Beckington's own journal is published in the _Proceedings of the Privy

Council_, vol. v., edited by N.H. Nicolas (1835); and the other

journal in the _Official Correspondence of Thomas Bekynton_, edited by

G. Williams for the Rolls Series (1872), which contains many

interesting letters. This latter journal has been translated into

English by N.H. Nicolas (1828). See G.G. Perry, "Bishop Beckington and

Henry VI.," in the _English Historical Review_ (1894).

BECKMANN, JOHANN (1739-1811), German scientific author, was born on the

4th of June 1739 at Hoya in Hanover, where his father was postmaster and

receiver of taxes. He was educated at Stade and the university of

Gottingen. The death of his mother in 1762 having deprived him of his

means of support, he went in 1763 on the invitation of the pastor of the

Lutheran community, Anton Friedrich Busching, the founder of the modern

historic statistical method of geography, to teach natural history in

the Lutheran academy, St Petersburg. This office he relinquished in

1765, and travelled in Denmark and Sweden, where he studied the methods

of working the mines, and made the acquaintance of Linnaeus at Upsala.

In 1766 he was appointed extraordinary professor of philosophy at

Gottingen. There he lectured on political and domestic economy with such

success that in 1770 he was appointed ordinary professor. He was in the

habit of taking his students into the workshops, that they might acquire

a practical as well as a theoretical knowledge of different processes

and handicrafts. While thus engaged he determined to trace the history

and describe the existing condition of each of the arts and sciences on

which he was lecturing, being perhaps incited by the _Bibliothecae_ of

Albrecht von Haller. But even Beckmann's industry and ardour were unable

to overtake the amount of study necessary for this task. He therefore

confined his attention to several practical arts and trades; and to

these labours we owe his _Beitrage zur Geschichte der Erfindungen_

(1780-1805), translated into English as the _History of Inventions_--a

work in which he relates the origin, history and recent condition of the

various machines, utensils, &c., employed in trade and for domestic

purposes. This work entitles Beckmann to be regarded as the founder of

scientific technology, a term which he was the first to use in 1772. In

1772 Beckmann was elected a member of the Royal Society of Gottingen,

and he contributed valuable scientific dissertations to its proceedings

until 1783, when he withdrew from all further share in its work. He died

on the 3rd of February 1811. Other important works of Beckmann are

_Entwurf einer allgemeinen Technologie_ (1806); _Anleitung zur

Handelswissenschaft_ (1789); _Vorbereitung zur Warenkunde_ (1795-1800);

_Beitrage zur Okonomie, Technologie, Polizei- und, Kameralwissenschaft_

(1777-1791).

BECKWITH, JAMES CARROLL (1852-), American portrait-painter, was born at

Hannibal, Missouri, on the 23rd of September 1852. He studied in the

National Academy of Design, New York City, of which he afterwards became

a member, and in Paris (1873-1878) under Carolus Duran. Returning to the

United States in 1878, he gradually became a prominent figure in

American art. He took an active part in the formation of the Fine Arts

Society, and was president of the National Free Art League, which

attempted to secure the repeal of the American duty on works of art.

Among his portraits are those of W.M. Chase (1882), of Miss Jordan

(1883), of Mark Twain, T.A. Janvier, General Schofield and William

Walton. He decorated one of the domes of the Manufactures Building at

the Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893.

BECKWITH, SIR THOMAS SYDNEY (1772-1831), British general, was the son of

Major-General John Beckwith, who was colonel of the 20th regiment

(Lancashire Fusiliers) in the charge at Minden. In 1791 he entered the

71st regiment (then commanded by Colonel David Baird), in which he

served in India and elsewhere until 1800, when he obtained a company in

Colonel Coote Manningham's experimental regiment of riflemen, shortly

afterwards numbered as the 95th Rifles and now called the Rifle Brigade.

In 1802 he was promoted major, and in the following year

lieutenant-colonel. Beckwith was one of the favourite officers of Sir

John Moore in the famous camp of Shorncliffe, and aided that general in

the training of the troops which afterwards became the Light Division.

