to the king, attesting from his own knowledge, the loyal attachment of the prisoner, who, he believed, "loved his majesty no less than God;" a singular praise from a prelate, but all dignity of sentiment was then lost in servile and grovelling loyalty. He was convicted of treason and heresy, unheard; and beheaded, July 28, 1540. He was the chief instrument of the suppression of the abbeys and monasteries, and the destruction of images and relics; to him also we are indebted for the institution of parish registers of births, marriages, and burials.

NICHOLAS CAREW, son of Sir Richard Carew, and Magdalen, daughter of Sir Robert Oxenbridge. He was a favourite with Henry VIII., and was made one of the gentlemen of the privy chamber. He was employed on some public business in France, and when he returned to England, he so disgusted the king by his French manners, that he removed him from his person, and sentenced him to an honourable banishment, appointing him governor of Ruysbank, in Picardy. He was, however, soon recalled, and again employed by the king, and for several years was his constant companion. Henry appointed him master of the horse, an office of great honour, being reckoned the third in rank about the king's household; and afterwards created him knight of the garter. His good fortune was of short continuance; for in 1539, he engaged in a conspiracy to set Cardinal Pole upon the throne. The conspiracy was detected, and Sir Nicholas Carew was beheaded on Tower-hill, March 3, 1539, when he made, says Holinshed, "a godly confession, both of his fault and superstitious faith." He was a Papist.

GERALD FITZGERALD, the eighth earl of Kildare, was one of the most successful warriors of his time. He was constituted, the year he succeeded his father, lord-deputy to Richard duke of York; as he was again on the 12th of August 1450, for four years, from the 5th of May following, by the duke's warrant, under the king's privy-seal; and king Edward IV. dying in 1483, he was continued by Richard III., lord-deputy to his son Edward; and the year afterwards, to John, earl of Lincoln. King Henry VII., on his accession to the throne, in 1485, continued him lord-deputy to Jasper, duke of Bedford; but the next year he nearly forfeited the king's favour, by abetting the designs of the famous impostor Lambert Simnel. But Simnel being defeated at the decisive battle of Stoke, 6th of June, 1487, and Sir Richard Edgecombe being sent over the year after, to take new oaths of fidelity and allegiance from the nobility and principal men of the kingdom, the earl, on the 21st of July, made his solemn oath of allegiance; and Sir Richard put a collar of the king's livery about his neck, to signify his majesty's entire reconciliation; and on the 30th,

in St. Mary's church, at St. Dame's gate, Dublin, delivering his certificate on oath, under the seal of his arms, as the obligation of his future allegiance and faithful service, Sir Richard delivered to him the king's pardon under the great-seal. He was continued in the government, and in 1489, invaded Macgeoghegan's country; took and destroyed the castle of Bileragh, and wasted the territory of Mary-Cashel. In 1491, he was suspected by the king, of abetting fresh conspiracies; but he speedily convinced him of the fallacy of his suspicions. His lordship having also, about 1494, been at variance with Plunket of Rathmore, did at length kill him, with most of his followers, near Trim; and afterwards forcing the bishop of Meath from a church wherein he had taken sanctuary, for contumely and opposing his authority, he was sent to the king to answer for all the crimes he had committed, by prosecuting his private enemies. He was also accused of burning the church of Cashel, which he readily confessed, and swore, "That he never would have done it, but he thought the archbishop was in it." This ingenuous confession of the most aggravating circumstance, convinced the king, that a person of such natural innate plainness and simplicity, could not be guilty of the intrigues imputed to him; so that when the bishop of Meath, his most inveterate accuser, concluded his last article with this sharp expression: "You see what a man he is, all Ireland cannot rule yonder gentleman," the king replied, "If it be so, then he is meet to rule all Ireland, seeing all Ireland cannot rule him," and accordingly, made him lord lieutenant by patent, dated the 6th of August, 1496; restored him to his honour and estate, and dismissed him with rich presents.

He returned to Ireland the same month, and shortly after marched towards Thornood against O'Brien, took the castle of Velyback, razed the castle of Ballynitie, and other garrisoned places; and in 1497, powerfully opposing the impostor Perkin Warbeck, defeated his designs in Ireland. In 1498, he invaded Ulster, took the castles of Dungannon and Omagh; forced O'Neile to give hostages, and marching to Cork, placed a garrison there, by reason of that city's defection in espousing the cause of Warbeck, and obliged the inhabitants, with those of Kinsale, to swear allegiance, and ratify it by indentures and hostages. In March following, he reduced the castles of Athleagne, Roscommon, Tulske, and Castlereagh; also, in 1500, that of Kinard, in Ulster; and in 1503, destroyed the castle of Belfast, and placed a garrison in Carrickfergus.

On the 19th of August, 1504, he fought the famous battle of Knocktoe, five miles from Galway, and acquired an entire victory over the chiefs of Connaught, destroying O'Carroll's country on his return; and in September, sent Walter Fitzsimmons,

archbishop of Dublin, to give the king an account of these and other public affairs, who rewarded his services, by creating him a knight of the garter.

King Henry VII., dying, 22nd April, 1509, his lordship was continued chief governor by Henry VIII., and that year invading Ulster, he recovered the castles of Dungannon and Omah. In 1510, he was appointed lord-deputy; and marching with a powerful army into Munster, took divers castles; and among the rest that of Belfast, which he demolished, and wasted the country; that year he built St. Mary's chapel, in the choir of Christ's church, Dublin, where on the 16th of October, 1513, he was honourably interred near the altar, his death occurring on the 3rd of September, at Kildare, by a shot he had received some short time before from the Ormons of Leix.

