ARTOIS, an ancient province of the north of France, corresponding to the present department of Pas de Calais, with the exclusion of the arrondissments of Boulogne and Montreuil, which belonged to Picardy. It is a rich and well-watered champaign, producing abundance of grain and hops, and yielding excellent pasture for cattle. The capital of the province was Arras, and the other important places were Saint-Omer, Bethune, Aire, Hesdin, Bapaume, Lens, Lillers, Saint-Pol, and Saint-Venant. The name Artois (still more corrupted in " Arras ") is derived from the Atrebates, who possessed the district in the time of Caesar. From the 9th to the 12th century Artois belonged to the Counts of Flanders. It was bestowed in 1180 on Philip Augustus of France by Philip of Alsace, as the dowry of his niece, Isabella of Hainault. In 1237 it was raised to the rank of a countship by Saint Louis in favour of his brother Robert. Philip, the son of Robert II., having died before his father, the transmission of the title was disturbed. The countship was claimed by Robert, Philip s son, and his descendants, better known as the counts of Edu, continued to style themselves counts of Artois ; but it was actually inherited by Mahaud or Matilda, daughter of Robert II. By her marriage with Otho IV., Artois passed to the house of Burgundy, in whose possession it remained till the marriage of Mary, the daughter of Charles the Bold, to the Archduke Maximilian brought it to the house of Austria. By the peace of Nimeguen it was ceded to France in 1678. The title of count of Artois was borne by Charles X. of France before his accession to the throne.
ARU ISLANDS, a group of about thirty islands, nominally under the Dutch government of the Moluccas, which lie south of New Guinea, between lat. 5 20 and 6 55 S., long. 134 10 and 134 45 E. Tana-busar, the largest island, is 80 miles from north to south, and is crossed by three river-like creeks tunning east and west, called Watelai, Vorkai, and Maykor. No part exceeds 100 feet in elevation, but it is only on the coast that the ground is swampy. The principal formation is coralline limestone ; the eastern coast is defended by coral reefs, and the neighbouring sea is shallow, and abounds in coral in full growth. The other islands of importance are Wamma, Pulo Bali, Oujia, and "Wassia. A large part of the surface is covered with virgin forest, consisting of screw-pines, palm-trees, tree ferns, canariums, &c. Kan garoos, and a number of other marsupials, wild pigs, brush- turkeys, cassowaries, parroquets, cockatoos, birds of para dise, butterflies, ants, scorpions, sandflies, and mosquitoes are the predominant animals, the fauna being altogether Papuan. The aborigines belong to the Papuan race, but have received intermixture of foreign blood. They are a simple, emotional people, with dark-brown skins and frizzled hair. They wear little clothing, practise polygamy, purchase their wives, and are very lazy, and remarkably talkative. A few villages are nominally Christian, but elsewhere there seems to be no religion or even fetishism of any kind. In Wamma there is a town, Dobbo, to which Dutch, Malay, and Chinese traders resort once a year to traffic with the natives, obtaining trepang, pearl shell, birds of paradise, &c., and giving in exchange cloths, cutlery, muskets, gongs, tobacco, arrack, and elephants teeth. The islands are thickly peopled, the inhabitants numbering about 60,000. The Italian naturalist Beccari spent some time among the islands in 1874;. and Di Lenna, an Italian major, has executed a partial survey. (See Wallace s Malay Archipelago; Ocean Highways, 1873 and 1874; and G. Cora s Cosmos, 1873.)
ARUNDEL, a town in Sussex, on the river Arun, about 4 miles from its mouth, 10 miles E. of Chichester, 19 W. of Brighton, and 55 S.W. of London. It is Arms of Arundel. built on the slope of a hill surmounted by the castle of the duke of Norfolk, which dates from the time of
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on its possessor the title of Earl of Arundel. At the time of the Conquest the castle was rebuilt by Roger de Montgomerie, but it was taken from his son, who re belled against the reigning monarch, Henry I. In 1397 it was the scene of a conspir acy organised by the earl of Arundel, archbishop of Can terbury, and duke of Glou cester, to dethrone Richard II. and murder the lords of his council, a plot which was discovered before it could be carried into execution. During the parliamentary wars of the 17th century the stronghold was frequently assaulted by the contending parties, and consequently greatly damaged; but it was restored by Charles the llth duke of Norfolk, who made it what it now is, one of the most splendid baronial mansions in England. The town which, according to the whimsical etymology of the corporation seal, takes its name from hirondelle (a swallow), is divided into two parts by the river Arun, which is here navi gable for vessels of 300 tons, and a canal connects it with the Thames and Portsmouth. The town-hall is a castellated building, which cost 9000, and was presented to the corporation by the duke of Norfolk. The church of St Nicholas is a very ancient structure (founded about 1375), with a low tower rising from the centre. In the north aisle of the chancel there are several ancient monu ments of the earls of Arundel, and the high altar is held to be the only perfect original example in England. The church is otherwise remarkable for its reredos and iron work. Some remains of a Maison Dieu, or hospital, erected in the time of Richard IT. still exist. Arundel was a borough by prescription, and returned two members to parliament from the time of Edward I., but it lost one by the Reform Act of 1832, and the other by that of 1868. (See Tierny s Hist, of Castle and Town of Arundel. 2 vols., 1834.)
in 1353, was the second son of Robert, earl of Arundel and Warren. At 22 years of age he was raised to the bishopric of Ely. to the church and palace of which he was a great benefactor. In 1386, after the deposition of the earl of Suffolk, he was appointed lord chancellor of Eng land; he was deprived of this office in 1389, but again reinstated. In 1388 he was translated to the see of York, and in 1396 was advanced to the primacy of Canterbury, when he resigned the chancellorship. This was the first instance of the translation of an archbishop of York to the see of Canterbury. Scarcely was he fixed in this see when he had a contest with the University of Oxford about the right of visitation. The affair was referred to the king (Richard II.), who determined it in favour of the arch bishop. At his visitation in London he revived an old constitution, by which the inhabitants of the respective parishes were obliged to pay to their rector one halfpenny in the pound out of the rent of their houses. While bishop of Ely, Arundel had taken a leading part in forc ing the king to consent to the commission of regency; Richard never forgave this, and in 1397 the parliament, with the king s leave, impeached the archbishop, with his brother Richard earl of Arundel, and the duke of Glouces ter, on a charge of high treason. He was sentenced to be banished, and to depart the kingdom within forty days on
pain of death. He retired, first to France, and then to the