In 1806 he served in the expedition to Hanover, and in 1807 in that

which captured Copenhagen. In 1806 the Rifles were present at Vimeira,

and in the campaign of Sir John Moore they bore the brunt of the

rearguard fighting. Beckwith took part in the great march of Craufurd to

the field of Talavera, in the advanced guard fights on the Coa in 1810

and in the campaign in Portugal. On the formation of the Light Division

he was given a brigade command in it. After the brilliant action of

Sabugal, Beckwith had to retire for a time from active service, but the

Rifles and the brigade he had trained and commanded added to their fame

on every subsequent battlefield. In 1812 he went to Canada as assistant

quartermaster-general, and he took part in the war against the United

States. In 1814 he became major-general, and in 1815 was created K.C.B.

In 1827 he was made colonel commandant of the Rifle Brigade. He went to

India as commander-in-chief at Bombay in 1829, and was promoted

lieutenant-general in the following year. He died on the 15th of January

1831 at Mahableshwar.

His elder brother, Sir GEORGE BECKWITH (1753-1823), distinguished

himself as a regimental officer in the American War of Independence, and

served subsequently in high administrative posts and in numerous

successful military operations in the West Indies during the French

Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. He was made a K.B. for his capture of

Martinique in 1809, and attained the full rank of general in 1814. Sir

George Beckwith commanded the forces in Ireland, 1816-1820. He died in

London on the 20th of March 1823.

Their nephew, Major-General JOHN CHARLES BECKWITH (1789-1862), joined

the 50th regiment in 1803, exchanging in 1804 into the 95th Rifles, with

which regiment he served in the Peninsular campaigns of 1808-10. He was

subsequently employed on the staff of the Light Division, and he was

repeatedly mentioned in despatches, becoming in 1814 a brevet-major, and

after the battle of Waterloo (in which he lost a leg) lieutenant-colonel

and C.B. In 1820 he left active service. Seven years later an accident

drew his attention to the Waldenses, whose past history and present

condition influenced him so strongly that he settled in the valleys of

Piedmont. The rest of his life was spent in the self-imposed task of

educating the Waldenses, for whom he established and maintained a large

number of schools, and in reviving the earlier faith of the people. In

1848 King Charles Albert made him a knight of the order of St Maurice

and St Lazarus. He was promoted colonel in the British army in 1837 and

major-general in 1846. He died on the 19th of July 1862 at La Torre,

Piedmont.

BECKX, PIERRE JEAN (1795-1887), general of the Society of Jesus, was

born at Sichem in Belgium on the 8th of February 1795, and entered the

novitiate of the order at Hildesheim in 1819. His first important post

was as procurator for the province of Austria, 1847; next year he became

rector of the Jesuit college at Louvain, and, after serving as secretary

to the provincials of Belgium and Austria, was elected head of the order

in 1853. His tenure of office was marked by an increased zeal for

missions in Protestant lands, and by the removal of the society's

headquarters from Rome to Fiesole near Florence in 1870. His chief

literary work was the often-translated _Month of Mary_ (Vienna, 1843).

He retired in September 1883, being succeeded by Anthony M. Anderledy, a

Swiss, who had seen service in the United States. He died at Rome on the

4th of March 1887.

BECQUE, HENRY FRANCOIS (1837-1899), French dramatist, was born on the

9th of April 1837 in Paris. He wrote the book of an opera _Sardanapale_

in imitation of Lord Byron for the music of M. Victorin Joncieres in

1867, but his first important work, _Michel Pauper_, appeared in 1870.

The importance of this sombre drama was first realized when it was

revived at the Odeon in 1886. _Les Corbeaux_ (1882) established Becque's

position as an innovator, and in 1885 he produced his most successful

play, _La Parisienne_. Becque produced little during the last years of

his life, but his disciples carried on the tradition he had created. He

died in May 1899.

See his _Querelles litteraires_ (1890), and _Souvenirs d'un auteur

dramatique_ (1895), consisting chiefly of reprinted articles in which

he does not spare his opponents. His _Theatre complet_ (3 vols., 1899)

includes _L'Enfant prodigue_ (Vaudeville Theatre, 6th of Nov. 1868);

_Michel Pauper_ (Theatre de la Porte-Saint-Martin, 17th of June 1870);

_L'Enlevement_ (Vaudeville, 18th of Nov. 1871); _La Navette_ (Gymnase,

15th of Nov. 1878); _Les Honnetes Femmes_ (Gymnase, 1st of Jan. 1880);

_Les Corbeaux_ (Comedie Francaise, 14th of Sept. 1882); _La

Parisienne_ (Theatre de la Renaissance, 7th of Feb. 1885).

