Taxes levied on their feudatories by the English kings, prior to Magna Charta. By that instrument, however, it was provided that they were to be granted only by the Great Council, except in three specified cases: the delivery of the king from prison, the knighting of the king’s eldest son, or the marriage of his eldest daughter. Aigun, Convention of. A treaty between Russia and China, signed in 1858, by which Russia obtained all the territory eastward of the Ussuri river to the Japan Sea, and fixed her southern boundary at the frontier of Corea. Aix-la-Chapelle, Congress of. A congress held in 1818, and attended by plenipotentiaries from Great Britain, Prussia, Austria and Russia, to arrange for the evacuation of France by the army of occupation, and the readmission of France, as one of the Great Powers, to the Councils of Europe. Aix-la-Chapelle, Treaty of. A treaty between the Triple Alliance (England, Holland and Sweden) and Louis XIV of France, signed in May, 1668. Spain, which acceded to the Treaty, received Franche Comté from France, and surrendered certain frontier towns, including Lille, Courtray, and Tournay. The Triple Alliance were thus enabled to checkmate Louis’ designs in the Low Countries. Aix-la-Chapelle, Treaty of. A treaty signed by England, France, Austria, Spain, and Holland, in 1748, putting an end to the War of the Austrian Succession. Territorially, its provisions in the main amounted to a return to the _status quo ante_, but it was provided that the Pretender should be expelled from France, that Spain should renew the Asiento treaty with England, and that Austria was to receive the acknowledgment by the signatories of the Duke of Lorraine, husband of Maria Theresa, as Emperor, in return for the cession of Silesia to Prussia. Akerman, Treaty of. A treaty between Russia and Turkey, supplementary to the Treaty of Bucharest, signed in 1826. It provided that the Hospodars of Moldavia and Wallachia should rule independently, each with a council of Boyars, and should not be deposed without the Czar’s consent; that Servia should elect her own princes, and that Russia should occupy the East coast of the Black Sea, and should have free access to all Turkish waters. Alabama. A privateer fitted out in England during the American Civil War, to prey upon the commerce of the Northern States. After the war the United States made an enormous claim for compensation, which was submitted to arbitration, with the result that England was condemned to pay about three and a half millions sterling. Alais, Treaty of. A treaty between the Catholics and the Huguenots in France, signed in 1629, after the fall of La Rochelle. By this treaty the Huguenots were finally deprived of their political rights. Alaric Cottin. A sobriquet of Frederick the Great of Prussia, given him by Voltaire. It infers that he was a great soldier but a very poor poet. Alascans.