SIR

See also:

• THOMAS
• THOMAS (c. 1654-1720)
• THOMAS (d. 110o)
• THOMAS, ARTHUR GORING (1850-1892)
• THOMAS, CHARLES LOUIS AMBROISE (1811-1896)
• THOMAS, GEORGE (c. 1756-1802)
• THOMAS, GEORGE HENRY (1816-187o)
• THOMAS, ISAIAH (1749-1831)
• THOMAS, PIERRE (1634-1698)
• THOMAS, SIDNEY GILCHRIST (1850-1885)
• THOMAS, ST
• THOMAS, THEODORE (1835-1905)
• THOMAS, WILLIAM (d. 1554)

THOMAS

See also:

• SIR THOMAS CHALONER (1521-1565)

CHALONER (1521-1565)  , English statesman and poet, was the son of Roger Chaloner, mercer of London, a descendant of the Denbighshire Chaloners . No details are known of his youth except that he was educated at both Oxford and Cambridge . In 1540 he went, as secretary to Sir Henry Knyvett, to the court of Charles V., whom he accompanied in his expedition against Algiers in 1541, and was wrecked on the Barbary coast . In 1547 he joined in the expedition to Scotland, and was knighted, after the battle of Musselburgh, by the protector Somerset, whose patronage he enjoyed . In 1549 he was a witness against Dr Bonner, bishop of London; in 1551 against Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester; in the spring of the latter year he was sent as a commissioner to Scotland, and again in March 1552 . In 1553 he went with Sir Nicholas Wotton and Sir William Pickering on an embassy to France, but was recalled by Queen Mary on her accession . In spite of his Protestant views, Chaloner was still employed by the government, going to Scotland in 1555-1556, and providing carriages for troops in the war with France, 1557-1558 . In 1558 he went as Elizabeth's ambassador to the emperor Ferdinand at Cambrai, from July 1559 to February 1559/60 he was ambassador to King Philip at Brussels, and in 1561 he went in the same capacity to Spain . His letters are full of complaints of his treatment there, but it was not till 1564, when in failing health, that he was allowed to return home . He died at his house in Clerkenwell on the 14th of October 1565 . He acquired during his years of service three estates, Guisborough in Yorkshire, Steeple Claydon in Buckinghamshire, and St Bees in Cumberland . He married (I) Joan,widow of Sir Thomas Leigh; and(2) Etheldreda,daughter of Edward Frodsham, of Elton, Cheshire, by whom he had one son, Sir Thomas Chaloner (1561–1615), the naturalist .

Chaloner was the intimate of most of the learned men of his

day, and with Lord Burghley he had a life-long friendship . Throughout his busy official life he occupied himself with literature, his Latin verses and his pastoral poems being much admired by his con-temporaries . Chaloner's " Howe the Lorde Mowbray . . was .. . banyshed the Realme," printed in the 1559 edition of William Baldwin's Mirror for Magistrates (repr. in vol. ii. pt . 1 of Joseph Haslewood's edition of 1815), has sometimes been attributed to Thomas Churchyard . His most important work, De Rep . Anglorum instauranda libri decem, written while he was in Spain, was first published by William Malim (1579, 3 pts.), with complimentary Latin verses in praise of the author by Burghley and others . Chaloner's epigrams and epitaphs were also added to the volume, as well as In laudem Henrici octavi . . . carmen Panegericum, first printed in 156o . Amongst his other works are The praise of folic, Moriae encomium . . . by Erasmus ..

. Englished by Sir Thomas Chaloner,

Knight (1549, ed . Janet E . Ashbee, 1901); A book of the Office of Servantes (1543), translated from Gilbert Cognatus; and An homilie of Saint John Chrysostome ... Englished by T . C . (1544) . See " The Chaloners, Lords of the Manor of St Bees," by William Jackson, in Transactions of the Cumberland Assoc. for the Advancement of Literature and Science, pt. vi. pp . 47-74, 188o-1881 . CHALONS-SUR-MARNE, a town of north-eastern France, capital of the department of Marne, 107 M . E. of Paris on the main line of the Eastern railway to Nancy, and 25 M . S.S.E. of Reims . Pop .

(1906) 22,424 . Chalons is situated in a wide level

plain principally on the right bank of the Marne, its suburb of Marne,which contains the railwaystations of the Eastern and Est-Etat railways, lying on the left bank . The town proper is bordered on the west by the lateral canal of the Marne, across which lies a strip of ground separating it from the river itself . Chalons is traversed by branches of the canal and by small streams, and its streets are for the most part narrow and irregular, but it is surrounded by ample avenues and promenades, the park known as the Jard, in the south-western quarter, being especially attractive . Huge barracks lie to the north and east . There are several interesting churches in the town . The cathedral of St Etienne dates chiefly from the 13th century, but its west facade is in the classical style and belongs to the 17th century . There are stained-glass windows of the 13th century in the north transept . Notre-Dame, of the 12th and 13th centuries, is conspicuous for its four Romanesque towers, two flanking the apse; the other two, surmounted by tall lead spires, flanking the principal facade . The churches of St . Alpin, St Jean and St Loup date from various periods between the 11th and the 17th centuries . The hotel-de-ville (1771), facing which stands a monument to President Carnot; the prefecture (1759-1764), once the residence of the intendants of Champagne; the college, once a Jesuit establishment; and a training college which occupies the Augustinian abbey of Toussaints (16th and 17th centuries), are noteworthy civil buildings .