BECQUER, GUSTAVO ADOLFO (1836-1870), Spanish poet and romance-writer,

was born at Seville on the 17th of February 1836. Left an orphan at an

early age, he was educated by his godmother, refused to adopt any

profession, and drifted to Madrid, where he obtained a small post in the

civil service. He was dismissed for carelessness, became an incorrigible

Bohemian, and earned a precarious living by translating foreign novels;

he died in great poverty at Madrid on the 22nd of December 1870. His

works were published posthumously in 1873. In such prose tales as _El

Rayo de Luna_ and _La Mujer de piedra_, Becquer is manifestly influenced

by Hoffmann, and as a poet he has analogies with Heine. He dwells in a

fairyland of his own, crooning a weird elfin music which has no parallel

in Spanish; his work is unfinished and unequal, but it is singularly

free from the rhetoric characteristic of his native Andalusia, and its

lyrical ardour is of a beautiful sweetness and sincerity.

BECQUEREL, the name of a French family, several members of which have

been distinguished in chemical and physical research.

ANTOINE CESAR BECQUEREL (1788-1878), was born at Chatillon sur Loing on

the 8th of March 1788. After passing through the Ecole Polytechnique he

became _ingenieur-officier_ in 1808, and saw active service with the

imperial troops in Spain from 1810 to 1812, and again in France in 1814.

He then resigned from the army and devoted the rest of his life to

scientific investigation. His earliest work was mineralogical in

character, but he soon turned his attention to the study of electricity

and especially of electrochemistry. In 1837 he received the Copley medal

from the Royal Society "for his various memoirs on electricity, and

particularly for those on the production of metallic sulphurets and

sulphur by the long-continued action of electricity of very low

tension," which it was hoped would lead to increased knowledge of the

"recomposition of crystallized bodies, and the processes which may have

been employed by nature in the production of such bodies in the mineral

kingdom." In biological chemistry he worked at the problems of animal

heat and at the phenomena accompanying the growth of plants, and he also

devoted much time to meteorological questions and observations. He was a

prolific writer, his books including _Traite d'electricite et du

magnetisme_ (1834-1840), _Traite de physique dans ses rapports avec la

chimie_ (1842), _Elements de l'electro-chimie_ (1843), _Traite complet

du magnetisme_ (1845), _Elements de physique terrestre et de

meteorologie_ (1847), and _Des climats et de l'influence qu'exercent les

sols boises et deboises_ (1853). He died on the 18th of January 1878 in

Paris, where from 1837 he had been professor of physics at the Musee

d'Histoire Naturelle.

His son, ALEXANDRE EDMOND BECQUEREL (1820-1891), was born in Paris on

the 24th of March 1820, and was in turn his pupil, assistant and

successor at the Musee d'Histoire Naturelle; he was also appointed

professor at the short-lived Agronomic Institute at Versailles in 1849,

and in 1853 received the chair of physics at the Conservatoire des Arts

et Metiers. Edmond Becquerel was associated with his father in much of

his work, but he himself paid special attention to the study of light,

investigating the photochemical effects and spectroscopic characters of

solar radiation and the electric light, and the phenomena of

phosphorescence, particularly as displayed by the sulphides and by

compounds of uranium. It was in connexion with these latter inquiries

that he devised his phosphoroscope, an apparatus which enabled the

interval between exposure to the source of light and observation of the

resulting effects to be varied at will and accurately measured. He

published in 1867-1868 a treatise in two volumes on _La Lumiere, ses

causes et ses effets_. He also investigated the diamagnetic and

paramagnetic properties of substances; and was keenly interested in the

phenomena of electrochemical decomposition, accumulating much evidence

in favour of Faraday's law and proposing a modified statement of it

which was intended to cover certain apparent exceptions. He died in

Paris on the 11th of May 1891.

