. 1628, M.A. 1631). As tutor of Magdalen Hall he drew up a new code of articles referring to the government of the college. He was deprived of his office in May 1634, and began to preach, with a similar Bermudas he returned to England (1641), and after exercising disregard for constituted authority. After his voyages to the an itinerant and unattached ministry settled for some months in Great Yarmouth and then at Beverley. He was minister at Berwick-on-Tweed when in October 1652 he was appointed a fellow of Eton College. There in 1658 he preached the funeral

OXENFORD, JOHN (1812-1877), English dramatist, was born at Camberwell on the 12th of August 1812. He began his literary career by writing on finance. He was an excellent linguist, and the author of many translations from the German, notably of Goethe's Dichtung und Wahrheit (1846) and Eckermann's Conversations of Goethe (1850). He did much by his writing to spread the fame of Schopenhauer in England. His first play was My Fellow Clerk, produced at the Lyceum in 1835. This was followed by a long series of pieces, the most famous of which was perhaps the Porter's Knot (1858) and Twice Killed (1835). About 1850 he became dramatic critic of The Times. He died in Southwark on the 21st of February 1877. Many references to his pieces will be found in The Life and Reminiscences of E. L. Blanchard (ed. C. Scott and C. Howard, 1891). OXENHAM, HENRY NUTCOMBE (1829-1888), English ecclesiologist, son of a master at Harrow, was born there on the 15th of November 1829. From Harrow he went to Balliol College, Oxford. He took Anglican orders in 1854, but became a Roman Catholic in 1857. At first his thoughts turned towards the priesthood, and he spent some time at the London Oratory and at St Edmund's College, Ware; but being unable to surrender his belief in the validity of Anglican orders, he proceeded no further than minor orders in the Roman Church. In 1863 he made a prolonged visit to Germany, where he studied the language and literature, and formed a close friendship with Döllinger, whose First Age of the Christian Church he translated in 1866. Oxenham was a regular contributor to the Saturday Review. A selection of his essays was published in Short Studies in Ecclesiastical History and Biography (1884), and Short Studies, Ethical and Religious (1885). He also translated in 1876 the 2nd vol. of Bishop Hefele's History of the Councils of the Church, and published several pamphlets on the reunion of Christendom. His Catholic Doctrine of the Atonement (1865) and Catholic Eschatology and Universalism (1876) are standard works. Oxenham died at Kensington on the 23rd of March 1888.

