Montblanc, (Berlin, 1894, also a French translation, Geneva, 1899);
L. Kurz, Climbers’ Guide to the Chain of Mont Blanc, section vi.
(London, 1892); L. Kurz and X. Imfeld, Carte de la chaine du Mont
Blanc (1896, new edition 1905). (W. A. B. C.)
BLANCHARD, SAMUEL LAMAN (1804–1845), British author and journalist, the son of a painter and glazier, was born at Great Yarmouth on the 15th of May 1804. He was educated at St Olave’s school, Southwark, and then became clerk to a proctor in Doctors’ Commons. At an early age he developed literary tastes, contributing dramatic sketches to a paper called Drama. For a short time he was a member of a travelling dramatic company, but subsequently became a proof-reader in London, and wrote for the Monthly Magazine. In 1827 he was made secretary of the Zoological Society, a post which he held for three years. In 1828 he published Lyric Offerings, dedicated to Charles Lamb. He had a very varied journalistic experience, editing in succession the Monthly Magazine, the True Sun, the Constitutional, the Court Journal, the Courier, and George Cruikshank’s Omnibus; and from 1841 till his death he was connected with the Examiner. In 1846 Bulwer-Lytton collected a number of his prose-essays under the title Sketches of Life, to which a memoir of the author was prefixed. His verse was collected in 1876 by Blanchard Jerrold. Over-work broke down his strength, and, unnerved by the death of his wife, he died by his own hand on the 15th of February 1845.
His eldest son, Sidney Laman Blanchard, who was the author of Yesterday and To-day in India, died in 1883.
BLANCHE, JACQUES ÉMILE (1861– ), French painter, was
born in Paris. He enjoyed an excellent cosmopolitan education,
and was brought up at Passy in a house once belonging to the
princesse de Lamballe, which still retained the atmosphere of
18th-century elegance and refinement and influenced his taste
and work. Although he received some instruction in painting
from Gervex, he may be regarded as self-taught. He acquired a
great reputation as a portrait painter; his art is derived from
French and English sources, refined, sometimes super-elegant,
but full of character. Among his chief works are his portraits of
his father, of Pierre Louÿs, the Thaulow family, Aubrey Beardsley
and Yvette Guilbert.
BLANCHE OF CASTILE (1188–1252), wife of Louis VIII. of
France, third daughter of Alphonso VIII., king of Castile, and of
Eleanor of England, daughter of Henry II., was born at Valencia.
In consequence of a treaty between Philip Augustus and John of
England, she was betrothed to the former’s son, Louis, and was
brought to France, in the spring of 1200, by John’s mother
Eleanor. On the 22nd of May 1200 the treaty was finally signed,
John ceding with his niece the fiefs of Issoudun and Graçay,
together with those that André de Chavigny, lord of Châteauroux,
held in Berry, of the English crown. The marriage was celebrated
the next day, at Portmort on the right bank of the Seine, in John’s
domains, as those of Philip lay under an interdict.
Blanche first displayed her great qualities in 1216, when Louis, who on the death of John claimed the English crown in her right, invaded England, only to find a united nation against him. Philip Augustus refused to help his son, and Blanche was his sole support. The queen established herself at Calais and organized two fleets, one of which was commanded by Eustace the Monk, and an army under Robert of Courtenay; but all her resolution and energy were in vain. Although it would seem that her masterful temper exercised a sensible influence upon her husband’s gentler character, her rôle during his reign (1223–1226) is not well known. Upon his death he left Blanche regent and guardian of his children. Of her twelve or thirteen children, six had died, and Louis, the heir—afterwards the sainted Louis IX.,—was but twelve years old. The situation was critical, for the hard-won domains of the house of Capet seemed likely to fall to pieces during a minority. Blanche had to bear the whole burden of affairs alone, to break up a league of the barons (1226), and to repel the attack of the king of England (1230). But her energy and firmness overcame all dangers. There was an end to the calumnies circulated against her, based on the poetical homage rendered her by Theobald IV., count of Champagne, and the prolonged stay in Paris of the papal legate, Romano Bonaventura, cardinal of Sant’ Angelo. The nobles were awed by her warlike preparations or won over by adroit diplomacy, and their league was broken up. St Louis owed his realm to his mother, but he himself always remained somewhat under the spell of her imperious personality. After he came of age (1236) her influence upon him may still be traced. In 1248 she again became regent, during Louis IX.’s absence on the crusade, a project which she had strongly opposed. In the disasters which followed she maintained peace, while draining the land of men and money to aid her son in the East. At last her strength failed her. She fell ill at Melun in November 1252, and was taken to Paris, but lived only a few days. She was buried at Maubuisson.