"This great man," we are told, "was liberal, stout, pious, and merciful; and kept the kingdom in a better condition than was generally done before his time; being so famous for his many successful victories, that he awed the rebels by his reputation alone, and secured the pale by erecting the castles of Rathville, Linearrig, Castledermot, Athy, and others, upon the borders, dispersing colonies in proper places; rebuilding ruined towns, and destroying the Irish fortifications; and was frequently entrusted with the chief government of the kingdom, being a man of so great interest and courage, that his very name was more terrible to his enemies than an army."

SCOTLAND.

JAMES II., king of Scotland, was not seven years old at the murder of his father James I., in 1437. The custody of his person, and administration of civil government, was committed to Sir Alexander Livingston, and Crichton, the chancellor; while the potent Archibald, earl of Douglas, and duke of Touraine, was declared lieutenant-general of the kingdom. Discord soon arose between Livingston and Crichton, who alternately gained possession of the person of the young king; and in the mean time, the nation fell into the disorders consequent upon a weak and divided government. William, earl of Douglas, who succeeded his father Archibald, by his pride and violence, augmented the public confusion, and set all civil authority at defiance. Mutual interest producing a reconciliation between the two regents, they determined to destroy this too powerful noble, and with the base and cowardly policy of weakness, employed treachery for the purpose. The earl was invited to Edinburgh, to come and take his seat in parliament. He proceeded thither, accompanied by his brother and chief con

fidant; and after being met by the chancellor, who sumptuously entertained them, they accepted an invitation to dine with the king at the castle. There, while sitting at the royal table, they were seized by armed men, and instantly led to execution. So little was gained by this barbarous deed, that William, earl of Douglas, three years afterwards, having united all the efforts of the family by marriage, became as formidable as any of his predecessors, and even conciliated the favour of the young monarch.

In 1449, James married Mary, daughter of the duke of Guelderland, a woman of an elevated character. The breaking of the truce between England and Scotland, brought on some mutual incursions, in one of which the earl of Northumberland was defeated at the river Sark, in Annandale. The king now began to view the great power of the Douglasses with jealousy ; while their atrocious violences and contempt of law and justice, excited the general hatred of the nation. Opportunity was taken of the earl's absence at Rome, to enter a prosecution against him, and the contumacy of his brothers caused force to be employed to redress the injuries he had committed. Upon his return, he appeared at court, and seemed to be restored to favour; but, aware of the dangers to which he was exposed, he had previously negociated an asylum with England, and also entered into a bond with the earls of Crawford and Ross, and other noblemen, mutually to support each other, against all adversaries. The knowledge of these practices, and a new act of atrocity of which he was guilty, so much enraged the king, that he resolved upon the ruin of the family. The earl was summoned to court, but refused to come without a safe conduct under the great seal. As treachery had been always employed against the family, he did not scruple to repeat it, and they complied with his condition. He was received by the king with apparent cordiality, in Stirling castle, and invited to supper. After the repast, he took the earl into another chamber, and warmly expostulated with him on his conduct, and concluded with demanding him to deliver up his bond of defence with the earls of Crawford and Ross. Douglas haughtily refused, and James, in a rage, drew a dagger, and stabbed him, and a knight who stood by finished the deed by a stroke of his battle axe. The rage of the earl's relations at this event was extreme, and might have produced fatal consequences to the king, had not the family been at variance with itself. The succeeding earl, after some unsuccessful enterprises, made an accommodation with the court, which, however, did not last long. His ill designs again became manifest, and the king marched an army into his territories, and besieged his castle of Abercorn. Douglas assembled a more numerous force, consisting of tenants and depend

ants, but when they came in face of the royal army, a promise: of pardon induced many of them to go over, and the chief was at length almost entirely deserted, and obliged to seek an asylum in England. He afterwards entered the borders with a body of troops, but was defeated by the loyal barons, in which battle one of his brothers was killed, another taken prisoner, and the power of the house was finally broken. In 1456, the country was brought into danger by a rebellion of the lord of the isles, in combination with an invasion of the English, but both enemies were at length repelled, and the king retaliated by a destructive inroad into Northumberland. The contests between the houses of York and Lancaster, produced renewed and prolonged truces with England; nor does it clearly appear upon what ground James, in 1460, resumed hostilities, by the siege of Roxburgh castle. With a well appointed army he proceeded to this enterprise in July, and on August 3, as he was observing the effect of a piece of artillery, it burst, and gave him a wound, of which he died on the spot. He was then in the prime of life, the twenty-ninth year of his age; and having surmounted the difficulties of his early years, and subdued the violence of his temper, was become cautious and prudent, and promised a wise and prosperous reign. He is represented as free from vice, brave and manly, extremely affable and courteous, and well qualified to obtain the love and esteem of his subjects. He left three sons and two daughters.

WILLIAM MAITLAND, of Thirlstane, son of John, obtained from Archibald, duke of Touraine and earl of Douglas, a grant of the lands of Blyth, &c. William, who, while his father was yet alive, first had the title of Lethington, married Martha, daughter of George Lord Seaton, and was killed at Flodden, in 1513.

WILLIAM DOUGLAS, eighth earl of Douglas, upon the death of his father succeeded to his honours. This earl, unlike his predecessor, was haughty and ambitious. A parliament was summoned to assemble at Stirling, and among the foremost was young Douglas, whose respectful attendance easily gained from the young king the pardon of those offences by which he had exposed himself to the penalty of high treason. He soon endeared himself to him so much, that Livingston and Crichton were by his advice, soon declared rebels against the king's authority. The power, the pride, and the grandeur of the house of Douglas, were now at their loftiest height, and thus all powerful at home, Douglas became ambitious of displaying his grandeur in France and Italy. In France he was honourably entertained by Charles VII., and at Rome he was received with those honours which are due to princes only. Douglas of Balveny, who had been left with full authority to su