1855. General Canrobert resigned the command of the French troops in the Crimea, and was succeeded by general Pelissier.
MAY 17.
1039. Harold I, the second Danish monarch of England, died, at Oxford. A heavy tax which he imposed on his people made him unpopular. He was buried at Winchester; but by the cruel edicts of his brother the body was dug up, beheaded and thrown into the Thames; recovered and again buried only to be a second time disinterred and committed to the Thames; found and privately buried at Westminster.
1163. Heloise, abbess of the Paraclete, died; celebrated as the mistress of Abelard, and for her learning. She was entombed with her husband. At the dissolution of the monasteries in 1792, the principal inhabitants of Nogent-sur-Seine went in grand procession to the Paraclete, to transfer the remains of the lovers to a vault in their church. In 1800 they were transported to Paris, and one of the most picturesque and interesting ornaments in the cemetery of Pere la Chaise, is the sepulchral chapel covering their remains, constructed from the ruins of the Paraclete.
1498. Vasquez de Gama discovered the continent of India. On his return he again doubled cape Good Hope, which had long been regarded as the ne plus ultra of navigation.
1536. George Boleyn, an English statesman, beheaded. He was a man of learning and ability, whose elevation followed that of his sister Anne as queen; and when she fell, he too was degraded and unjustly condemned.
1575. Matthew Parker, second protestant archbishop of Canterbury, died. He was deeply versed in Saxon literature and published a work on the antiquity of the English church.
1610. Gervase Babington died; bishop of Worcester and an eminent theological writer.
1617. Jacob Augustus Thuanus (alias De Thou) died; an illustrious French statesman and historian.
1664. The English conventicle act was passed forbidding more than five persons meeting for religious purposes except those regulated by the book of common prayer.