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selection, by apparent private influence and negotiation, played a large part in the decision to choose his successor as

leader by a ballot of the parliamentary party. Thus Edward HEATH was made leader in 1970. In 1974 he was created a life peer as baron Home of the Hirsel of Coldstream.

Dover, Treaty of (1670)

Created an Anglo-French alliance against the Dutch, England’s late ally. CHARLES II agreed to a secret clause stating that he would announce his Catholic faith, and Louis XIV promised to provide a subsidy plus a force of troops to quell internal resistance.

Dowding, Hugh (1882–1970) air marshal

A pilot and squadron commander in WORLD WAR I, Dowding was made head of Fighter Command in 1936. He was responsible for the victory of the Battle of BRITAIN in 1940 by careful development of aircraft, use of radar information, and tactical judgment. He was abruptly relieved of his command at the end of 1940 because of disputes with his superiors.

Downing Street

A small street in Westminster where the PRIME MINISTER’s residence (No. 10) and that of the

CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (No. 11) are

located. Sir George Downing (1623–84) was secretary to the treasury commissioners, and he was involved in the early development of the street in the 1680s. The general location was once part of WHITEHALL palace, and from the 18th century prime ministers have resided in the neighborhood.

Drake, Sir Francis (1543–1596) sailor, adventurer

An apprentice seaman, Drake sailed with Sir John HAWKINS, a relative, on voyages to Spain

and the WEST INDIES. By 1569 he had his own command, and he made several excursions as a PRIVATEER to prey on Spanish treasure ships; one of these was his famous 1577–80 voyage around the world, by way of raiding in the Pacific. Now rich and famous, he led further anti-Spanish raids in the 1580s and became a figure in English politics before he died on a last voyage to the Indies.

Dreadnought

The Dreadnought, launched in 1906, was equipped with 10 large guns and capable of speeds up to 21 knots. Built in a single year, this ship revolutionized naval warfare, and an entire class of battleships was built with the designation Dreadnought. Because of the rate of competition between naval powers, there were even larger and faster vessels being built by the time of

WORLD WAR I.

Drogheda

A garrison town north of DUBLIN, attacked by Oliver CROMWELL in 1649, defended by a small royalist force which refused to surrender. The English army broke through the walls, and Cromwell ordered that all men in arms should be put to the sword. By the next day there were as many as 3,500 dead, soldiers and civilians. The massacre was unusual in its ferocity, and Cromwell ensured its place in Irish historical memory by justifying it as retribution for the massacre of Protestants in 1641.

Drury Lane Theatre

Sir Thomas Drury had a house in this fashionable street (named after his family) in LONDON in the 16th century. While the neighborhood lost some of its social standing in the 17th century, it became the site of the first theater (managed by Thomas Killigrew) in 1663. The building has been destroyed by fire and restored on several occasions. The early 19th-century structure, built in 1812 with many subsequent additions,

houses the present theater. Among the theater’s better-known managers were David GARRICK and Richard Brinsley SHERIDAN.

Dryden, John (1631–1700) poet, playwright, critic

The leading figure in RESTORATION literature, Dryden was the author of poetic tributes to Oliver CROMWELL and to CHARLES II. The latter were popular, as were his dramatic works. He was named POET LAUREATE in 1668, the same year that he published his great critical work Of Dramatick Poesie. He converted to Catholicism after the accession of JAMES VII AND II, and he was deprived of his offices after the GLORIOUS

REVOLUTION.

Dublin

An important location on Ireland’s east coast, Dublin was probably a church center when the Vikings captured the city in 841. Its priority remained when the Anglo-Normans invaded in 1170, and it was the capital of the English colony for the next 750 years. In the 18th century Dublin was probably the second city in the empire, but its political and economic importance declined in the 19th century because of political subordination under the UNION and the persistence of the Irish peasant agrarian economy. Its revival as a national capital (1922) was not paralleled by economic recovery until the 1970s and after.

Dudley, John See NORTHUMBERLAND, JOHN

DUDLEY, DUKE OF.

duke

The highest rank of the PEERAGE was created in the 14th century. First used by EDWARD III to invest his son with the title of duke of Cornwall (1337), it was seldom used for persons outside the royal family until the 18th century, when

nonroyal dukes were created. The last nonroyal duke was the duke of Westminster (1874).