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sermon of Francis Rous, the provost, and thence in 1660 he was | An oligarchy guiding a limited monarchy was ever his ideal ejected. He returned to his preaching at Berwick-on-Tweed, government, but the genius of the young king was not to be but was expelled by the Act of Uniformity in 1662, and after fettered, so Oxenstjerna was content to be the colleague instead spending some time in the West Indies settled (1670) at Boston, of the master of his sovereign. On the 6th of January 1612 he Massachusetts, where he was ordained minister of the First was appointed chancellor. His controlling, organizing hand was Church. He died on the 28th of December 1674. A few sermons speedily felt in every branch of the administration. For his are all that he published. His first wife (d. 1658) was " a scholar services as first Swedish plenipotentiary at the peace of Knäred, beyond what was usual in her sex," and Andrew Marvell, who 1613, he was richly rewarded. During the frequent absences was their friend, wrote an epitaph for her tomb at Eton which of Gustavus in Livonia and Finland (1614-1616) Oxenstjerna was defaced at the Restoration; his second wife (d. 1659) was acted as his vice-regent, when he displayed manifold abilities Frances Woodward, daughter of the famous vicar of Bray; and an all-embracing activity. In 1620 he headed the brilliant his third was a widow whom he met at Barbados. embassage despatched to Berlin to arrange the nuptial contract between Gustavus and Mary Eleanora of Brandenburg. It was his principal duty during the king's Russian and Polish wars to supply the armies and the fleets with everything necessary, including men and money. By this time he had become so indispensable that Gustavus, in 1622, bade him accompany him to Livonia, where Oxenstjerna was appointed governor-general and commandant of Riga. His services in Livonia were rewarded with four castles and the whole bishopric of Wenden. He was entrusted with the peace negotiations which led to the truce with Poland in 1623, and succeeded, by skilful diplomacy, in averting a threatened rupture with Denmark in 1624. On the 7th of October 1626 he was appointed governor-general of the newly-acquired province of Prussia. In 1629 he concluded the very advantageous truce of Altmark with Poland. ously to this (September 1628) he arranged with Denmark a joint occupation of Stralsund, to prevent that important fortress from falling into the hands of the Imperialists. After the battle of Breitenfeld (September 7th, 1631) he was summoned to assist the king with his counsels and co-operation in Germany. During the king's absence in Franconia and Bavaria in 1632 he was appointed legalus in the Rhine lands, with plenipotentiary authority over all the German generals and princes in the Swedish service. Although he never fought a battle, he was a born strategist, and frustrated all the efforts of the Spanish troops by his wise regulations. His military capacity was strikingly demonstrated by the skill with which he conducted large reinforcements to Gustavus through the heart of Germany in the summer of 1632. But it was only after the death of the king at Lützen that Oxenstjerna's true greatness came to light. He inspired the despairing Protestants both in Germany and Sweden with fresh hopes. He reorganized the government both at home and abroad. He united the estates of the four upper circles into a fresh league against the common foe (1634), in spite of the envious and foolish opposition of Saxony. By the patent of the 12th of January 1633 he had already been appointed legate plenipotentiary of Sweden in Germany with absolute control over all the territory already won by the Swedish arms. No Swedish subject, either before or after, ever held such an unrestricted and far-reaching authority. Yet he was more than equal to the extraordinary difficulties of the situation. To him both warriors and statesmen appealed invariably as their natural and infallible arbiter. Richelieu himself declared that the Swedish chancellor was "an inexhaustible source of well-matured counsels." Less original but more sagacious than the king, he had a firmer grasp of the realities of the situation. Gustavus would not only have aggrandized Sweden, he would have transformed the German empire. Oxenstjerna wisely abandoned these vaulting ambitions. His country's welfare was his sole object. All his efforts were directed towards procuring for the Swedish crown adequate compensation for its sacrifices. Simple to austerity in his own tastes, he nevertheless recognized the political necessity of impressing his allies and confederates by an almost regal show of dignity; and at the abortive congress of Frankfort-on-Main (March 1634), held for the purpose of uniting all the German Protestants, Oxenstjerna appeared in a carriage drawn by six horses, with German princes attending him on foot. But from first to last his policy suffered from the slenderness of Sweden's material resources, a cardinal defect which all his craft and tact could not altogether conceal from the vigilance of her enemies. The success of his system

See J. Gillow's Bibliographical Dictionary of English Catholics, vol. v. An interesting obituary notice on Oxenham was written by Vicesimus, i.e. Dean John Oakley of Manchester, for the Manchester Guardian, and published in pamphlet form (Manchester, 1888).

OXENSTJERNA, an ancient Swedish senatorial family, the origin of which can be traced up to the middle of the 14th century, which had vast estates in Södermanland and Uppland, and began to adopt its armorial designation of Oxenstjerna ("Ox-forehead") as a personal name towards the end of the 16th century. Its most notable members were the following.

1. COUNT AXEL GUSTAFSSON (1583-1654), chancellor of Sweden, was born at Fönö in Uppland, and was educated with his brothers at the universities of Rostock, Jena and Wittenberg. On returning home in 1603 he was appointed kammerjunker to King Charles IX. In 1606 he was entrusted with his first diplomatic mission, to Mecklenburg, was appointed a senator during his absence, and henceforth became one of the king's most trusted servants. In 1610 he was sent to Copenhagen to prevent a war with Denmark, but was unsuccessful. This embassy is important as being the beginning of Oxenstjerna's long diplomatic struggle with Sweden's traditional rival in the north, whose most formidable enemy he continued to be throughout life. Oxenstjerna was appointed a member of Gustavus Adolphus's council of regency. High aristocrat as he was, he would at first willingly have limited the royal power.

