Grey
Grey names 4 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Grey EDWARD, VISCOUNT OF FALLADON
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
EDWARD, VISCOUNT OF FALLADON, a British statesman, born ALLADON in Northumberland in 1862. He received his education at Winchester and at Balliol College, Oxford. His political career began in 1885, when he entered Parliament as the member for Berwickon-Tweed, which constituency he continued to represent thereafter as a Liberal. In 1892 he became Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs and held that post until 1895. He was prominent thereafter by his opposition to the continuance of the Liberal party's alliance with the Irish Nationalist group, in which attitude he followed the EDWARD GREY, VISCOUNT OF FALLADON leadership of Lord Rosebery. He was made Privy Councilor in 1902. He became Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in December, 1905, which position he held until 1916. During his tenure of office he rose, in the estimate of his political intimates and opponents, to a degree of dominance in the field of international diplomacy that marked him as the foremost diplomatist of his day. His continuance in office and the facility with which he pressed his policies to successful conclusion and commanded the confidence of the diverse domestic political factions was effected in spite of an attitude of reticence unknown to the traditions of the Foreign Office previous to his time. No British statesman, since the Crimean War, has commanded such complete influence in the councils of Europe. He united Great Britain, France, and Russia in the Triple Entente, although his efforts to develop more cordial relations between Great Britain and the German Empire definitely failed, due to incompatibility of national aspirations which his diplomacy tion was powerless to overcome. His action in 1908, when Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, strained the relations between Great Britain and Austria and subjected his country to a diplomatic defeat in consequence of the failure of other European Powers to acquiesce in his demand that the action of Austria be submitted to a conference of the Powers. His position became plainer in 1911, during the affair between Germany and France over Morocco, when the firmness of his stand against any expansion of German influence into the region of north Africa led to a definition of the British attitude in response to the protest of the German Foreign Office that Great Britain had no right right to interfere as an interested party to the settlement of the dispute. Hereafter, Great Britain stood committed to the policy of preserving the status quo in so far as concerned those spheres of influence then existing and subject to the control of the leading national states. In 1912 Russia gained some slight advantage in Persia in consequence of the Anglo-Russian entente of 1907. He displayed his mastery as an international diplomatist in the Balkan crisis in 1912 when, as protagonist, he assembled the conference of European ambassadors in London and directed their deliberations to a successful, if temporary peace. Although the strength of his influence had enabled him to avert the European conflict in 1912, he was powerless to prevent the affair between Bosnia and Austria from involving the nations in 1914, and the elaborate diplomacy of years left him, in that event, with only one alternative to commit Great Britain to war against the Central Empires in defense of the declaration of 1911 and the preservation of national limitations. Following the World War, he visited the United States upon a special mission to promote understanding and cordiality between the two nations.
Grey CHARLES, 2D EARL
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
CHARLES, 2D EARL, an English statesman; born in Falladon, near Alnwick, Northumberland, England, March 13, 1764. He became in 1786 a member of Parliament, and in 1792 was one of the founders and most active members of the "Society of the Friends of the People." In 1797 he brought forward a motion for parliamentary reform, for which he continued to labor strenuously, though he was for many years unsuccessful in carrying the object of his wishes. When Lord Grenville, in 1806, came into office, Grey, as Lord Howick, became First Lord of the Admiralty, and, as one of the leaders of the House of Commons, carried the act for the abolition of the slave trade. In the following year the cabinet was broken up, and he, in the same year, succeeded to the title by the death of his father. In the House of Lords he became one of the leaders of the opposition. For many years he remained out of office; but in 1830 he was called on by William IV. to form a new cabinet. He accordingly became prime acc minister, and announced "peace, retrenchment, and reform" as the objects of his policy. In 1831 the Reform Bill was introduced by Lord John Russell into the House of Commons; but in the following year the ministers resigned, on account of a motion of Lord Lyndhurst. They were restored to power, however, and in the same year the bill was passed. In the succeeding year Earl Grey resigned, and, after about two years, retired from public life. He died July 7, 1845.
Grey LADY JANE, the "nine days' queen"
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
LADY JANE, the "nine days' queen"; born in Bradgate, Leicestershire, England, in October, 1537; was the eldest daughter of Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset and Duke of Suffolk, and greatgranddaughter of Henry VII. of England. As a girl she made extraordinary progress, especially in languages-Latin, Greek, French, Italian, and Hebrew. In 1553 the Duke of Northumberland, foreseeing the speedy death of the boy-king, Edward VI., determined to change the succession and secure it to his own family. Lady Jane, not 16 years old, was therefore married, strongly against her wish, to Lord Guilford Dudley, Northumberland's fourth son, on May 21, 1553; and July 9, three days after Edward's death, the council informed her that his "plan" had named her as his successor. On July 19, the brief usurpation over, she found herself a prisoner in the Tower; four months later, pleading guilty of high treason, she was sentenced to death, and was beheaded on Tower Hill, Feb. 12, 1554.
Grey ZANE, an American novelist
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
ZANE, an American novelist, born at Zanesville, Ohio, in 1875. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1896. After practicing dentistry from 1898 to 1904, he abandoned this to follow a literary career. He wrote "Betty Zane" (1904); "The Last Trail" (1907); "The Heritage of the Desert" (1910); "Riders of the Purple Sage" (1912); "Wild Fire" (1917); "Desert of Wheat" (1919); and "Man of the Forest" (1920).
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's wrote in 1921 with Edward Grey still alive and still, in its judgement, "the foremost diplomatist of his day"; he died in 1933 at Fallodon (the spelling the entry garbles as "Falladon"), blind and remembered as much for his remark about the lamps going out all over Europe as for the Triple Entente. The opening of the diplomatic archives after 1918 turned that verdict into an argument that is still running: Grey has been blamed by turns for entangling Britain in secret commitments to France and for failing to warn Berlin plainly enough that Britain would fight. The other Greys have moved less. Charles, 2nd Earl Grey, remains the prime minister of the 1832 Reform Act; Lady Jane Grey, whom Collier's calls the "nine days' queen", is now usually reckoned by historians to have reigned about thirteen days in July 1553, and is read less as Northumberland's passive victim than as a convinced Protestant of real learning.
Written for this edition, 2026.