Dunbar, Battle of (1650)

A Scottish effort to help CHARLES II claim his throne in 1650 was foiled by Oliver CROMWELL, whose army defeated a much larger Scottish force at Dunbar. This was in part because the latter had been purged of its “ungodly” elements, and because the leaders of the kirk (church) thought they were blessed with the ability to direct military affairs. Cromwell soundly defeated Alexander LESLIE’s army, taking about 10,000 prisoners. He next defeated the Scots at Worcester (1651) and thus ended the royalist campaign.

Dundas, Henry See MELVILLE, HENRY

DUNDAS, FIRST VISCOUNT.

Dundee, John Graham, first viscount

(1648–1689) soldier

Dundee served under William of Orange (later WILLIAM III) on the continent, then returned to Britain and led royal forces against COVENANTERS in SCOTLAND (1677–78). He led a Scottish force to aid JAMES VII AND II in 1688, but when the king fled, he returned to Scotland. He attended the CONVENTION parliament there in 1689, but withdrew and led an army of clansmen loyal to James at the Battle of KILLIECRANKIE (1689), where he was killed.

Dunkirk

Near the start of WORLD WAR II, the BRITISH EXPE-

DITIONARY FORCE had been sent to aid the French, but it was caught on the coast between Dunkirk and Ostend when the German invasion of May 1940 swiftly overran positions in Belgium and raced for the channel. Thanks to a rear-guard action, there was enough time to evacuate the trapped army. A fleet of 850 naval and small

civilian vessels picked up 233,000 British troops and 113,000 others, leaving behind their heavy weapons and equipment. This escape gave a boost to morale, and it also raised the stakes for any German plan to invade GREAT BRITAIN.

Durham, John George Lambton, first earl of (1792–1840)

Whig politician

Lord Durham helped to draft the Great REFORM ACT of 1832, as a member of the government of his father-in-law, Earl GREY. Known as “Radical Jack,” he later championed the ballot, triennial parliaments, and votes for all householders. After an embassy to Russia (1835–37), he led a mission to CANADA in the wake of a rebellion there. His famous “Report on the Affairs of British North America” (1839) recommended the union of Upper and Lower Canada and suggested that the colonial governors should be responsible to the local parliament. While the report was not adopted, it is seen in retrospect as the blueprint for Canada’s eventual DOMINION status.

Dutch Wars

A series of 17th-century conflicts pitted the young English naval power against the Netherlands, its near neighbor and experienced maritime enemy of the Spanish, Portuguese, and French. The course of these conflicts had a great bearing on the direction of European and world affairs in the 17th and 18th centuries.

1.1652–1654: There was a long history of friction between the two trading communities (see AMBOYNA MASSACRE). In 1651 the English republic enacted the first NAVIGATION ACT and claimed the right to seize Dutch vessels. Fighting in the Channel and the North Sea saw the Dutch take heavier losses, and they made concessions in the Treaty of Westminster.

2.1665–1667: The root of this war was the trading rivalry, underscored by colonial clashes in Africa and America. After an early English victory, the Dutch, with aid from Denmark and France, inflicted a series of defeats. The Dutch were able to sail into the Thames and destroy ships in the royal dockyard at Chatham, sealing an embarrassing defeat.

3.1672–1674: The war was the product of CHARLES II’s Treaty of DOVER and his alliance with France. The naval actions were indecisive, and the major importance of the event for ENGLAND was in the realm of domestic (religious) affairs (see TEST ACT).

dynamite war

Name for a series of bombings by Irish sympathizers in the 1880s. These events alarmed the British government, bringing the passage of the first antiterrorist legislation (the Explosive Substances Act, 1883) and the establishment of special investigative departments within the metropolitan police (see SPECIAL BRANCH).

earl

The oldest title in the PEERAGE, the rank of earl comes from the period of the Anglo-Saxons and the Danes. At that time they were the king’s officers in the shire, leaders of the fyrd (militia) and judges of the court. Earls came to have power over more than one shire, and so they were replaced at that level by the SHERIFF. The earl became a title of nobility in the 12th century, after the rank became hereditary. The titles of DUKE and MARQUESS were created in the 14th century as the uppermost ranks of the peerage.

