Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/316

304 F L E F L E was born at Crofton in Yorkshire. He was descended from a good family, and was educated at University College, Oxford. Having taken his degrees, he was made pre bendary of York in 1400, and the next year was one of the proctors of the university. At this period of his life he embraced the doctrines of Wickliffe, and by his earnest advocacy won over many persons, some of high rank, to the side of the Reformer. But by some means a change vas wrought in him, and he not only ceased to speak against the corruptions of the Roman system, but became one of Wicklitfe s most determined opponents. Before 1415 lie was instituted to the rectory of Boston in Lincolnshire, and in 1420 he was consecrated bishop of Lincoln. In 1424 he attended the council of Siena, a continuation of the council of Constance, and in the presence of the pope, Martin V., made an eloquent speecli in vindication of his native country. It was probably on this occasion that he was named chamberlain to the pope. To Bishop Flemming was intrusted the execution of the decree of the council for the exhumation and burning of Wickliffe s remains. The see of York being vacant, the pope conferred it on Flem ming; but in consequence of the vehement opposition of Henry V. to the project, it was given up, and Flemming remained bishop of Lincoln. In 1427 he obtained the royal licence empowering him to found a college at Oxford for the special purpose of training up disputants against Wickliffe s heresy. While the work was in progress the founder died at his palace at Sleaford, January 26, 1431. Lincoln College was, however, completed by his trustees, and its endowments were afterwards augmented by various benefactors. FLENSBURG, or FLENSBORG, the capital of a circle in the government district of Schleswig-Holstein, Prussia, is situated at the head of the Flensburg Ford, 20 miles north by west of Schleswig. It is the most important commercial town in what was formerly the duchy of Schleswig, and possesses several wharfs, a large shipbuild ing yard, breweries, distilleries, foundries, oil-mills, sail cloth and paper manufactories, glass-works, copper works, soap-works, and rice-mills. It has a number of vessels engaged in the West India trade, and in the Greenland whale fishery ; and it also carries on a considerable oyster trade. The principal public buildings are the market houses, the exchange, the theatre, the real school, the agricultural school, and the hospital. The cemetery is in teresting as containing the remains of the Danish soldiers who fell in the battle of Idstedt (25th July 1850). A marble headstone has been placed at each grave officers and common soldiers with the same simple inscription on each, after the name and rank, "Fell at Idstedt." The colossal Lion monument, erected by the Danes to com memorate the victory of Idstedt, was removed to Berlin in 1864. Flensburg was founded in the 12th century, and received the privileges of a town from King Waldemar in 1284. The population in 1875 was 26,525. FLETCHER, ANDREW (1653-1716), of Saltoun, a pro minent figure in Scotch history during the latter half of the 17th century, was born in 1653 at his ancestral home in East Lothian, and for five years was taught by the cele brated Gilbert Burnet, who was then minister of the parish of Saltoun. On reaching manhood he visited the Conti nent, where he spent several years in travel and study. In 1681 he was returned as commissioner for his native county to the Scottish parliament, where he distinguished himself by such determined opposition to the arbitrary measures of the court that he was forced to seek refuge in Holland, while sentence of outlawry (with confiscation of his estates) was passed against him. Four years later he joined the expedition of the duke of Monmouth ; but on their landing at Lyme in Dorsetshire, he had the misfor tune to kill the mayor of the town in a quarrel, anil was compelled once more to seek safety abroad. During the second period of exile he travelled in disguise through Spain, where he had some romantic adventures. He next made a tour through Hungary, where he fought a? a volunteer in a Turkish campaign ; and finally at the Hague he took an active part in forwarding the scheme of the English Revolution. In 1688 he returned to Scotland when he at once regained his estates, and also sat as a member in the Scottish convention and afterwards in the parliament. An enemy of the monarchical form of govern ment, he began to oppose the ministry of William almost as stoutly as he had resisted that of Charles ; and that he exercised power in parliament is shown by the triumphant passing of the Act of Security of 1703, which, ripened under his care, contained two important constitutional laws restraining the power of the monarch of making war with out the consent of parliament, and providing that all places and offices should be given by parliament, During the years of negotiations, as leader of the national party, he was consistent in his objections to the projected terms of the union of the crowns of England and Scotland, and supported his measure of limitations in animated speeches, After the Union he retired from public life ; but in 1710 he did his country a real if homely service by introducing from Holland the art of making pot barley, and also the use of fanners for sifting grain. He died in London in 1716. A contemporary describes him as a " low, thin man, of a brown complexion ; full of fire ; with a stern, sour look." Among the small band of good early Scotch prose authors he holds a prominent place, and in the domain of politics he is the most readable and entertaining of them all. His style has the singular freshness of foreign culture, and, charged with strong feeling, his sentences frequently turn into for cible epigrams. But both his writings and his speeches possess a value beyond that of literary excellence ; they afford us bright glimpses of the manners and state of the country of his time. In literature his name is best known in connexion with an often quoted remark, which occurs in An Account of a Conversation concerning a rigid Regu lation of Governments for the Common Good of Mankind : " I said I knew a very wise man so much of Sir Christopher s [Musgrave] sentiment, that he believed if a man were per mitted to make all the ballads he need not care who should make the laws of a nation. And we find that most of the ancient legislators thought they could not well reform the manners of any city without the help of a lyric, and sometimes of a dramatic poet." See The Political Works of Andrew Fletcher, Esq., Glasgow, 174), to which estimates of his character by Rawlinson and Lockhart are prefixed; Essay on his Life and Writings, by the Earl of Buchan, 1792; Historical Account of the Ancient Rights and Power of the Parliament of Scotland, 1823, a laboured, interesting treatise, first published anonymously and now attributed to Fletcher. FLETCHER, GILES (1548-1610), LL.D., father of the poets Giles and Phineas Fletcher, was himself a very dis tinguished man. He was born at Watford, in 1548; he studied at Cambridge, and after a stormy youth represented Winchelsea in parliament in 1585. In 1587 he travelled in Holland and Germany, and spent 1588-89 in Russia. In 1591 he printed his singular work, The Russ Com monwealth, which was suppressed for fear of angering the czar; in 1593 he brought out a volume of poems entitled Licia. He died in 1610. FLETCHER, GILES (1584-1623), English poet of the 17th century, was born in London about 1584. He was the second son of Dr Giles Fletcher, nephew of Richard Fletcher, bishop of London, cousin of John Fletcher the dramatist, and younger brother of I hineas Fletcher. He went very young to Cambridge, and as early as 1 603 he contributed a poem on the death of Queen Elizabeth to a