ANTOINE HENRI BECQUEREL (1852-1908), son of the last-named, who

succeeded to his chair at the Musee d'Histoire Naturelle in 1892, was

born in Paris on the 15th of December 1852, studied at the Ecole

Polytechnique, where he was appointed a professor in 1895, and in 1875

entered the department _des ponts et chaussees_, of which in 1894 he

became _ingenieur en chef_. He was distinguished as the discoverer of

radioactivity, having found in 1896 that uranium at ordinary

temperatures emits an invisible radiation which in many respects

resembles Rontgen rays, and can affect a photographic plate after

passing through thin plates of metal. For his researches in this

department he was in 1903 awarded a Nobel prize jointly with Pierre

Curie. He also engaged in work on magnetism, the polarization of light,

phosphorescence and the absorption of light in crystals. He died at

Croisic in Brittany on the 25th of August 1908.

BED (a common Teutonic word, cf. German _Bett_, probably connected with

the Indo-European root _bhodh_, seen in the Lat. _fodere_, to dig; so "a

dug-out place" for safe resting, or in the same sense as a garden

"bed"), a general term for a resting or sleeping place for men and

animals, and in particular for the article of household furniture for

that object, and so used by analogy in other senses, involving a

supporting surface or layer. The accompaniments of a domestic bed

(bedding, coverlets, &c.) have naturally varied considerably in

different times, and its form and decoration and social associations

have considerable historical interest. The Egyptians had high bedsteads

which were ascended by steps, with bolsters or pillows, and curtains to

hang round. Often there was a head-rest as well, semi-cylindrical and

made of stone, wood or metal. Assyrians, Medes and Persians had beds of

a similar kind, and frequently decorated their furniture with inlays or

_appliques_ of metal, mother-of-pearl and ivory. The oldest account of a

bedstead is probably that of Ulysses which Homer describes him as making

in his own house, but he also mentions the inlaying of the woodwork of

beds with gold, silver and ivory. The Greek bed had a wooden frame, with

a board at the head and bands of hide laced across, upon which skins

were placed. At a later period the bedstead was often veneered with

expensive woods; sometimes it was of solid ivory veneered with

tortoise-shell and with silver feet; often it was of bronze. The pillows

and coverings also became more costly and beautiful; the most celebrated

places for their manufacture were Miletus, Corinth and Carthage. Folding

beds, too, appear in the vase paintings. The Roman mattresses were

stuffed with reeds, hay, wool or feathers; the last was used towards the

end of the Republic, when custom demanded luxury. Small cushions were

placed at the head and sometimes at the back. The bedsteads were high

and could only be ascended by the help of steps. They were often

arranged for two persons, and had a board or railing at the back as well

as the raised portion at the head. The counterpanes were sometimes very

costly, generally purple embroidered with figures in gold; and rich

hangings fell to the ground masking the front. The bedsteads themselves

were often of bronze inlaid with silver, and Elagabalus, like some

modern Indian princes, had one of solid silver. In the walls of some of

the houses at Pompeii bed niches are found which were probably closed by

curtains or sliding partitions. The marriage bed, _lectus genialis_, was

much decorated, and was placed in the atrium opposite the door. A low

pallet-bed used for sick persons was known as _scimpodium_. Other forms

of couch were called _lectus_, but were not beds in the modern sense of

the word except the _lectus funebris_, on which the body of a dead

person lay in state for seven days, clad in a toga and rich garments,

and surrounded by flowers and foliage. This bed rested on ivory legs,

over which purple blankets embroidered with gold were spread, and was

placed in the atrium with the foot to the door and with a pan of incense

by its side. The ancient Germans lay on the floor on beds of leaves

covered with skins, or in a kind of shallow chest filled with leaves and

moss. In the early middle ages they laid carpets on the floor or on a

bench against the wall, placed upon them mattresses stuffed with

feathers, wool or hair, and used skins as a covering. They appear to

have generally lain naked in bed, wrapping themselves in the large linen

sheets which were stretched over the cushions. In the 13th century

luxury increased, and bedsteads were made of wood much decorated with

inlaid, carved and painted ornament. They also used folding beds, which

served as couches by day and had cushions covered with silk laid upon

leather. At night a linen sheet was spread and pillows placed, while

silk-covered skins served as coverlets. Curtains were hung from the

ceiling or from an iron arm projecting from the wall. The Carolingian

MSS. show metal bedsteads much higher at the head than at the feet, and

this shape continued in use till the 13th century in France, many

cushions being added to raise the body to a sloping position. In the

12th-century MSS. the bedsteads appear much richer, with inlays, carving

and painting, and with embroidered coverlets and mattresses in harmony.