Easter Rebellion (1916)

During WORLD WAR I the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB; see FENIAN BROTHERHOOD) planned to capitalize on GREAT BRITAIN’s conflict with Germany by seeking arms and assistance from the enemy and by staging a national uprising. Both parts of the plan fell far short, but the “rising” of a small band of 2,000 in DUBLIN during Easter week 1916 did become an emotional symbol of the Irish quest for independence. Patrick PEARSE, James CONNOLLY, and the IRB war council planned the seizure of Dublin, taking over a number of buildings in the capital and proclaiming a provisional government. Within a week the British had crushed the rebels, executed 15 of the leaders, and interned about 2,000. The public had not supported the rising, but after the executions, general opinion began to shift. The oddest feature of the event was that although it was staged by the IRB, the British called it the SINN FÉIN Rebellion. This lent an aura of radical prestige to a previously constitutional-

ist national party and helped that party to become the foremost political force in IRELAND by the time of the 1918 election.

See also DÁIL ÉIREANN; DE VALERA, EAMON;

GRIFFITH, ARTHUR.

East India Company

The first royal charter for the Company of Merchants Trading to the East Indies was issued in 1600. There would be many later editions as the economic and political importance of this enterprise grew. At first the company concentrated on the spice trade. By the 1630s it was engaged in trade in INDIA, and by the 18th century that project had evolved into a politico-military empire, and the company was pursuing trading ties with China. The trading monopolies the company enjoyed were ended in the era of FREE TRADE, and after the INDIAN MUTINY of 1857–58, power was vested in a government minister, the secretary of state for India. The company was abolished in 1873.

See also BENGAL; CALCUTTA; CLIVE, ROBERT;

HASTINGS, WARREN.

ecclesiastical courts

In ENGLAND, the courts that administer canon law. The jurisdiction of ecclesiastical courts once extended beyond control over the affairs of clerics. They had wide authority in matters of tithes, testaments, matrimony, sexual conduct, and perjury. At the REFORMATION the secular courts began to encroach on their authority, although the church courts retained an important role

through the 17th century, a role that was first augmented and then undermined by the ecclesiastical court of HIGH COMMISSION (1580–1641). The most extensive loss of jurisdiction came in the 19th century, especially with the end of probate and matrimonial jurisdictions in 1857.

In SCOTLAND after the reformation, the courts of kirk session, presbytery, synod, and GENERAL ASSEMBLY became major institutions of government in the new order. The Scottish Commissary Court (1564) had jurisdiction over matrimony and wills. Its work was absorbed by the Court of SESSION prior to its abolition in 1876.

Irish church courts were exclusively those of the Protestant CHURCH OF IRELAND until 1869. The four ARCHBISHOPs and 18 suffragan (i.e. assistant) BISHOPS held courts in their jurisdictions, but there were no ARCHDEACONS or rural deans, as in England, to provide a complete hierarchical structure. After the DISESTABLISH- MENT, the Roman Catholic Church of Ireland provided clerical and canonical discipline in its hierarchy, which came to be central to the life of the community in the IRISH FREE STATE and

the IRISH REPUBLIC. Meanwhile, in NORTHERN IRE-

LAND the ANGLICANs and the more numerous PRESBYTERIAN congregations maintained their own church courts.

economical reform

Term applied to the efforts to regulate and reduce expenditure of government money to employ PLACEMEN. The use of patronage was the basic means of hiring and promoting officials in the age before the CIVIL SERVICE, but criticism became severe when heavy taxation for the American Revolution (1776–81) failed to produce victory. PARLIAMENT forced examination of public accounts, abolition of some offices, and limits on expenditure. Moreover, related discussion and petitions in the counties, particularly the ASSOCIATION MOVEMENT led by Christopher WYVILL, began a long process of parliamentary reform.

Eden, Anthony, first earl of Avon

(1897–1977)

prime minister, 1955–1957

A conservative MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT from

1923 to 1957, Eden had a long and distinguished career in foreign affairs. He was foreign secretary (1935–38) but resigned over the APPEASEMENT policy of Neville CHAMBERLAIN. He served in Winston CHURCHILL’s war cabinet as foreign secretary, 1940–45. He returned to that post in 1951 and had to deal with the postwar problems of communism and nationalism. When he finally succeeded Churchill as PRIME MINISTER, it was only to be faced with the SUEZ CANAL crisis (1956). Britain’s invasion of EGYPT drew international opposition, and ironically Eden was forced to resign, the victim of a huge error in foreign policy.

