Page:A New General Biographical Dictionary, vol. 8.djvu/99

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
GRA
GRA

and that of lord Grenville of Potheridge, had been extinguished almost at the same time in his family. In the succeeding year (1712) he was sworn of her majesty’s privy-council, made controller of her household, and about a year after was advanced to the post of treasurer in the same office; and “to his other honours,” says Dr. Johnson, “was added the dedication of Pope’s Windsor Forest.” The death of the queen removed him from his office; but he did not forget his friends, and therefore vehemently protested against the attainting of Ormond and Bolingbroke. He even entered deeply into the scheme for raising an insurrection in the West of England, and was at the head of it, if we may believe lord Bolingbroke, who represents him as possessed now with the same political fire and frenzy for the Pretender, as he had shown in his youth for the father. In consequence, however, of being suspected, he was apprehended September 26, 1715, and committed prisoner to the Tower, where he continued until February 8, 1717, when he was released without any form of trial or acquittal. He continued steady to his former principles, which were so opposite to those of the court, and so inconsistent with the measures taken by the administration, that a watchful eye was kept upon him. Accordingly, when, in 1722, the flame broke out against his friends, on account of what is sometimes called Atterbury’s plot, he withdrew to France. He continued at Paris for about ten years, and at his return to England, in 1732, he published his poems, together with a vindication of his uncle, Sir Richard Greenville, against the misrepresentations of Clarendon, Echard, and Burnet, in 2 vols, 4 to. To these may be added a tract in lord Somers’s collection, entitled, A Letter from a Nobleman abroad to his Friend in England, 1722. Queen Caroline having honoured him with her protection, the last verses he wrote were to inscribe two copies of his poems, one of which was presented to her majesty, and the other to the princess royal Anne, afterwards princess of Orange. His remaining years were passed in retirement, to the day of his death, which happened January 30, 1735, in his sixty-eighth year. He had no male issue by his lady, Mary, daughter of Edward Villiers, earl of Jersey, who died a few days before him. The title of Lansdowne, therefore, became in him extinct.

GRAPALDI, (Francesco Mario,) a learned Italian, born at Parma about 1465. He accompanied, in the capacity of secretary, the embassy which the Parmesans sent to congratulate Julius II. on the advantages which he had obtained over the French (1512). On this occasion the pontiff, in recompense of an eloquent address delivered to him by Grapaldi, crowned him with his own hand, and knighted him. His principal work is entitled, De Partibus Ædium, Dictionarius longe lepidissimus nec minus Fructuosus, Parma, 1494, 4 to., and often reprinted. He died in 1515.

GRASSI, (Orazio,) a Jesuit, less known for his talents as an astronomer than for his dispute with Galileo, was born at Savona, near Genoa, in 1582. He was mathematical professor at Genoa and Rome for twenty years. In his Dissertatio de Tribus Cometis, Rome, 1619, he explained what had baffled the sagacity of Galileo, and held those bodies to be planets moving in vast ellipses round the sun. He died in 1654.

GRASWINKEL, (Theodore,) a learned publicist, born at Delft in 1600, and educated at Leyden. In 1624 he went to Paris, where he met with his relative and fellow-citizen, Grotius, whom he assisted in preparing for the press his great work, De Jure Belli et Pacis. He was afterwards made fiscal of the domains of the States of Holland, and secretary of the bipartite chamber on the part of the States-General. He died at Mechlin in 1666, and was buried in the great church at the Hague. He published, Libertas Veneta, seu Venetorum in Se et Suos imperandi Jus; and in 1644 he defended the republic of Venice in a dispute with the duke of Savoy concerning precedence, and for these services that republic created him a knight of St. Mark. In 1642 he published a work, De Jure Majestatis, against Buchanan, and dedicated to Christina queen of Sweden, a great assertor of regal privileges. In a work entitled, Maris Liberi Vindiciæ, he maintained the liberty of the sea against a Genoese named Burgus, who had followed in the steps of Selden. He also wrote a commentary on the Catiline of Sallust, and composed some Latin poems. He adopted for his motto, “Nemo ignaviâ factus immortalis.”

GRATAROLI, (Guglielmo,) an eminent physician, born at Bergamo, in 1516, and educated at Padua. It is said by some that he embraced the reformed religion. After sojourning at Basle he was invited to Marburg; but in a short

89