was forced to cede his new possession to Prussia, as he had supported Austria during the war between these two powers.
See R. Schwartz, Landgraf Friedrich V. von Hessen-Homburg und seine Familie (1878); and von Herget, Das landgräfliche Haus Homburg (Homburg, 1903).
HESSE-NASSAU (Ger. Hessen-Nassau), a province of Prussia,
bounded, from N. to E., S. and W., successively by Westphalia,
Waldeck, Hanover, the province of Saxony, the Thuringian
States, Bavaria, Hesse and the Rhine Province. There are
small detached portions in Waldeck, Thuringia, &c.; on the
other hand the province enclaves the province of Oberhessen
belonging to the grand-duchy of Hesse, and the circle of Wetzlar
belonging to the Rhine Province. Hesse-Nassau was formed
in 1867–1868 out of the territories which accrued to Prussia after
the war of 1866, namely, the landgraviate of Hesse-Cassel and
the duchy of Nassau, in addition to the greater part of the
territory of Frankfort-on-Main, parts of the grand-duchy of
Hesse, the territory of Homburg and the countship of Hesse-Homburg,
together with certain small districts which belonged
to Bavaria. It is now divided into the governments of Cassel
and Wiesbaden, the second of which consists mainly of the former
territory of Nassau (q.v.).
The province has an area of 6062 sq. m., and had a population in 1905 of 2,070,052, being the fourth most densely populated province in Prussia, after Berlin, the Rhine Province and Westphalia. The east and north parts lie in the basin of the river Fulda, which near the north-eastern boundary joins with the Werra to form the Weser. The Main forms part of the southern boundary, and the Rhine the south-western; the western part of the province lies mostly in the basin of the Lahn, a tributary of the Rhine. The province is generally hilly, the highest hills occurring in the east and west. The Fulda rises in the Wasserkuppe (3117 ft.), an eminence of the Rhöngebirge, the highest in the province. In the south-west are the Taunus, bordering the Main, and the Westerwald, west of the Lahn, in which the highest points respectively are the Grosser Feldberg (2887 ft.) and the Fuchskauten (2155 ft.). The congeries of small groups of lower hills in the north are known as the Hessische Bergland.
The province is not notably well suited to agriculture, but in forests it is the richest in Prussia, and the timber trade is large. The chief trees are beech, oak and conifers. Cattle-breeding is extensively practised. The vine is cultivated chiefly on the slopes of the Taunus, in the south-west, where the names of several towns are well known for their wines—Schierstein, Erbach (Marcobrunner), Johannisberg, Geisenheim, Rüdesheim, Assmannshausen. Iron, coal, copper and manganese are mined. The mineral springs are important, including those at Wiesbaden, Homburg, Langenschwalbach, Nenndorf, Schlangenbad and Soden. The chief manufacturing centres are Cassel, Diez, Eschwege, Frankfort, Fulda, Gross Almerode, Hanau and Hersfeld. The province is divided for administration into 42 circles (Kreise), 24 in the government of Cassel and 18 in that of Wiesbaden. It returns 14 representatives to the Reichstag. Marburg is the seat of a university.
HESSE-ROTENBURG, a German landgraviate which was
broken up in 1834. In 1627 Ernest (1623–1693), a younger son
of Maurice, landgrave of Hesse-Cassel (d. 1632), received Rheinsfels
and lower Katzenelnbogen as his inheritance, and some years
later, on the deaths of two of his brothers, he added Eschwege,
Rotenburg, Wanfried and other districts to his possessions.
Ernest, who was a convert to the Roman Catholic Church, was
a great traveller and a voluminous writer. About 1700 his two
sons, William (d. 1725) and Charles (d. 1711), divided their
territories, and founded the families of Hesse-Rotenburg and
Hesse-Wanfried. The latter family died out in 1755, when
William’s grandson, Constantine (d. 1778), reunited the lands
except Rheinfels, which had been acquired by Hesse-Cassel in
1735, and ruled them as landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg. At
the peace of Lunéville in 1801 the part of the landgraviate on
the left bank of the Rhine was surrendered to France, and in
1815 other parts were ceded to Prussia, the landgrave Victor
Amadeus being compensated by the abbey of Corvey and the
Silesian duchy of Ratibor. Victor was the last male member
of his family, so, with the consent of Prussia, he bequeathed
his allodial estates to his nephews the princes Victor and Chlodwig
of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst (see Hohenlohe).
