ARGENSOLA, Lupercio Leonardo de, Spanish poet: b. Barbastro, Aragon, 14 Dec. 1559; d. Naples, March 1613. He and his younger brother, Bartolome (q.v.), have sometimes been called the °Spanish Horaces.° Both brothers enjoyed the special protec tion and favor of Maria, widow of Emperor Maximilian II of Austria. After having served her as secretary for some time, Lupercio was appointed official historian of Aragon by Philip III. In 1610 he accompanied the Spanish viceroy, Count de Lemos, to Naples, where he filled the position of State Secretary until his death three years later. Before leaving Spain he had written for the Count de Lemos, who was then president of the Indian Council, (Conquista de las Islas Molucas' (1609). Con sult Crawford, on the Tragedies of Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola' (in the Romanic Review, Vol. IV, 1913).
ARGENSON, Marc Pierre de Voyer, COUNT n', French statesman, brother of Rene Louis de Voyer dArgenson (q.v.) : b. Paris, 16 Aug. 1696; d. there, 22 Aug. 1764. At the age of 24 he was lieutenant-general of the provincial gendarmerie. In 1742 he suc
ceeded de Breteuil in the war office and after the death of Cardinal Fleury, in 1743, found himself supreme chief of the French war operations. To his energy and administrative ability is due in no small measure the final success of the French arms against the Aus trians, who had threatened the very existence of the nation and had already invaded Alsace and Lorraine. After the favorable termination of the war, with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, Argenson continued his work in the war office with a general reorganization of the French armies, one of his reforms being the establishment of the Ecole Militaire in 1751. How he stood in the world of arts and letters may be judged from the fact that Voltaire wrote his 'Slide de Louis XIV) lirgely from material supplied him by Argenson, and the famous was dedicated to him by its illustrious editors, Diderot and D'Alem bert.