about 2952 b.c. According to the traditions of the Chinese, Fohi discovered iron, invented instruments of music, separated the people into classes, instituted marriage, and taught his people the use of writing. The invention of the yĕ-king, or kowa, which superseded the use of knotted cords, is also ascribed to him. He is said to have reigned one hundred and fifteen years. His memory is still held in reverence by the Chinese.—J. T.
FOHR, Carl Philipp, a German painter, born at Heidelberg in 1795. He went early to Rome, where he contracted a friendship with Koch the celebrated landscape painter; and Fohr himself showed such remarkable ability in two landscapes painted there, that he attracted the attention of the crown prince of Bavaria, afterwards the great art patron Ludwig I., then staying at Rome. On taking leave of Fohr, the prince pressed his hand, and, addressing him in terms of the utmost affection, hoped that their intercourse might soon be renewed and their intimacy ripened. This encouraging wish, however, for the young painter was never realized; Fohr was drowned in the Tiber while bathing on the 29th of June, 1818, in the sight of three friends, who could afford him no assistance. Amsler the engraver, one of the friends who witnessed the accident, has executed a fine portrait of him. A life of Fohr was published in 1823 at Darmstadt, where several of his landscapes are preserved.—(Nagler, Künstler Lexicon.)—R. N. W.
FOINARD, Frédéric-Maurice, a French catholic divine, was born at Conches in Normandy about 1683, and died in 1743. Foinard, who was in repute for his learning, for some time exercised the function of a parish priest at Calais, but removed to Paris, where he became vice-principal of the college of Plessis. He wrote "Proposals for a new Breviary;" "Genesis in Latin and French, with an explication of the literal and of the spiritual sense;" and two works on the Psalms.—R. M., A.
FOIX, Counts of, the heads of an ancient French family, which can be traced back to the eleventh century. The most distinguished members of this house are—
Roger, who in 1050 inherited from his uncle, count of Carcassonne, the territory of Foix, assumed the title, and fixed his residence at the chateau of the same name., He died in 1064.
Roger II., his grandson, possessed the family estates from 1070 to 1125. He carried on a lengthened contest with his cousin, Ermengarde, respecting the earldom of Carcassonne; but he renounced his pretensions in 1095, and joined the crusade which was set on foot by Peter the Hermit. He had incurred the sentence of excommunication, in consequence of his seizure of some ecclesiastical property; but after his return from Syria, he made his peace with the church by liberal donations, and died in 1125. His great-grandson—
Raymond Roger, was one of the ablest captains of his age. He fought in Palestine in 1190, and after his return to France, in consequence of his alliance with Raymond VI., count of Toulouse, he was involved in the bloody crusade against the Albigenses, under Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, in 1209. He was accused of heresy and impiety, his estates were wasted with fire and sword, his vassals were put to death with most atrocious cruelty, and the count himself was forced to take refuge in the most inaccessible part of his dominions. Count Raymond Roger made a brave resistance, in conjunction with his allies, and obtained various successes over the blood-thirsty crusaders; but in the end he was compelled to submit to the church, and to make peace. He died in 1223.
Roger Bernard II., surnamed the Great, son of the preceding, signalized himself in his struggle with the crusaders. He entered into an alliance with Raymond VII., count of Toulouse, and along with him was excommunicated by the convent of Narbonne In the end Raymond was compelled, in 1229, to make his peace with the pope by the most humiliating concessions, and Roger Bernard was obliged to follow his example. Count Foix was a second time excommunicated in 1237, and was not absolved until 1240. He died in 1241.
