Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/350

bishopric was founded at Erfurt; and under Charlemagne the Thuringian mark was the base of active operations against the heathen Sorbs. In 839 the title of duke of Thuringia (ducatus Toringubæ) appears; but that of landgrave seems to have superseded it; neither dignity implied sovereignty over the whole district. Otto the Illustrious, duke of Saxony (880), added Thuringia to his duchy, but the union was not permanent. About the beginning of the 12th century Louis the Springer, builder of the Wartburg, rose to eminence among the Thuringian nobles; and about 1130 his son, also Louis, was appointed landgrave by the emperor Lothair I. Thuringia now began to be a united land under one prince; and the landgraves, who acquired the Saxon palatinate on the fall of Henry the Lion of Saxony in 1180, rose to considerable power. The last landgrave of this line was Henry Raspe (1242–1247), brother and successor of Louis the Saint. His death was followed by a devastating war of succes sion between his niece Sophia, duchess of Brabant, and Henry the Illustrious, margrave of Meissen (1221–1288), whose mother Jutta was a Thuringian princess. Peace was finally established in 1263: Sophia received Hesse, and Henry took the rest of Thuringia, the general history of which thenceforth merged in that of Meissen, and later of Saxony, although it maintained its separate name. Thuringia was included in the administrative circle of Upper Saxony (vol. xxi. p. 352, note 3). For its subsequent fate, and the rise of the present Thuringian states, see under Saxony, (vol. xxi. p. 353 sq.)

The most striking natural feature of Thuringia is the Thuringian Forest (Thüringerwald), a range or system of hills, extending in an irregular line from the neighbourhood of Eisenach in the north west to the Lobensteiner Kulm on the Bavarian frontier on the south-east, and forming the southern boundary of Thuringia, separating it from Franconia. On the south-east it is continued directly by the Frankenwald Mountains to the Fichtelgebirge, which is in immediate connexion with the Erzgebirge, while on the north-east it approaches the Harz Mountains, and thus takes its place in the great Sudetic chain of central Germany. The length of the Thuringian chain is 70 miles, and its breadth varies from 8 to 25 miles. It nowhere rises into peaks, and only a few of its rounded summits reach the height of 3000 feet; the successive hills melt into each other in gentle undulations, forming a con tinuous and easily traced comb, and only the north-west slopes are precipitous, and seamed with winding gorges. This mountain range encloses many charming and romantic valleys and glens; the most prominent feature of its picturesque scenery is formed by the fine forests, chiefly of pines and firs, which clothe most of the hills. The north-west part of the system is the loftier and the more densely wooded, as well as the more beautiful; the highest summits here are the Grosser Beerberg (3225 feet), Schneekopf (3179), and the Inselberg (2957), all in the duchy of Gotha. The south-east part of the Thuringian Forest is the more populous and industrial; the chief summits are the Kieferle (2851 feet) at Steinheid, the Blessberg (2834 feet) near Schalkau, the Wurzelberg (2746 feet) near Oelze, and the Wetzstein (2719) near Lehesten. The crest of the Thuringian Forest, from the Werra to the Saale, is traversed by the Rennsteig or Rainsteig, a broad path of unknown antiquity, though it is believed to be referred to in a letter of Pope Gregory III. dated 738. The name means probably "frontier-path "; and the path marks in fact the boundary between Thuringia and Franconia. It may be also regarded as part of the boundary line between North and South Germany, for dialect, customs, local names and costume are different on the two sides.

THURINGORUM LEX.⁠See Salic Law.

THURLES, an ancient market-town of Ireland, in the county of Tipperary, and the seat of the Catholic archdiocese of Cashel, is pleasantly situated on the Suir, and on the Great Southern and Western Railway, 46 miles east of Limerick, 29 west from Kilkenny, and 87 south west of Dublin. The cathedral of St Patrick is a beautiful building, erected at a cost of £45,000. The town is the seat of other important Catholic establishments, including an Ursuline convent, in which is a large boarding-school for young ladies; a Presentation convent; St Patrick's Catholic college (1829) for ecclesiastical students, where was held in 1850 the synod of Thurles, composed of all the Catholic bishops of Ireland; and an establishment of Christian Brothers, who devote themselves to the instruction of boys on the Lancastrian method. The town has a considerable agricultural and retail trade. The population was 5008 in 1871, and 4850 in 1881.

Originally the town was called Durlas O Fogarty. In the 10th century it was the scene of the defeat of the Irish by the Danes. A preceptory was founded here by the Knights Templars, who possessed themselves of a castle erected early in the 13th century. A castle was subsequently erected by James Butler, first lord palatine of Tipperary, of which till recently a tower still remained.

THURLOW, Edward Thurlow, Baron (1732–1806), was born at Bracon-Ash, in the county of Norfolk, in 1732. His father was a clergyman, and held successively the livings of Little Ashfield in Suffolk and of Stratton St Mary's in Norfolk. His mother Elizabeth was the daughter of Robert Smith of Ashfield. Thurlow received his early education at home. He was next placed under the care of Mr Brett at Seaming, where he remained for four years, and was then sent to the grammar school of Canterbury, where he was considered a bold refractory clever boy. In October 1748 Thurlow entered Caius College, Cambridge, and speedily justified his school reputation. The dean of the college, upon the extent and accuracy of whose classical acquirements grave suspicion rested, had directed him, as a punishment for some act of insubordination, to translate a chapter of the Spectator into Greek. Thurlow executed his task with care, and then gave it for revisal, not to the dean, but to the tutor of the college. When reprimanded for having thus infringed the college rules, Thurlow retorted that he had carried his exercise to one who could inform the dean whether or not he had obeyed his orders. The insult was too grave for rustication, and yet too slight to justify expulsion. Thurlow was therefore permitted to withdraw his name from the college books, and he left Cam bridge without a degree (1751). He now took chambers, and began regularly to keep terms in the Inner Temple, which he had joined while still an undergraduate. He was for some time a pupil along with the poet Cowper in the office of Mr Chapman, an eminent solicitor in Lincoln's Inn. On 22d November 1754 Thurlow was called to the bar, and subsequently went on the western circuit—at first with little success. But the tide turned. In the case of Luke Robinson v. the Earl of Winchelsea (1758) Thurlow came into collision with Sir Fletcher Norton, then the terror of solicitors and the tyrant of the bar, and put down his arrogance with dignity and success. From this time his practice increased rapidly. In December 1761 he was made a king's counsel, through the influence of the duchess of Queensberry. In January 1762 he was elected a bencher of the Inner Temple. It now became necessary for him to take his side in politics, and, after repeated oscillations, and with some hesitancy, Thurlow threw himself into the ranks of the Tory party. In May 1768 he became member for Tarn worth. In 1769 the Douglas Peerage case came on for hearing in the House of Lords, and Thurlow, who had drawn the pleadings some years before (Notes and Queries, 3d ser., iii. 122), led for the appellant in a speech of great ability and analytic power. In March 1770, as a recognition of his defence in the previous January of the expulsion of Wilkes, Thurlow was made solicitor-general on the resignation of Dunning, and in the following year (23d January 1771), after he had enhanced his reputation with the Government by attacking the rights of juries in cases of libel (Rex v. Miller, 20 State Trials, 870-896) and the liberty of the press (16 Parly. Hist., 1144), was raised to the attorney-generalship. Thurlow's public life was as factious as his youth had been daring. His violent hatred of the American colonists, and his extreme and imprudent assertion