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postulated an uninterrupted series of triumphs, whereas a of the conquered provinces of Kulm, Kujavia, Masovia and single reverse was likely to be fatal to it. Thus the frightful | Great Poland. The firmness and humanity which he displayed disaster of Nördlingen (September 6th, 1634; see SWEDEN: in this new capacity won the affectionate gratitude of the History) brought him, for an instant, to the verge of ruin, and inhabitants, and induced the German portion of them, notably compelled him, for the first time, so far to depart from his policy the city of Thorn, to side with the Swedes against the Poles. of independence as to solicit direct assistance from France. But, During Charles's absence in Denmark (1657), Oxenstjerna, in well aware that Richelieu needed the Swedish armies as much the most desperate circumstances, tenaciously defended Thorn as he himself needed money, he refused at the conference of for ten months, and the terms of capitulation ultimately obCompiègne (1635) to bind his hands in the future for the sake tained by him were so advantageous that they were made the of some slight present relief. In 1636, however, he concluded basis of the subsequent peace negotiations at Oliva, between a fresh subsidy-treaty with France at Wismar. The same year Poland and Sweden, when Oxenstjerna was one of the chief he returned to Sweden and took his seat in the Regency. His plenipotentiaries of the Swedish regency. During the dominapresence at home overawed all opposition, and such was the tion of Magnus de la Gardie he played but a subordinate part general confidence inspired by his superior wisdom that for the in affairs. From 1662 to 1666 he was governor-general of Livonia. next nine years his voice, especially as regarded foreign affairs, In 1674 he was sent to Vienna to try and prevent the threatened was omnipotent in the council of state. He drew up beforehand outbreak of war between France and the empire. The conthe plan of the Danish War of 1643-1645, so brilliantly executed nexions which he formed and the sympathies which he won here by Lennart Torstensson, and had the satisfaction of severely had a considerable influence on his future career, and resulted crippling Denmark by the peace of Brömsebro (1645). His in his appointment as one of the Swedish envoys to the congress later years were embittered by the jealousy of the young Queen of Nijmwegen (1676). His appointment was generally regarded Christina, who thwarted the old statesman in every direction. as an approximation on the part of Sweden to Austria and He always attributed the exiguity of Sweden's gains by the peace Holland. During the congress he laboured assiduously in an of Osnabrück to Christina's undue interference. Oxenstjerna anti-French direction; a well-justified distrust of France was, was opposed at first to the abdication of Christina, because he indeed, henceforth the keynote of his policy, a policy diametricfeared mischief to Sweden from the unruly and adventurous ally opposed to Sweden's former system. In 1680 Charles XI. disposition of her appointed successor, Charles Gustavus. The entrusted him absolutely with the conduct of foreign affairs, extraordinary consideration shown to him by the new king on the sole condition that peace was to be preserved, an office ultimately, however, reconciled him to the change. He died which he held for the next seventeen years to the very great at Stockholm on the 28th of August 1654. advantage of Sweden. His leading political principles were friendship with the maritime powers (Great Britain and Holland) and the emperor, and a close anti-Danish alliance with the of the regents during the minority of Charles XII. The martial house of Holstein. Charles XI. appointed Oxenstjerna one proclivities of the new king filled the prudent old chancellor with alarm and anxiety. His protests were frequent and energetic, and he advised Charles in vain to accept the terms peace offered by the first anti-Swedish coalition. Oxenstjerna has been described as a shrewd and subtle little man, of gentle disposition, but remarkable for his firmness and tenacity of

See Axel Oxenstjernas skriften och brefvexling (Stockholm, 1888 et seq.); A. de Marny, Oxenstjerna et Richelieu à Compiègne (Paris, 1878).

