BREDERODE, HENRY, Count of (1531-1568), was born at Brussels in 1531. He was the descendant of an ancient race, which had for some centuries been settled in Holland, and had taken an active part in the affairs of war and peace. Count Henry became a convert to the Reformed faith and placed himself at the side of the prince of Orange and Count Egmont in resisting the introduction of the Spanish Inquisition and Spanish despotism into the Netherlands. In 1566 he was one of the founders of the confederacy of nobles who bound themselves to maintain the rights and liberties of the country by signing a document known as “the Compromise.” On the 5th of April of that year Brederode accompanied to the palace a body of 250 confederates, of whom he acted as the spokesman, to present to the regent, Margaret of Parma, a petition setting forth their grievances, called “the Request.” It was at a banquet at the Hotel Culemburg on the 8th of April, presided over by Brederode, that the sobriquet of les Gueux, or “the Beggars,” was first given to the opponents of Spanish rule. Brederode was banished from the Netherlands by Alva, and died in exile shortly afterwards at the early age of thirty-six.
BREDOW, GOTTFRIED GABRIEL (1773-1814), German historian, was born at Berlin on the 14th of December 1773, and became successively professor at the universities of Helmstadt, Frankfort-on-Oder and Breslau. He died at Breslau on the 5th of September 1814. Bredow’s principal works are Handbuch der alien Geschichte, Geographic und Chronologie (Eutin, 1799; English trans., London, 1827); Chronik des 19. Jahrhunderts (Altona, 1801); Entwurf der Weltkunde der Alten (Altona, 1816); Weltgeschichte in Tabellen (Altona, 1801; English trans, by J. Bell, London, 1820); Grundriss einer Geschichte der merkwürdigsten Welthändel von 1796-1810 (Hamburg, 1810).
Bredow’s posthumous writings were edited by J.G. Kunisch (Breslau, 1823), who added a biography of the author.
BREDOW, a village of Germany, in the kingdom of Prussia, immediately north of Stettin, of which it forms a suburb. Here are the Vulcan iron-works and shipbuilding yards, where the liners “Deutschland” (1900), the “Kaiserin Augusta Victoria” (1906), and the “George Washington” (1908), the largest vessel (722 ft. long, 27,000 tons) in the German mercantile marine, were built; and also sugar, cement and other factories.
BREECH (common in early forms to Teutonic languages), a covering for the lower part of the body and legs. The Latin braca or bracca is a Celtic word, probably cognate with the Teutonic. The word in its proper meaning is used in the plural, and, strictly, is confined to a garment reaching to the knees only. The meaning of “the hinder part of the body” is later than, and derived from, its first meaning; this sense appears in the “breech” or hinder part of a gun. The word is also found in “breeches buoy,” a sling life-saving apparatus, consisting of a support of canvas breeches. The “Breeches Bible,” a name for the Geneva Bible of 1560, is so called because “breeches” is used for the aprons of fig-leaves made by Adam and Eve. On the stage the phrase a “breeches” part is used when a woman plays in male costume. “Breeching” is a strap passed round the breech of a harnessed horse and joined to the shafts to allow a vehicle to be backed.