ATHALIAH,
The daughter of Ahab, king of Samaria, and of Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, was wife of Jeboram, king of Jadah, who walked in the idolatrous ways of the house of Ahab. Jehoram died in the year B. C. 885, and the kingdom devolved on Ahaziah their son. Ahaziah reigned only one year, and on his untimely death, Athaliah 'arose and slew all the seed-royal of the house of Judah,' although they were her grand-children, and ascended the throne B. C. 884, and reigned six years. At the end of that time, Joash, a son of Ahaziah, who had been concealed six years in the temple by his aunt Jehosheba, the wife of Jehoida the high-priest, was produced by Jehoida before the priests and soldiers, and anointed king. Athaliah hastened to the temple, and attempted to excite a reaction in her own favour by raising a cry of treason, but in vain, for Jehoida gave instant orders that she should be removed from the sacred enclosure and slain. This command was immediately obeyed, B. C. 878. The discovery of Joash is the subject of a tragedy by Racine, written by command of Madame de Maintenon.
ATTENDULI, MARGARET D',
A sister of the great Sforza, founder of the house of Sforza, dukes of Milan, was born about 1375, at Catignola, a small town in Italy. Her father was a day labourer; but after her brother James, under the name of Sforza, had made himself distinguished by his valour and skill, he sent for her to share his honours. She had married Michael de Catignola.
She seems to have shared her brother's heroic spirit: when James, count de la Marche, came to espouse Joanna the Second, queen of Naples, Sforza, then grand constable of Naples, was sent to meet him; but that prince threw him, his relations, and all his suit, into prison, thinking by this means to attain, more easily, the tyrannic power he afterwards assumed. When the news of Sforza's arrest arrived, Margaret, with her husband, and other relations who had served with honour in his troops, were at Tricarico. They assembled an army, of which Margaret took the command. The ill treatment Joanna experienced from her new husband, soon made the revolt general, and James was at length besieged in a castle, where the conditions proposed to him were, to be contented with the title of lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and give Sforza his liberty Knowing the value of his hostage, James sent deputies to Margaret, menacing her brother with instant death, if Tricarico were not given up to him. Anxious for her brother, but indignant at the proposition, she immediately imprisoned the deputies, whose families, alarmed for their safety, ceased not to intercede, until the count consented to set Sforza and his friends at liberty, and to reinstate him in his former situation.
AUBESPINE, MAGDALEN DE L',
A French lady, celebrated for her wit and beauty; was the wife of Nicholas de Neuville, seignieur de Villeroi. She composed several works in verse and prose, and died on her own demesne, in 1596. Ronsard held her in high estimation. She is also compli-
