. The North Devon coast. he was, as we have already seen, rest of his descent was easy ; and at last, in1242, he was captured—how, we are not told— thrown into chains, and with sixteen accomplicescondemned and sentenced to die. He was executedon Tower Hill, with especial ignominy, his bodygibbeted and divided up into small portions, in amanner which it scarce beseems these pages tonarrate. Then at last the island was for a time in thekings hands. But in 1281 Richard the Secondre-granted it to a descendant, and Mariscos ruledfor a while, until Edward the Second granted it tothe eld
. The North Devon coast. he was, as we have already seen, rest of his descent was easy ; and at last, in1242, he was captured—how, we are not told— thrown into chains, and with sixteen accomplicescondemned and sentenced to die. He was executedon Tower Hill, with especial ignominy, his bodygibbeted and divided up into small portions, in amanner which it scarce beseems these pages tonarrate. Then at last the island was for a time in thekings hands. But in 1281 Richard the Secondre-granted it to a descendant, and Mariscos ruledfor a while, until Edward the Second granted it tothe elder of his Despenser favourites. Tlie forceand vigour of the once-fierce Marisco family appearto have been lacking in Herbert, their last knownrepresentative, for he seems not to have opposedthe grant with any determination, and died in1327 ; the year after the king himself, fleeing fromthe plots of his wife and Mortimer, despairinglyconsidered for a time the project of hiding in thisthen almost inaccessible HISTORY OF THE ISLAND 113 From that time onward, for a long period,whoever nominally possessed Lundy, foreignpirates actually occupied it, attracted by the pros-pect of rich plunder to be taken out of the shipssailing up or down Channel, to or from one occasion, in the time of Henry the Eighth,the men of Clovelly, greatly daring, fitted outan expedition and, attacking a company of Frenchpirates on the isle, burnt their vessels, killed ormade prisoners of them all, and thus freed thecommerce of the Channel for a space. Not for long, for in 1564 it was found necessaryto direct Sir Peter Cary, forasmuch as that costof Devonshyre and Cornwall is by report mucchhanted with pyratts and Rovers, to make read}^one or two ships, for the purpose of suppressingthem. The economical policy of the government,as shown in these instructions, was to secure thatthose thus charged with clearing out this nest ofrobbers should be provided with ships and foodonly, and shou
Size: 1196px × 2089px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectdevonen, bookyear1908