Besides the works of Joinville and William of Nangis, see Élie Berger, “Histoire de Blanche de Castille, reine de France,” in Bibliothèque des écoles françaises d’Athènes et de Rome, vol. lxx. (Paris, 1895); Le Nain de Tillemont, “Vie de Saint Louis,” ed. by J. de Gaulle for the Société de l’histoire de France (6 vols., 1847–1851); and Paulin Paris, “Nouvelles recherches sur les mœurs de la reine Blanche et de Thibaud,” in Cabinet historique (1858).
BLANCH FEE, or Blanch Holding (from Fr. blanc, white),
an ancient tenure in Scottish land law, the duty payable being in
silver or white money in contradistinction to gold. The phrase
was afterwards applied to any holding of which the quit-rent was
merely nominal, such as a penny, a peppercorn, &c.
BLANDFORD, or Blandford Forum, a market town, and
municipal borough in the northern parliamentary division of
Dorsetshire, England, on the Stour, 19 m. N.W. of Bournemouth
by the Somerset & Dorset railway. Pop. (1901) 3649. The
town is ancient, but was almost wholly destroyed by fire in the
18th century. The church of St Peter and St Paul, a classical
building, was built in 1732. There are a grammar-school
(founded in 1521 at Milton Abbas, transferred to Blandford in
1775), a Blue Coat school (1729), and other educational charities.
Remnants of a mansion of the 14th century, Damory Court, are
seen in a farmhouse, and an adjoining Perpendicular chapel is
used as a barn. There are numerous early earthworks on the
chalk hills in the neighbourhood. The fine modern mansion of
Bryanston, in the park adjoining the town, is the seat of Lord
Portman. The municipal borough is under a mayor, 4 aldermen
and 12 councillors. Area, 145 acres.
BLANDRATA, or Biandrata, GIORGIO (c. 1515–1588),
Italian physician and polemic, who came of the De Blandrate
family, powerful from the early part of the 13th century, was
born at Saluzzo, the youngest son of Bernardino Blandrata.
He graduated in arts and medicine at Montpellier in 1533, and
specialized in the functional and nervous disorders of women.
In 1544 he made his first acquaintance with Transylvania;
in 1553 he was with Alciati in the Grisons; in 1557 he spent a
year at Geneva, in constant intercourse with Calvin, who distrusted
him. He attended the English wife (Jane Stafford) of
Count Celso Massimiliano Martinengo, preacher of the Italian
church at Geneva, and fostered anti-trinitarian opinions in that
church. In 1558 he found it expedient to remove to Poland,
where he became a leader of the heretical party at the synods
of Pinczów (1558) and Ksionzh (1560 and 1562). His point
was the suppression of extremes of opinion, on the basis of a
confession literally drawn from Scripture. He obtained the
position of court physician to the queen dowager, the Milanese
Bona Sforza. She had been instrumental in the burning (1539)
of Catharine Weygel, at the age of eighty, for anti-trinitarian
opinions; but the writings of Ochino had altered her views,
which were now anti-Catholic. In 1563 Blandrata transferred
his services to the Transylvanian court, where the daughters
of his patroness were married to ruling princes. He revisited
Poland (1576) in the train of Stephen Báthory, whose tolerance
permitted the propagation of heresies; and when (1579) Christopher
Báthory introduced the Jesuits into Transylvania,
Blandrata found means of conciliating them. Throughout his
career he was accompanied by his two brothers, Ludovico and
Alphonso, the former being canon of Saluzzo. In Transylvania,
Blandrata co-operated with Francis Dávid (d. 1579), the anti-trinitarian
bishop, but in 1578 two circumstances broke the