Curtains were hung above the bed, and a small hanging lamp is often

shown. In the 14th century the woodwork became of less importance, being

generally entirely covered by hangings of rich materials. Silk, velvet

and even cloth of gold were much used. Inventories from the beginning of

the 14th century give details of these hangings lined with fur and

richly embroidered. Then it was that the tester bed made its first

appearance, the tester being slung from the ceiling or fastened to the

walls, a form which developed later into a room within a room, shut in

by double curtains, sometimes even so as to exclude all draughts. The

space between bed and wall was called the _ruelle_, and very intimate

friends were received there. In the 15th century beds became very large,

reaching to 7 or 8 ft. by 6 or 7 ft. Viollet-le-Duc says that the

mattresses were filled with pea-shucks or straw--neither wool nor

horsehair is mentioned--but feathers also were used. At this time great

personages were in the habit of carrying most of their property about

with them, including beds and bed-hangings, and for this reason the

bedsteads were for the most part mere frameworks to be covered up; but

about the beginning of the 16th century bedsteads were made lighter and

more decorative, since the lords remained in the same place for longer

periods. In the museum at Nancy is a fine bedstead of this period which

belonged to Antoine de Lorraine. It has a carved head and foot as well

as the uprights which support the tester. Another is in the Musee Cluny

ascribed to Pierre de Gondi, very architectural in design, with a

bracketed cornice, and turned and carved posts; at the head figures of

warriors watch the sleeper. Louis XIV. had an enormous number of

sumptuous beds, as many as 413 being described in the inventories of his

palaces. Some of them had embroideries enriched with pearls, and figures

on a silver or golden ground. The carving was the work of Proux or

Caffieri, and the gilding by La Baronniere. The great bed at Versailles

had crimson velvet curtains on which "The Triumph of Venus" was

embroidered. So much gold was used that the velvet scarcely showed.

Under the influence of Madame de Maintenon "The Sacrifice of Abraham,"

which is now on the tester, replaced "The Triumph of Venus." In the 17th

century, which has been called "the century of magnificent beds," the

style _a la duchesse_, with tester and curtains only at the head,

replaced the more enclosed beds in France, though they lasted much

longer in England. In the 18th century feather pillows were first used

as coverings in Germany, which in the fashions of the bed and the

curious etiquette connected with the bedchamber followed France for the

most part. The beds were _a la duchesse_, but in France itself there was

great variety both of name and shape--the _lit a alcove, lit d'ange_,

which had no columns, but a suspended tester with curtains drawn back,

_lit a l'Anglaise_, which looked like a high sofa by day, _lit en

baldaquin_, with the tester fixed against the wall, _lit a couronne_

with a tester shaped like a crown, a style which appeared under Louis

XVI., and was fashionable under the Restoration and Louis Philippe, and

_lit a l'imperiale_, which had a curved tester, are a few of their

varieties. The _lit en baldaquin_ of Napoleon I. is still at

Fontainebleau, and the Garde Meuble contains several richly carved beds

of a more modern date. The custom of the "bed of justice" upon which the

king of France reclined when he was present in parliament, the princes

being seated, the great officials standing, and the lesser officials

kneeling, was held to denote the royal power even more than the throne.

