[Beauharnais, Eugene de], son of the preceding and of Joséphine, born at Paris, step-son of Napoleon, therefore was made viceroy of Italy; took an active part in the wars of the empire; died at Münich, whither he retired after the fall of Napoleon (1781-1824).
[Beauharnais, Hortense Eugenie], sister of the preceding, ex-queen of Holland; wife of Louis Bonaparte, an ill-starred union; mother of Napoleon III., the youngest of three sons (1783-1837).
[Beaumar`chais, Pierre Augustin Caron de], a dramatist and pleader of the most versatile, brilliant gifts, and French to the core, born in Paris, son of a watchmaker at Caen; ranks as a comic dramatist next to Molière; author of "Le Barbier de Seville" (1775), and "Le Mariage de Figaro" (1784), his masterpiece; astonished the world by his conduct of a lawsuit he had, for which "he fought against reporters, parliaments, and principalities, with light banter, clear logic, adroitly, with an inexhaustible toughness of resource, like the skilfullest fencer." He was a zealous supporter of the Revolution, and made sacrifices on its behalf, but narrowly escaped the guillotine; died in distress and poverty. Of the two plays he wrote, Saintsbury says, "The wit is indisputable, but his chansons contain as much wit as the Figaro plays." He made a fortune by speculations in the American war, and lost by others, one of them being the preparation of a sumptuous edition of Voltaire. For the culmination and decline, as well as appreciation, of him, see the "French Revolution," by Carlyle (1732-1799).
[Bauma`ris], principal town in Anglesea, Wales, on the Menai Strait, near Bangor, a favourite watering-place, with remains of a castle erected by Edward I.
[Beaumont, Christophe de], archbishop of Paris, born at Périgord, "spent his life in persecuting hysterical Jansenists and incredulous non-confessors"; but scrupled to grant, though he fain would have granted, absolution on his deathbed to the dissolute monarch of France, Louis XV.; issued a charge condemnatory of Rousseau's "Émile," which provoked a celebrated letter from Rousseau in reply (1703-1781).
[Beaumont, Francis], dramatic poet, born in Leicestershire, of a family of good standing; bred for the bar, but devoted to literature; was a friend of Ben Jonson; in conjunction with his friend Fletcher, the composer of a number of plays, about the separate authorship of which there has been much discussion, the dramatic power of which comes far short of that so conspicuous in the plays of their great contemporary Shakespeare, though it is said contemporary criticism gave them the preference (1585-1615).
[Beaumont, Jean Baptiste Élie de], French geologist, born in Calvados; became secretary to the Academy of Sciences; was joint-editor of a geological map of France. He had a theory of his own of the formation of the crust of the earth (1798-1874).
[Beauregard, Pierre Gustave Toutant], American Confederate general, born at New Orleans; adopted the cause of the South, and fought in its behalf (1818-1893).
[Beaurepaire], a French officer, noted for his noble defence of Verdun against the Prussians; preferred death by suicide to the dishonour of surrender (1748-1792).
[Beausobre, Isaac], a Huguenot divine, born at Poitou; fled to Holland on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, settled in Berlin, and became a notability in high quarters there; attracted the notice of the young Frederick, the Great that was to be, who sought introduction to him, and the young Frederick "got good conversation out of him"; author of a "History of Manichæism," praised by Gibbon, and of other books famous in their day, a translation of the New Testament for one (1659-1738).