[Hardenberg Prince von], a Prussian statesman, born in Hanover; after service in Hanover and Brunswick entered that of Prussia under William II., and became Chancellor of State under William III.; distinguished himself by the reforms he introduced in military and civic matters to the benefit of the country, though he was restrained a good deal by the reactionary proclivities of the king (1750-1822).
[Hardicanute], king of England and Denmark, the son of Canute and his successor on the Danish throne; was king of England only in part till the death of his brother Harold, whom he survived only two years, but long enough to alienate his subjects by the re-imposition of the Danegelt; d. 1642.
[Harding, John], or Hardyng, an English rhyming chronicler in the reign of Edward IV.; had been a soldier, and fought at Agincourt (1378-1465).
[Harding, Stephen], a Benedictine monk, born in Devonshire, of noble descent, a born ascetic, who set himself to restore his order to its primitive austerity; retired with a few others into a dismal secluded place at Citeaux, and became abbot; was joined there by the great St. Bernard, his kindred, and followers, to the great aggrandisement of the order; d. 1134.
[Hardinge, Henry, Viscount], a distinguished soldier and Governor-General of India, born at Wrotham, Kent; joined the army in 1798, and served through the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns, but wounded at Ligny he was unable to take part in the final struggle with Napoleon; he now turned his attention to politics; was Secretary of War under Wellington, and subsequently twice Chief Secretary for Ireland; in 1844 he was appointed Governor-General of India, and later distinguished himself under Gough in the first Sikh War; a viscountship and pension followed in 1845, and seven years later he succeeded Wellington as Commander-in-Chief of the British army (1785-1856).
[Hardouin, Jean], a French classical scholar, born at Quimper, Brittany; early entered the Jesuit order; was from 1683 librarian of the College of Louis le Grand in Paris; he is chiefly remembered for his wild assertion that the bulk of classical literature was spurious, and the work of 13th-century monks; Virgil's "Æneid" he declared to be an allegorical account of St. Peter's journey to Rome, and the original language of the New Testament to be Latin; his edition of Pliny, however, evinces real scholarship (1646-1729).
[Hardwár], a town on the Ganges, 39 m. NE. of Saharunpur, North-West Provinces; famous for its large annual influx of pilgrims seeking ablution in the sacred river; a sacred festival held every twelfth year attracts some 300,000 persons.
[Hardy, Thomas], novelist, born in Dorsetshire, with whose scenery he has made his readers familiar; bred an architect; first earned popularity in 1874 by his "Far from the Madding Crowd," which was followed by, among others, "The Return of the Native," "The Woodlanders," and "Tess of the D'Urbervilles," the last in 1892, books which require to be read in order to appreciate the genius of the author; b. 1840.
[Hardy, Sir Thomas Duffus], an eminent palæographer, born in Jamaica; he acquired his skill in MS. deciphering as a clerk in the Record Office in the Tower; in 1861 he was elected deputy-keeper of the Public Records, and nine years later received a knighthood; his great learning is displayed in his editions of various "Rolls" for the Record Commission, in his "Descriptive Catalogue of MSS.," &c. (1804-1878).