Louis XI. is credited with its first use, and the custom lasted till the

end of the monarchy. From the habit of using this bed to hear petitions,

etc., came the usage of the _grand lit_, which was provided wherever the

king stayed, called also _lit de parement_ or _lit de parade_, rather

later. Upon this bed the dead king lay in state. The beds of the king

and queen were saluted by the courtiers as if they were altars, and none

approached them even when there was no railing to prevent it. These

railings were apparently placed for other than ceremonial reasons

originally, and in the accounts of several castles in the 15th century

mention is made of a railing to keep dogs from the bed. In the _chambre

de parade_, where the ceremonial bed was placed, certain persons, such

as ambassadors or great lords, whom it was desired to honour, were

received in a more intimate fashion than the crowd of courtiers. The

_petit lever_ was held in the bedroom itself, the _grand lever_ in the

_chambre de parade_. At Versailles women received their friends in their

beds, both before and after childbirth, during periods of mourning, and

even directly after marriage--in fact in any circumstances which were

thought deserving of congratulation or condolence. During the 17th

century this curious custom became general, perhaps to avoid the

tiresome details of etiquette. Portable beds were used in high society

in France till the end of the _ancien regime_. The earliest of which

mention has been found belonged to Charles the Bold (see _Memoirs_ of

Philippe de Comines). They had curtains over a light framework, and were

in their way as fine as the stationary beds. Iron beds appear in the

18th century; the advertisements recommend them as free from the insects

which sometimes infested wooden bedsteads, but one is mentioned in the

inventory of the furniture of the castle of Nerac in 1569, "un lit de

fer et de cuivre, avec quatre petites colonnes de laiton, ensemble

quatre satyres de laiton, quatre petits vases de laiton pour mettre sur

les colonnes; dedans le dit lit il y a la figure d'Olopherne ensemble de

Judith, qui sont d'albatre." In Scotland, Brittany and Holland the

closed bed with sliding or folding shutters has persisted till our own

day, and in England--where beds were commonly quite simple in form--the

four-poster, with tester and curtains all round, was the usual citizen's

bed till the middle of the 19th century. Many fine examples exist of

17th-century carved oak bedsteads, some of which have found their way

into museums. The later forms, in which mahogany was usually the wood

employed, are much less architectural in design. Some exceedingly

elegant mahogany bedsteads were designed by Chippendale, Hepplewhite and

Sheraton, and there are signs that English taste is returning to the

wooden bedstead in a lighter and less monumental form. (J. P.-B.)

BED, in geology, a term for certain kinds of rock usually found to be

arranged in more or less distinct layers; these are the beds of rock or

strata. Normally, the bedding of rocks is horizontal or very nearly so;

when the upper and lower surfaces of a bed are parallel, the bedding is

said to be regular; if it is thickest at one point and thins away thence

in every direction, the bedding is lenticular. Beds may be thick (50 ft.

or more) or so thin as to be like sheets of paper, e.g. paper shales,

such thin beds being often termed layers or laminae; intermediate

regular varieties may be called flags, flagstones or tilestones. In

fine-grained rocks the bedding is usually thinner and more regular than

in coarser rocks, such as sandstones and grits. Bedding is confined to

rocks which have been formed under water or by the agency of wind; these

are the "stratified" rocks.

The deposition of rock material by moving water is not as a rule

uniform, slight changes in the velocity produce an immediate change in

the size of the particles deposited upon a given area; thus a coarse

sand layer may be succeeded by a finer sand or a mud, or two sandy

layers may be separated by a thin layer of muddy shale. Bedding is most

often induced by a change in the nature of the contiguous strata; thus a

sandstone is followed by a shale or vice versa--changes which may be due

to the varying volume or velocity of a current. Or the nature of the

deposit may be influenced by chemical actions, whereby we get beds of

rock-salt or gypsum between beds of marl. Or again, organic activities

may influence the deposit, beds of coal may succeed layers of shale,

iron-stone may lie between limestones or clays, a layer of large fossils

or of flints may determine a bedding plane in massive limestones. Flaky

minerals like mica frequently assist in the formation of bedding planes;

and the pressure of superincumbent strata upon earlier formed deposits

has no doubt often produced a tendency in the particles to arrange

themselves normal to the direction of pressure, thus causing the rock to

split more readily along the same direction.

Where rapidly-moving currents of water (or air) are transporting or

depositing sand, &c., the bedding is generally not horizontal, but

inclined more or less steeply; this brings about the formation of what

is variously called "cross-bedding," "diagonal bedding", "current

bedding" or improperly "false-bedding." Igneous materials, when

deposited through the agency of water or air, exhibit bedding, but no

true stratification is seen in igneous rocks that have solidified after

cooling, although in granites and similar rocks the process of

weathering frequently produces an appearance resembling this structure.

Miners not infrequently describe a bed of rock as a "vein," if it is one

that has some economic value, e.g. a "vein of coal or ironstone."

(J. A. H.)