2. COUNT JOHAN AXELSSON (1611-1657), son of the foregoing, completed his studies at Upsala in 1631, and was sent by his father on a grand tour through France, the Netherlands and Great Britain. He served under Count Gustavus Horn in the Thirty Years' War from 1632, and was subsequently employed by his father in various diplomatic missions, though his instructions were always so precise and minute that he was little more than the executor of the chancellor's wishes. He was one of the commissioners who signed the truce of 1635 with Poland, and in 1639, much against his father's will, was made a senator. Along with Salvius he represented Sweden at the great peace congress of Osnabrück, but as he received his instructions direct from his father, whereas Salvius was in the queen's confidence, the two "legates' were constantly at variance. From 1650 to 1652 he was governor-general of Pomerania. Charles X. made him earl marshal.

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3. GABRIEL GUSTAFSSON (1587-1640), brother of (1), was from 1612 to 1618 the chief adviser of Duke John, son of King John III., and Gustavus Adolphus's competitor for the Swedish throne. After the duke's death he became, virtually, the locum-lenens of the chancellor (with whom he was always on the most intimate terms) during Axel's frequent absences from Sweden. He was also employed successfully on numerous diplomatic missions. He was most usually the intermediary between his brother and the riksdag and senate. In 1634 he was created lord high steward. His special department, "Svea Hofret," the supreme court of justice, was ever a model of efficiency, and he frequently acted as chancellor and lord high

treasurer as well.

See Gabriel Gustafssons bref till Riks Konsler Axel Oxenstierna, 1611-1640 (Stockholm, 1890).

4. COUNT BENGT or BENEDICT GABRIELSSON (1623-1702), was the son of Axel Oxenstjerna's half-brother, Gabriel Bengtsson (1586-1656). After a careful education and a long residence abroad, he began his diplomatic career at the great peace congress of Osnabrück. During his stay in Germany he made the acquaintance of the count palatine, Charles Gustavus, afterwards Charles X., whose confidence he completely won. Two years after the king's accession (1654), Oxenstjerna was sent to represent Sweden at the Kreistag of Lower Saxony. In 1655 he accompanied Charles to Poland and was made governor

of

character."

See F. F. Carlson, Sveriges historia under Konungarne af Pfalziska huset (Stockholm, 1883, 1885); O. Sjögren, Karl den elfte och Svenska folket (Stockholm, 1897); and Négociations du comte d'Avaux pendant les années 1693, 1697-1698 (Utrecht, 1882, &c.). (R. N. B.)

OXFORD, EARLS OF, an English title held successively by the families of Vere and Harley. The three most important earls The of the Vere line (see VERE) are noticed separately below. Veres held the earldom from 1142 until March 1703, when it became extinct on the death of Aubrey de Vere, the 20th earl. In 1711 the English statesman Robert Harley (see below) was created earl of Oxford; but the title became extinct in this family on the death of the 6th earl in 1853.

OXFORD, EDWARD DE VERE, 17TH EARL OF (1550-1604), son of John de Vere, the 16th earl, was born on the 12th of April 1550. He matriculated at Queen's College, Cambridge, but he removed later to St John's College, and was known as Lord Bolebec or Bulbeck until he succeeded in 1562 to the earldom and to the hereditary dignity of great chamberlain of England. As one of the royal wards the boy came under the care of Lord Burghley, at whose house in London he lived under the tutorship of his maternal uncle, Arthur Golding, the translator of Ovid. His violent temper and erratic doings were a constant source of anxiety to Burghley, who nevertheless in 1571 gave him his eldest daughter, Anne, in marriage. Oxford more than once asked for a military or a naval command, but Burghley hoped that his good looks together with his skill in dancing and in feats of arms would win for him a high position at court. His accomplishments did indeed secure Elizabeth's favour, but he offended her by going to Flanders without her consent in 1574, and more seriously in 1582 by a duel with one of her gentlemen, Thomas Knyvet. Among his other escapades was a futile 'I.e. in the Vere line.

