PETERBOROUGH, CHARLES MORDAUNT, EARL OF, saw some active service as a volunteer in Charles II.’s navy, and on the accession of James II. threw himself into politics as an opponent of the king; William III. showed him great favour; he was of the Queen’s Council of Regency when William was in Ireland, but imprudent intriguing brought him a short confinement in the Tower in 1697; the war of the Spanish Succession was the opportunity which brought him fame; appointed to the command of the British and Dutch forces, which fought for Charles of Austria, he reduced Barcelona 1705, and Valencia 1706; retook Barcelona from the French, and but for Charles’s hindrance would have entered Madrid; differences with other generals led to his recall in 1707; the rest of his life was spent in retirement; he was the friend of Pope, and held by him in genuine esteem; he died in Lisbon (1658-1735).

PETERHEAD (12), a seaport on the E. coast of Aberdeenshire, 30 m.  NE. of Aberdeen; built irregularly of reddish granite; has a free library and museum, and is the seat of a convict prison; the chief industry is herring-fishing; there are two harbours, and a third, a great harbour of refuge, is in course of construction.

PETERHOF (14), a town on the Gulf of Finland, 18 m.  W. of St. Petersburg, with a palace of the Czar built in 1711 by Peter the Great.

PETERLOO, a name, suggested by Waterloo, given to an insurrectionary gathering in 1819 of workers in St. Peter’s Field, Manchester, to demand Parliamentary reform, and which was dispersed by the military to the sacrifice of 13 lives and the wounding of 600, a proceeding which excited wide-spread indignation, and contributed to promote the cause which it was intended to defeat.

PETER’S, ST., church at Rome, is built, it is alleged, over the tomb of St. Peter, and on the site of the basilica erected by Constantine and Helena in 306.  The original structure after falling into decay was begun to be rebuilt in 1450, and finally consecrated by Urban XIII. in 1626.  It is the largest and grandest church in Christendom, covers an area of over 26,000 square yards, the interior of it in length being 206 yards, the transept 150 yards, the nave 150, and the dome 465.  It contains thirty altars, and is adorned with numerous statues and monuments.

PETER’S PENCE, an annual tribute of a silver penny per household in England to support the chair of St. Peter at Rome, and which continued more or less to be levied from the end of the 8th century till the days of Elizabeth, when it ceased.  The payment has been revived since 1848 in Britain, France, and Belgium in compensation to the Pope for loss of his territorial possessions.

PETERWARDEIN (4), a strong Austrian fortress on the right bank of the Danube, near the Servian frontier, 40 m.  NW. of Belgrade; stands among unhealthy marshes.