[236] In 1687, when this paragraph was first published, there was no longer an independent kingdom of Hungary, for three years before the crown had been declared hereditary in the House of Austria, which had ruled Bohemia as well since 1525.
[237] These wars, interrupted by the peace of Nymeguen (1678), were going on whilst our author wrote.
[238] Henri IV. (1553-1610), or Henri le Grand, according to La Bruyèreʼs own note, was not the son of the last of the Valois, Henri III. (1551-1589), but after the latterʼs death became heir to the French throne, because Henry IV.ʼs father, Antoine de Bourbon, was descended from the Count de Clermont, the fifth son of Louis IX.
[239] Those names La Bruyère found in the Histoire du Monde of Chevreau see page [124], note 235); and nearly all of them are so wrongly spelt that it is almost hopeless to discover whom they meant.
[240] In the month of December of the same year this paragraph had been published, Joseph I. (1678-1711), emperor of the Romans, was crowned king of Hungary, in virtue of his hereditary right. See page [215], note 444.
[241] Ninus was the husband of Semiramis, about 2182 B.C., and founded with her Nineveh, of which empire she became queen; she abdicated after a reign of forty-two years in favour of her son Ninyas. All these persons seem, however, to have been mythological, and to have had no foundation in history. The Semiramis of Herodotus lived 810-781 B.C.
[242] The passage in Josephus containing Manethosʼ tradition says, “Mesphratuthmosis drove the Hyksos [or shepherd kings] as far as Avaris [San in Egypt], and shut them up in it. His son Tuthmosis obliged them to evacuate it.” Tuthmosis is really Aahmes, the founder of the 18th dynasty, who drove the shepherd kings out of Egypt. Misphratuthmosis, sometimes written Misphramuthosis, and Alisphragmuthosis, his relative or ancestor, is meant by this name Alipharmutosis, but he has not been recognised in Egyptian records.
[243] Sesostris is the Greek name of the conqueror Rameses II., the third king of the 19th Egyptian dynasty.
[244] Artaxerxes Longimanus, king of Persia, succeeded his father Xerxes I., 465 B.C., and died about 425 B. C.
[245] Cydias is Fontenelle (see page [11], note 51), who was only thirty-seven years old when this paragraph was first printed in the eighth edition of the “Characters,” in 1694, and who became La Bruyèreʼs enemy ever since.