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plot to rescue from the Tower Thomas Howard, 4th duke of Norfolk, with whom he was distantly connected. In 1579 he insulted Sir Philip Sidney by calling him a puppy on the tennis-court at Whitehall. Sidney accordingly challenged Oxford, but the queen forbade him to fight, and required him to apologize on the ground of the difference of rank between the disputants. On Sidney's refusal and consequent disgrace Oxford is said to have schemed to murder him. The earl sat on the special commission (1586) appointed for the trial of Mary queen of Scots; in 1589 he was one of the peers who tried Philip Howard, earl of Arundel, for high treason; and in 1601 he took part in the trial of Essex and Southampton. It has been suggested that Oxford was the Italianated Englishman ridiculed by Gabriel Harvey in his Speculum Tuscanismi. On his return from a journey to Italy in 1575 he brought back various inventions for the toilet, and his estate was rapidly dissipated in satisfying his extravagant whims. His first wife died in 1588, and from that time Burghley withdrew his support, Oxford being reduced to the necessity of seeking help among the poor men of letters whom he had at one time or another befriended. He was himself a lyric poet of no small merit. His fortunes were partially retrieved on his second marriage with Elizabeth Trentham, by whom he had a son, Henry de Vere, 18th earl of Oxford (1593-1625). He died at Newington, near London, on the 24th of June 1604.

His poems, scattered in various anthologies-the Paradise of Dainty Devices, England's Parnassus, Phoenix Nest, England's Helicon-and elsewhere, were collected by Dr A. B. Grosart in vol. iv. of the Fuller Worthies Library (1876).

OXFORD, JOHN DE VERE, 13TH EARL OF (1443-1513), was second son of John, the 12th earl, a prominent Lancastrian, who, together with his eldest son Aubrey de Vere, was executed in February 1462. John de Vere the younger was himself attainted, but two years later was restored as 13th earl. But his loyalty was suspected, and for a short time at the end of 1468 he was in the Tower. He sided with Warwick, the king-maker, in the political movements of 1469, accompanied him in his exile next year, and assisted in the Lancastrian restoration of 1470-1471. As constable he tried John Tiptoft, earl of Worcester, who had condemned his father nine years before. At the battle of Barnet, Oxford was victorious in command of the Lancastrian right, but his men got out of hand, and before they could be rallied Warwick was defeated. Oxford escaped to France. In 1473 he organized a Lancastrian expedition, which, after an attempted landing in Essex, sailed west and seized St Michael's Mount in Cornwall. was only after a four months' siege that Oxford was forced to surrender in February 1474. He was sent to Hammes near Calais, whence, ten years later, in August 1484, he escaped and joined Henry Tudor in Brittany. He fought for Henry in high command at Bosworth, and was rewarded by restoration to his title, estates and hereditary office of Lord Chamberlain. At Stoke on the 16th of June 1486 he led the van of the royal army. In 1492 he was in command in the expedition to Flanders, and in 1497 was foremost in the defeat of the Cornish rebels on Blackheath. Bacon (Hist. of Henry VII. p. 192, ed. Lumby) has preserved a story that when in the summer of 1498 Oxford entertained the king at Castle Hedingham, he assembled a great number of his retainers in livery; Henry thanked the earl for his reception, but fined him 15,000 marks for the breach of the laws. Oxford was high steward at the trial of the earl of Warwick, and one of the commissioners for the trial of Sir James Tyrell and others in May 1502. Partly through ill-health he took little part afterwards in public affairs, and died on the 10th of March 1513. He was twice married, but left no children.

