DIEMEN, ANTONY VAN, governor of the Dutch possessions in India, born in Holland; was a zealous coloniser; at his instance Abel Tasman was sent to explore the South Seas, when he discovered the island which he named after him Van Diemen’s Land, now Tasmania after the discoverer (1593-1645).

DIEPENBECK, ABRAHAM VAN, a Flemish painter and engraver (1599-1675).

DIEPPE (22), a French seaport on the English Channel, at the mouth of the river Arques, 93 m.  NW. of Paris; a watering and bathing place, with fisheries and a good foreign trade.

DIES IRAE (lit. the Day of Wrath), a Latin hymn on the Last Judgment, so called from first words, and based on Zeph. i. 14-18; it is ascribed to a monk of the name of Thomas de Celano, who died in 1255, and there are several translations of it in English, besides a paraphrastic rendering in the “Lay of the Last Minstrel” by Scott, and it is also the subject of a number of musical compositions.

DIET, a convention of the princes, dignitaries, and delegates of the German empire, for legislative or administrative purposes, of which the most important in a historical point of view are diets held at Augsburg in 1518, at Worms in 1521, at Nueremberg in 1523, 1524, at Spires in 1526, 1529, at Augsburg in 1530, at Cologne in 1530, at Worms in 1536, at Frankfort in 1539, at Ratisbon in 1541, at Spires in 1544, at Augsburg in 1547, 1548, 1550, and at Ratisbon in 1622.

DIETRICH, mayor of Strasburg, at whose request Rouget de Lisle composed the “Marseillaise”; was guillotined (1748-1793).

DIETRICH OF BERN, a favourite hero of German legend, who in the “Nibelungen” avenges the death of Siegfried, and in the “Heldenbuch” figures as a knight-errant of invulnerable prowess, from whose challenge even Siegfried shrinks, hiding himself behind Chriemhilda’s veil; has been identified with Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths.

DIEZ, FRIEDRICH CHRISTIAN, a German philologist, born at Giessen; after service as a volunteer against Napoleon, and a tutorship at Utrecht, went to Bonn, where, advised by Goethe, he commenced the study of the Romance languages, and in 1830 became professor of them, the philology of which he is the founder; he left two great works bearing on the grammar and etymology of these languages (1794-1876).

DIEZ, JUAN MARTIN, a Spanish brigadier-general of cavalry, born at Valladolid, the son of a peasant; had, as head of guerilla bands, done good service to his country during the Peninsular war and been promoted; offending the ruling powers, was charged with conspiracy, tried, and executed (1775-1825).

DIGBY, a seaport on the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia; noted for the curing of pilchards, called from it digbies.

DIGBY, SIR EVERARD, member of a Roman Catholic family; concerned in the Gunpowder Plot, and executed (1581-1606).

DIGBY, SIR KENELM, a son of the preceding; was knighted by James I.; served under Charles I.; as a privateer defeated a squadron of Venetians, and fought against the Algerines; was imprisoned for a time as a Royalist; paid court afterwards to the Protector; was well received at the Restoration; was one of the first members of the Royal Society, and a man of some learning; wrote treatises on the Nature of Bodies and Man’s Soul, on the corpuscular theory (1603-1665).