e, with whom, after
his accession to the throne as Charles XIV., he was in high favour. He
became marshal of the kingdom, and, especially from 1828 onwards,
exercised a preponderant influence in public affairs.

See Martin Veibull, _Sveriges Storhetstid_, vol. iv. (Stockholm,
1881); _Letters to Axel Oxenstjerna_ (Swed.) 1832-1851 (Stockholm,
1890); Petrus Nordmann, _Per Brahe_ (Helsingfors, 1904). (R. N. B.)

BRAHE, TYCHO (1546-1601), Danish astronomer, was born on the 14th of
December 1546 at the family seat of Knudstrup in Scania, then a Danish
province. Of noble family, he was early adopted by his uncle, Jorgen
Brahe, who sent him, in April 1559, to study philosophy and rhetoric at
Copenhagen. The punctual occurrence at the predicted time, August 21st,
1560, of a total solar eclipse led him to regard astronomy as "something
divine"; he purchased the _Ephemerides_ of Johann Stadius (3rd ed.,
1570), and the works of Ptolemy in Latin, and gained some insight into
the theory of the planets. Entered as a law-student at the university of
Leipzig in 1562, he nevertheless secretly prosecuted celestial studies,
and began continuous observations with a globe, a pair of compasses and
a "cross-staff." He quitted Leipzig on the 17th of May 1565, but his
uncle dying a month later, he repaired to Wittenberg, and thence to
Rostock, where, in 1566, he lost his nose in a duel, and substituted an
artificial one made of a copper alloy. In 1569 he matriculated at
Augsburg, and devoted himself to chemistry for two years (1570-1572). On
his return to Denmark, in 1571, he was permitted by his maternal uncle,
Steno Belle, to instal a laboratory at his castle of Herritzvad, near
Knudstrup; and there, on the 11th of November 1572, he caught sight of
the famous "new star" in Cassiopeia. He diligently measured its
position, and printed an account of his observations in a tract entitled
_De Nova Stella_ (Copenhagen, 1573), a facsimile of which was produced
in 1901, as a tercentenary tribute to the author's memory.

Tycho's marriage with a peasant-girl in 1573 somewhat strained his
family relations. He delivered lectures in Copenhagen by royal command
in 1574; and in 1575 travelled through Germany to Venice. The execution
of his design to settle at Basel was, however, anticipated by the
munificence of Frederick II., king of Denmark, who bestowed upon him for
life the island of Hveen in the Sound, together with a pension of 500
th