Oxford is frequently mentioned in the Paston Letters, which include twenty written by him, mostly to Sir John Paston the younger. See The Paston Letters, ed. J. Gairdner: Chronicles of London, ed. C. L. Kingsford (1905); Sir James Ramsay, Lancaster and York; and The Political History of England, vols. iv. and v. (1906). (C. L. K.) OXFORD, ROBERT DE VERE, 9TH EARL OF (1362-1392), English courtier, was the only son of Thomas de Vere, 8th earl of

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Oxford, and Maud (d. 1413), daughter of Sir Ralph de Ufford (d. 1346), and a descendant of King Henry III. He became 9th earl of Oxford on his father's death in 1371, and married Philippa (d. 1412), daughter of his guardian Ingelram de Couci, earl of Bedford, a son-in-law of Edward III., quickly becoming very intimate with Richard II. Already hereditary great chamberlain of England, Oxford was made a member of the privy council and a Knight of the Garter; while castles and lands were bestowed upon him, and he was constantly in the company of the young king. In 1385 Richard decided to send his friend to govern Ireland, and Oxford was given extensive rights in that country and was created marquess of Dublin for life; but although preparations were made for his journey he did not leave England. Meanwhile the discontent felt at Richard's incompetence and extravagance was increasing, one of the contributory causes thereto being the king's partiality for Oxford, who was regarded with jealousy by the nobles and who made powerful enemies about this time by divorcing his wife, Philippa, and by marrying a Bohemian lady. The king, however, indifferent to the gathering storm, created Vere duke of Ireland in October 1386, and gave him still more extensive powers in that country, and at once matters reached a climax. Richard was deprived of his authority for a short time, and Vere was ordered in vain to proceed to Ireland. The latter was then among those who were accused by the king's uncle Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, and his supporters in November 1387; and rushing into the north of England he gathered an army to defend his royal master and himself. At Radcot Bridge in Oxfordshire, however, his men fled before the troops of Gloucester, and Oxford himself escaped in disguise to the Netherlands. In the parliament of 1388 he was found guilty of treason and was condemned to death, but as he remained abroad the sentence was never carried out. With another exile, Michael de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, he appears to have lived in Paris until after the treaty between England and France in June 1389, when he took refuge at Louvain. He was killed by a boar whilst hunting, and left no children. In 1395 his body was brought from Louvain to England, and was buried in the priory at Earl's Colne, Essex.

See T. Walsingham, Historia Anglicana, edited by H. T. Riley (London, 1863-1864); J. Froissart, Chroniques, edited by S. Luce and G. Raynaud (Paris, 1869-1897); H. Wallon, Richard 11. (Paris, 1864); and W. Stubbs, Constitutional History, vol. ii. (Oxford, 1896).

OXFORD, ROBERT HARLEY, 1ST EARL OF (1661-1724), English statesman, commonly known by his surname of HARLEY, eldest son of Sir Edward Harley (1624-1700), a prominent landowner in Herefordshire, and grandson of the celebrated letterwriter Lady Brilliana Harley (c. 1600-1643), was born in Bow Street, Covent Garden, London, on the 5th of December 1661. His school days were passed at Shilton, near Burford, in Oxfordshire, in a small school which produced at the same time a lord high treasurer (Harley), a lord high chancellor (Simon Harcourt) and a lord chief justice of the common pleas (Thomas Trevor). The principles of Whiggism and Nonconformity were instilled into his mind at an early age, and if he changed the politics of his ancestors he never formally abandoned their religious opinions. At the Revolution of 1688 Sir Edward and his son raised a troop of horse in support of the cause of William III., and took possession of the city of Worcester in his interest. This recommended Robert Harley to the notice of the Boscawen family, and led to his election, in April 1689, as the parliamentary representative of Tregony, a borough under their control. He remained its member for one parliament, when he was elected by the constituency of New Radnor, and he continued to represent it until his elevation to the peerage in 1711.

From the first Harley gave great attention to the conduct of public business, bestowing especial care upon the study of the forms and ceremonies of the House. His reputation marked

him out as a fitting person to preside over the debates of the House, and from the general election of February 1701 until the dissolution of 1705 he held with general approbation the office 'Le. in the Harley line.

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