Edgehill, Battle of (1642)

In the first major battle of the CIVIL WAR, the army of CHARLES I advanced toward LONDON and engaged the army of the earl of ESSEX near Banbury. Both sides numbered about 12,000. The royalist cavalry proved superior, but the PARLIA- MENT’s infantry fought well. Both sides claimed victory, but in fact the royalist advance was halted.

Edgeworth, Maria (1767–1849) author, educator

Raised in Oxfordshire and schooled there and in Derby and LONDON, Edgeworth returned to the family home in County Longford, IRELAND, which became her source and her studio. She was a novelist and pioneer children’s writer (The Parent’s Assistant, 1796–1801; and Moral Tales,

1801). She coauthored Practical Education (1798) with her father. Her major novel was Castle Rackrent (1800), an original depiction of Irish life, which Sir Walter SCOTT considered a great inspiration. She enjoyed both commercial and critical success.

Edinburgh

The capital of SCOTLAND. Situated on a glacial ridge south of the Firth of Forth, the castle and the Old Town occupied a strong defensive position. It was a natural location for major institutions like the abbey of Holyrood (1128), where JAMES IV rebuilt the royal palace in 1501. The Scottish PARLIAMENT met in the city from the 15th century until its demise in 1707. The Court of SESSION was settled there in 1532; the university was founded in 1582. The city and its surrounding communities became an economic center, and in the late 18th century the New Town was built to offer accommodation for the growing wealthy class of Edinburgh society. It was set on high ground north of the Old Town and connected to it by bridges.

education

ENGLAND AND WALES

Until well into the 19th century, the provision of education was under the direction or influence of the churches. That tradition dated from the long period when there were only monastic and cathedral schools and the colleges run by and for the training of clerics. After the RENAIS- SANCE and REFORMATION, the purposes of education expanded. Later schools and UNIVERSITIES came to serve a wider clientele, as the GENTRY and nobility took to schools and colleges as part of their education, and as the “middling ranks” of society sought forms of training to parallel or supplant that of an APPRENTICESHIP. From the 16th through the 18th century there were manifold private efforts to reform or extend education in proprietary DISSENTING ACADEMIES and newly founded GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. The majority of this work addressed the needs of the elite, as in fact the whole of education had done throughout history.

The origin of a demand for elementary schooling for the population in general is hard to locate. It was not always a liberal idea. Popular education was a means of inculcating obedience, and it was so used in the authoritarian states of 18thcentury Europe. There were early liberal expres-

sions in the 17th-century revolutionary era, and there were efforts at the end of that century to broaden religious instruction, especially with the

SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF CHRISTIAN KNOWL-

EDGE (1698). The growth of CHARITY SCHOOLS and SUNDAY SCHOOLS further stimulated the area of elementary education in the 18th century. The general religious orientation of schooling, which was a main source of strength, also retarded the growth of state support for schools. From the early 19th century, various attempts to launch broad programs of public education encountered sectarian obstacles: on the one hand, the systems of Andrew BELL and Joseph LANCASTER created rival groups, the latter’s British and Foreign School Society (DISSENTERS) in 1808, and the former’s National Society (ANGLICANs) in 1811. But they both agreed that secular schools were not to be trusted. For the next 60 years secular advances were confined to the so-called “ragged” or industrial schools, some of which were mandated by the FACTORY ACTS.

The middle of the 19th century saw some steps toward reform: a Committee of the Privy Council on education was formed (1839) with Sir James KAY-SHUTTLEWORTH as its secretary, several ROYAL COMMISSIONs examined the public schools and the universities, and there were studies of schooling in other countries, such as those of the school inspector Matthew ARNOLD. Finally, in 1870 a state system of elementary education was created, and attendance was made compulsory in 1880. At this stage the requisite amount of schooling was only to age 10; the leaving age was raised to 14 by the Education Act of 1918. Secondary education was provided for all under the Education Act of 1944 in grammar, secondary modern, and technical schools, the students’ assignment to be determined by examination at “eleven plus.” The leaving age was raised to 16 in 1973.

As schooling was being brought under state control, the mechanisms for that control were being fashioned: 2,000 local elected school boards in 1870; then a central board of education and an array of local education authorities (1902); then a ministry of education replaced