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BRETTEN, a town of Germany, in the grand duchy of Baden, on the Saalbach, 9 m. S.E. of Bruchsal by rail. Pop. (1900) 4781. It has some manufactories of machinery and japanned goods, and a considerable trade in timber and livestock. Bretten was the birthplace of Melanchthon (1497), and in addition to a statue of him by Drake, a memorial hall, containing a collection of his writings and busts and pictures of his famous contemporaries, has been erected.
BRETWALDA, a word used in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under the date 827, and also in a charter of Æthelstan, king of the English. It appears in several variant forms (brytenwalda, bretenanwealda, &c.), and means most probably "lord of the Britons" or "lord of Britain"; for although the derivation of the word is uncertain, its earlier syllable seems to be cognate with the words Briton and Britannia. In the Chronicle the title is given to Ecgbert, king of the English, "the eighth king that was Bretwalda," and retrospectively to seven kings who ruled over one or other of the English kingdoms. The seven names are copied from Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica, and it is interesting to note that the last king named, Oswiu of Northumbria, lived 150 years before Ecgbert. It has been assumed that these seven kings exercised a certain superiority over a large part of England, but if such superiority existed it is certain that it was extremely vague and was unaccompanied by any unity of organization. Another theory is that Bretwalda refers to a war-leadership, or imperium, over the English south of the Humber, and has nothing to do with Britons or Britannia. In support of this explanation it is urged that the title is given in the Chronicle to Ecgbert in the year in which he "conquered the kingdom of the Mercians and all that was south of the Humber." Less likely is the theory of Palgrave that the Bretwaldas were the successors of the pseudo-emperors, Maximus and Carausius, and claimed to share the imperial dignity of Rome; or that of Kemble, who derives Bretwalda from the British word breotan, to distribute, and translates it "widely ruling." With regard to Ecgbert the word is doubtless given as a title in imitation of its earlier use, and the same remark applies to its use in Æthelstan's charter.
See E.A. Freeman, History of the Norman Conquest, vol. i. (Oxford, 1877); W. Stubbs, Constitutional History, vol. i. (Oxford, 1897); J.R. Green, The Making of England, vol. ii. (London, 1897); F. Palgrave, The Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth (London, 1832); J. M. Kemble, The Saxons in England (London, 1876); J. Rhys, Celtic Britain (London, 1884).
BREUGHEL (or Brueghel), PIETER, Flemish painter, was the son of a peasant residing in the village of Breughel near Breda. After receiving instruction in painting from Koek, whose daughter he married, he spent some time in France and Italy, and then went to Antwerp, where he was elected into the Academy in 1551. He finally settled at Brussels and died there. The subjects of his pictures are chiefly humorous figures, like those of D. Teniers; and if he wants the delicate touch and silvery clearness of that master, he has abundant spirit and comic power. He is said to have died about the year 1570 at the age of sixty; other accounts give 1590 as the date of his death.
His son Pieter, the younger (1564-1637), known as "Hell" Breughel, was born in Brussels and died at Antwerp, where his "Christ bearing the Cross" is in the museum.
Another son Jan (c. 1569-1642), known as "Velvet" Breughel, was born at Brussels. He first applied himself to painting flowers and fruits, and afterwards acquired considerable reputation by his landscapes and sea-pieces. After residing long at Cologne he travelled into Italy, where his landscapes, adorned with small figures, were greatly admired. He left a large number of pictures, chiefly landscapes, which are executed with great skill. Rubens made use of Breughel's hand in the landscape part of several of his small pictures?such as his "Vertumnus and Pomona," the "Satyr viewing the Sleeping Nymph," and the "Terrestrial Paradise."
