Percy. The name of an ancient and noble English family, descended from William de Percy, who, in the reign of William the Conqueror, possessed several manors in the counties of Lincoln and York. He was probably a Norman. In the reign of Edward I. a Henry de Percy acquired Alnwick and other estates in Northumberland. Another Henry de Percy, in the reign of Edward III., married Mary Plantagenet, a great-granddaughter of King Henry III., and had two sons, Henry, earl of Northumberland, and Thomas, earl of Worcester. Henry Percy, surnamed Hotspur, a son of Henry last named, rebelled against Henry IV., and was killed at the battle of Shrewsbury (1408). A son of Hotspur was restored to the earldom, fought for the house of Lancaster, and fell at Saint Albans, in 1455, leaving several sons, who were killed in the war of the Roses. In the reign of Elizabeth, a Percy, earl of Northumberland, was executed for rebellion (1572).
Pharaoh. The term applied in the Bible to the kings of Egypt, of which many explanations have been proposed, as pa-ra, “the sun;” pi-ouro, “the king;” per-aa, “the great house,” “court;” pa-ra-anh, or “the living sun.” None of these etymologies are altogether satisfactory, some not being found at an early period. It is still less possible to connect it with the name of any Egyptian monarch, and it must have been a common appellation like [khan], cæsar, or czar. Pharaoh is the one under whom the Israelites were in bondage, and who compelled them to build the treasure-cities of Pithom and Rameses of bricks; and it was under him or his successor that Egypt was afflicted with the ten plagues, and that Moses and Aaron led the Israelites out of Egypt, and the Egyptian army in its pursuit of the retreating Israelites was drowned in the sea, although it is doubtful if Pharaoh perished with them. The identical Egyptian monarch who was the Pharaoh of the Exodus has been a subject of dispute, but it is principally confined to the period of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties. The other Pharaohs mentioned in the Bible are the father of Hadad the Edomite, supposed to be a king of the twenty-second dynasty; the father-in-law of Solomon; one of the predecessors of Sheshanka or Shishak; that monarch himself, who overran the Holy Land and pillaged Jerusalem; Tirhakah the Ethiopian, who for a time wrested Egypt from the Assyrians; Nekau or Necho II., who invaded Palestine to reduce it to subjection, then in alliance with the Assyrians, but was finally defeated at Carchemish by Nebuchadnezzar, then at a youthful age, 605 B.C.; and Uah-pa-ra, Hophra or Apries, of the twenty-sixth dynasty, who marched to relieve the siege of Jerusalem, causing the Babylonians to retire for a while, although it was finally taken by Nebuchadnezzar, 588 B.C. It is remarkable that the Ethiopian Kings Zerah and so mentioned in the Bible are not styled Pharaohs, like the Egyptian rulers, as if for some reason they had not the same title or were recognized as lawful rulers of the country.
Phylarque (Fr.). A Grecian cavalry officer who commanded the cavalry of his tribe.
R.
Reichenbach (Prussia). Here was signed a subsidy treaty between Russia, Prussia, and England, whereby the last engaged to provide means for carrying on the war against Napoleon I. on certain conditions, June 14-15, 1813. Austria joined the alliance soon after. Here Duroc was killed during the conflicts between the French and the allies, May 22, 1813.
S.
Shako. A kind of military cap.
T.
Tesseræ Militares. Military watchwords, or countersigns, among the ancient Romans.