The houses of Chalons are generally

ill-built of timber and plaster, or rough-cast, but some old mansions, dating from the 15th to the 16th centuries, remain . The church of Ste Pudentienne, on the left bank of the river, is a well-known place of pilgrimage . The town is the seat of a bishop and a prefect, and headquarters of the VI. army corps; it has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a chamber of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, a museum, a library, training colleges, a higher ecclesiastical seminary, a communal college and an important technical school . The principal industry is brewing, which is carried on in the suburb of Marne . Galleries of immense length, hewn in a limestone hill and served by lines of railway, are used as store-houses for beer . The preparation of champagne, the manufacture of boots and shoes, brushes, wire-goods and wall-paper also occupy many hands . There is trade in cereals . Chalons-sur-Marne occupies the site of the chief town of the Catalauni, and some portion of the plains which lie between it and Troyes was the scene of the defeat of Attila in the conflict of 451 . In the loth and following centuries it attained great prosperity as a kind of independent state under the supremacy of its bishops, who were ecclesiastical peers of France . In 1214 the militia of Chalons served at the battle of Bouvines; and in the 15th century the citizens maintained their honour by twice (1430 and 1434) repulsing the English from their walls . In the 16th century the town sided with Henry IV., king of France, who in 1589 transferred thither the parlement of Paris, which shortly afterwards burnt the bulls of Gregory XIV. and Clement VIII . In 1856 Napoleon III. established a large camp, known as the Camp of Chalons, about 16 m. north of the town by the railway to Reims .

It was situated in the immediate

neighbour-hood of Grand Mourmelon and Petit Mourmelon, and occupied an area of nearly 30,000 acres . The " Army of Chalons," formed by Marshal MacMahon in the camp after the first reverses of the French in 187o, marched thence to the Meuse, was surrounded by the Germans at Sedan, and forced to capitulate . The camp is still a training-centre for troops . About 5 M . E. of Chalons is L'Epine, where there is a beautiful pilgrimage church (r 5th and 16th centuries, with modern restoration) with a richly-sculptured portal . In the interior there is a fine choir-screen, an organ of the 16th century, and an ancient and much-venerated statue of the Virgin . CHALON-SUR-SAONE, a town of east-central France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Saline-et-Loire, 81 m . N. of Lyons by the Paris-Lyon railway . Pop . (1906) 26,538 . It is a well-built town, with fine quays, situated in an extensive plain on the right bank of the Saone at its junction with the Canal du Centre . A handsome stone bridge of the 15th century, decorated in the 18th century with obelisks, connects it with the suburb of St Laurent on an island in the river .

The principal

building is the church of St Vincent, once the cathedral . It dates mainly from the 12th to the 15th centuries, but the facade is modern and unpleasing . The old bishop's palace is a building of the 15th century . The church of St Pierre, with two lofty steeples, dates from the late 17th century . Chalon pre-serves remains of its ancient ramparts and a number of old houses . The administrative buildings are modern . An obelisk was erected in 1730 to commemorate the opening of the canal . There is a statue of J . N . Niepce, a native of the town . Chalon is the seat of a sub-prefect and a court of assizes, and there are tribunals of first instance and commerce, a branch of the Bank of France, a chamber of commerce, communal colleges for boys and girls, a school of drawing, a public library and a museum . Chalon ranks next to Le Creusot among the manufacturing towns of Burgundy; its position at the junction of the Canal du Centre and the Saone, and as a railway centre for Lyons, Paris, D61e, Lons-le-Saunier and Roanne, brings it a large transit trade .

The

founding and working of copper and iron is its main industry; the large engineering works of Petit-Creusot, a branch of those of Le Creusot, construct bridges, tug-boats and torpedo-boats; distilleries, glass-works, chemical works, straw-hat manufactories, oil-works, tile-works and sugar refineries also occupy many hands . Wine, grain, iron, leather and timber are among the many products for which the town is an entrep8t . About 2 M. east of Chalon is St Marcel (named after the saint who in the 2nd century preached Christianity at Chalon), which has a church of the 12th century, once belonging to a famous abbey . Chalon-sur-Saone is identified with the ancient Cabillonum, originally an important town of the Aedui . It was chosen in the 6th century by Gontram, king of Burgundy, as his capital; and it continued till the loth to pay for its importance by being frequently sacked . The bishopric, founded in the 4th century, was suppressed at the Revolution . In feudal times Chalon was the capital of a countship . In 1237 it was given in exchange for other fiefs in the Jura by Jean le Sage, whose descendants nevertheless retained the title . Hugh IV., duke of Burgundy, the other party to the exchange, gave the citizens a communal charter in 1256 . In its modern history the most important event was the resistance offered to a division of the Austrian army in 1814 .