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Two
The evil principle of Pythagoras. Accordingly the second day of
the second month of the year was sacred to Pluto, and was esteemed
unlucky.
Two an unlucky number in our dynasties.
Witness Ethelred II. the Unready, forced to abdicate; Harold
II., slain at Hastings; William II., shot in New Forest; Henry II., who
had to fight for his crown, etc.; Edward II., murdered at Berkeley
Castle; Richard II., deposed; Charles II., driven into exile; James
II., forced to abdicate; George II. was worsted at Fontenoy and
Law-feld, his reign was troubled by civil war, and disgraced by
General Braddock and Admiral Byng.
It does not seem much more lucky abroad: Charles II. of France,
after a most unhappy reign, died of poison; Charles II. of Navarre was
called The Bad; Charles II. of Spain ended his dynasty, and left
his kingdom a wreck; Charles II. of Anjou (le Boiteux) passed
almost the whole of his life in captivity; Charles II. of Savoy reigned
only nine months, and died at the age of eight.
Francois II. of France was peculiarly unhappy, and after reigning
less than two years, sickened and died; Nepoleon II. never reigned at
all, and Nepoleon III., really the second emperor, was á most
disastrous prince;
Franz II. of Germany lost all his Rhine possessions, and in 1806 had
to renounce his title of emperor. Friedrich II., Emperor of Germany,
was first anathematised, then excommunicated, then dethroned, and
lastly poisoned.
Jean II. of France, being conquered at Poitiers, was brought captive
to England by the Black Prince; Juan II. of Aragon had to contend for
his crown with his own son Carlos.
It was Felipe II. of Spain who sent against England the “Invincible
Armada”; it was Francesco II. of the Two Sicilies who was driven from
his throne by Garibaldi; it was Romulus II. in whom terminated the
empire of the West; Peter II. of Russia died at the age of fifteen, and
he was a disgrace to the name of Menschikoff; Pietro II. de Medicis was
forced to abdicate, and died of shipwreck; James II. of Scotland was
shot by a cannon at the siege of Roxburgh; James II. of Majorca, after
losing his dominions, was murdered. Alexander II. of Scotland had his kingdom laid under an interdict; Alexander
II., the Pope, had to contend against Honorius II., the anti-pope;
Alexis II., Emperor of the East, was placed under the ward of his
father and mother, who so disgusted the nation by their cruelty that
the boy was first dethroned and then strangled; Andronicus II., Emperor
of Greece, was dethroned; Henri II. of France made the disastrous peace
called La Paix Malheureuse, and was killed by Montgomery in a
tournament; etc. etc (See Jane and John.)
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894 More on Two from Infoplease:
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