When the landgrave died on the 12th of November 1834 the
remaining parts of Hesse-Rotenburg were united with Hesse-Cassel
according to the arrangement of 1627. It may be noted
that Hesse-Rotenburg was never completely independent of
Hesse-Cassel. Perhaps the most celebrated member of this
family was Charles Constantine (1752–1821), a younger son of
the landgrave Constantine, who was called “citoyen Hesse,”
and who took part in the French Revolution.
HESSIAN, the name of a jute fabric made as a plain cloth,
in various degrees of fineness, width and quality. The common,
or standard, hessian is 40 in. wide, weighs 1012 oz. per yd.,
and in the finished state contains about 12 threads and 1212
picks per in. The name is probably of German origin, and the
fabric was originally made from flax and tow. Small quantities
of cloth are still made from yarns of these fibres, but the jute
fibre, owing to its comparative cheapness, has now almost
supplanted all others.
This useful cloth is employed in countless ways, especially for packing all kinds of dry goods, while large quantities, of different qualities, are made up into bags for sugar, flour, coffee, grain, ore, manure, sand, potatoes, onions, &c. Indeed, bags made from one or other quality of this cloth, or from sacking, bagging or tarpaulin, form the most convenient, and at the same time the cheapest covering for any kind of goods which are not damaged by being crushed.
Certain types are specially treated, dyed black, tan or other colour, or left in their natural colour, stiffened and used for paddings and linings for cheap clothing, boots, shoes, bags and other articles. When dyed in art shades the cloth forms an attractive decoration for stages and platforms, and generally for any temporary erection, and in many cases it is stencilled and then used for wall decoration.
The great linoleum industry depends upon certain types of this fabric for the foundation of its products, while large quantities are used for the backs of fringe rugs, spring mattresses and the upholstery of furniture.
The great centres for the manufacture of this fabric are Dundee and Calcutta, and every variety of the cloth, and all kinds of hand- and machine-sewn, as well as seamless bags, are made in the former city. The American name for hessian is burlap; this particular kind is 40 in. wide, and is now largely made in Calcutta as well as in Dundee and other places.
HESSUS, HELIUS EOBANUS (1488–1540), German Latin
poet, was born at Halgehausen in Hesse-Cassel, on the 6th of
January 1488. His family name is said to have been Koch;
Eoban was the name of a local saint; Hessus indicates the land of
his birth, Helius the fact that he was born on Sunday. In 1504
he entered the university of Erfurt, and soon after his graduation
was appointed rector of the school of St Severus. This post he
soon lost, and spent the years 1509–1513 at the court of the bishop
of Riesenburg. Returning to Erfurt, he was reduced to great
straits owing to his drunken and irregular habits. At length
(in 1517) he was appointed professor of Latin in the university.
He was prominently associated with the distinguished men of the
time (Johann Reuchlin, Conrad Peutinger, Ulrich von Hutten,
Conrad Mutianus), and took part in the political, religious and
literary quarrels of the period, finally declaring in favour of
Luther and the Reformation, although his subsequent conduct
showed that he was actuated by selfish motives. The university
was seriously weakened by the growing popularity of the new
university of Wittenberg, and Hessus endeavoured (but without
success) to gain a living by the practice of medicine. Through
the influence of Camerarius and Melanchthon, he obtained a post
at Nuremberg (1526), but, finding a regular life distasteful, he
again went back to Erfurt (1533). But It was not the Erfurt he
had known; his old friends were dead or had left the place; the
university was deserted. A lengthy poem gained him the favour