Roger Bernard III., grandson of the preceding, figured among the poets of the thirteenth century. Along with his brother-in-law, the count of Armagnac, he quarrelled with Philip the Hardy, by whom he was for some time kept in prison. In 1280 he took part with the Catalonians against Peter III. of Arragon, and in 1291 commenced a war with the house of Armagnac. He died in 1302.—His grandson, Gaston II., was a famous soldier, and gained great distinction in the contest between the Navarrese and the Castilians in 1335, and in the war with the English in 1337. He also rendered important assistance to Alfonso XI., king of Castille, against the Moors in 1343, and died at Seville in the same year. His son—
Gaston III., was the most celebrated member of the family of Foix. He was born in 1331, and was surnamed Phœbus, some say on account of his personal beauty; others, from his love for the chase; and others, from his choice of the sun as his armorial bearing. Having lost his father when he was only twelve years of age, he was educated by his mother, Eleanor of Comminges. His first passage of arms was during the English invasion in 1345, and he gained so much distinction that two years later he was appointed the king's lieutenant in Gascony and Languedoc. In 1349 he married Agnes, daughter of Philip III., king of Navarre. In 1356 he was arrested and sent to the prison of the Chatelet in Paris, on a charge of conspiracy, in conjunction with his brother-in-law, Charles the Bad. He speedily obtained his release, however, and joined the crusade against the Prussian idolaters. On his return to France in 1358 he assisted in rescuing the royal princesses, who, during the revolt of the Jacquerie, had been shut up in the marketplace of Meaux; and in the same year he renewed the old family contest with the count d'Armagnac, respecting the viscounty of Bigorre, which finally terminated in the defeat and captivity of the count at the battle of Launac in 1372. Gaston separated from his wife in 1373, in consequence of a dispute with her brother, the crafty and faithless king of Navarre, who withheld from the count the sum of fifty thousand francs, which he had received in trust for Gaston from the lord d'Albreth. The countess paid a visit to her brother for the purpose of recovering the money; but having failed in obtaining payment, she did not venture to return home, but remained at the court of Navarre. In 1380 the government of Languedoc was bestowed on Count Foix by Charles V.; but Charles having died a few months after, his successor revoked the appointment, and gave it to the duke of Berry. The count, indignant at this treatment, appealed to arms, and inflicted a severe defeat on the duke. In the end peace was concluded through the mediation of the cardinal of Amiens, and Gaston agreed to resign his claims. In the following year occurred the death of the count's only legitimate son, which Froissart has related in a most touching and simple manner. Young Gaston had paid a visit to his mother at the court of his uncle, and that treacherous villain sought to make the innocent youth the instrument of murdering his father. On his departure, he gave his nephew a bag of a kind of powder, which proved to be a virulent poison, and told him to strew a small quantity of it on any food his father might eat, and it would have the effect of instantly reconciling him to his mother. The poison was accidentally discovered in young Gaston's possession, and his father immediately cast him into prison, where the hapless youth refused all nourishment, and died in ten days—his death having been hastened, as Froissart relates, by a slight blow in the throat which was accidentally inflicted by the point of his father's knife. In 1390 Gaston entertained Charles VI. and his court with great magnificence at his castle of Mazeres, and agreed to make that monarch heir to all his domains. He died suddenly of apoplexy in the following year, immediately after his return from hunting. The character of Gaston has been graphically pourtrayed by Froissart, who was for a considerable time hospitably entertained at his castle of Orthes, and heard there many of his tales of chivalry. He was an accomplished, brave, and affable knight, magnificent in his expenditure, skilful in all warlike exercises, and passionately fond of the chase. But his temper was violent and overbearing, and not unfrequently led him to perpetrate cruel and unjust acts. He was an adept in verse-making, and was the author of a treatise on hunting, entitled "Miroir de Phœbus des deduicts de la chasse des bestes sauvaiges, et des oyseaux de proie." The Foix estates were granted by Charles VI. of France to Matthew, count of Castelan and Foix, who died in 1398 without issue. His sister's son—
Jean de Grailly, became Count Foix in 1412, and died in 1436. He was made governor-general of Languedoc, Auvergne, and Guienne.
Gaston IV., his son and successor, died in 1472. His father-in-law, Jean II., king of Arragon and Navarre, declared him, in 1455, his successor in the throne, after disinheriting the unfortunate Don Carlos, his son. Gaston rendered eminent services to Charles VII. of France in the wars in Guienne; in 1458 that monarch elevated him to the dignity of the peerage, and in