BEDARESI, YEDAIAH (1270-1340), Jewish poet, physician and philosopher of

Provence. His most successful work was an ethical treatise, _Behinath

'Olam_ (Examination of the World), a didactic poem in thirty-seven short

sections. The work is still very popular. It was translated into English

by Tobias Goodman.

BEDARIEUX, a town of southern France, in the department of Herault, on

the Orb, 27 m. N.N.W. of Beziers by rail. Pop. (1906) 5594. The town has

a 16th-century church, a board of trade arbitration, a chamber of arts

and manufactures, a communal college and a school of drawing. Bedarieux

was at one time a notable manufacturing centre. Its cloth-weaving

industry, carried on under a special royal privilege from the end of the

17th century to the Revolution, employed in 1789 as many as 5000

workmen, while some thousand more were occupied in wool and cotton

spinning, &c. In spite of the introduction of modern machinery from

England, the industries of the place declined, mainly owing to the loss

of the trade with the Levant; but of late years they have somewhat

revived, owing partly to the opening up of coal mines in the

neighbourhood. Besides cloth factories and wool-spinning mills, there

are now numerous tanneries and leather-dressing works. There is some

trade in timber, wool and agricultural produce.

BEDDGELERT ("Gelert's grave"), a village in Carnarvonshire, North Wales,

at the foot of Snowdon. The tradition of Gelert, Llewelyn's hound, being

buried there is old in Wales; and common to it and India is the legend

of a dog (or ichneumon) saving a child from a beast of prey (or

reptile), and being killed by the child's father under the delusion that

the animal had slain the infant. The English poet, W.R. Spencer, has

versified the tale of Llewelyn, king of Wales, leaving Gelert and the

baby prince at home, returning to find Gelert stained with the blood of

a wolf, and killing the hound because he thought his child was slain.

Sir W. Jones, the Welsh philologist and linguist, gives the Indian

equivalent (Lord Teignmouth's _Life of Jones_, ed. Rev. S.C. Wilkes,

editor's supplement). A Brahmin, leaving home, left his daughter in

charge of an ichneumon, which he had long cherished. A black snake came

up and was killed by the ichneumon, mistakenly killed, in its turn, by

the Brahmin on his coming back. Another version is the medieval romance

in _The Seven Wise Masters of Rome_. In the edition printed by Wynkyn de

Worde it is told by "the first master"--a knight had one son, a

greyhound and a falcon; the knight went to a tourney, a snake attacked

the son, the falcon roused the hound, which killed the serpent, lay down

by the cradle, and was killed by the knight, who discovered his error,

like Llewelyn, and similarly repented (Villon Society, British Museum

reprint, by Gomme and Wheatley).

On the west of Beddgelert is Moel Hebog (Bare-hill of the falcon), a

hiding-place of Owen Glendower. Here, in 1784, was found a brass Roman

shield. Near is the famous Aberglaslyn Pass, dividing Carnarvon and

Merioneth. In the centre is Cadair Rhys Goch o'r Eryri, a rock named as

the chair of Rhys Goch, a bard contemporary with Glendower (died

traditionally, 1429). Not far hence passed the Roman road from Uriconium

to Segontium (see CARNARVON).

BEDDOES, THOMAS (1760-1808), English physician and scientific writer,

was born at Shiffnall in Shropshire on the 13th of April 1760. After

being educated at Bridgnorth grammar school and at Pembroke College,

Oxford, he studied medicine in London under John Sheldon (1752-1808). In

1784 he published a translation of L. Spallanzani's _Dissertations on

Natural History_, and in 1785 produced a translation, with original

notes, of T.O. Bergman's _Essays on Elective Attractions_. He took his

degree of doctor of medicine at Oxford in 1786, and, after visiting

Paris, where he became acquainted with Lavoisier, was appointed reader

in chemistry at Oxford University in 1788. His lectures attracted large

and appreciative audiences; but his sympathy with the French Revolution

exciting a clamour against him, he resigned his readership in 1792. In

the following year he published _Observations on the Nature of

Demonstrative Evidence_, and the _History of Isaac Jenkins_, a story

which powerfully exhibits the evils of drunkenness, and of which 40,000

copies are reported to have been sold. About the same time he began to

work at his project for the establishment of a "Pneumatic Institution"

for treating disease by the inhalation of different gases. In this he

was assisted by Richard Lovell Edgeworth, whose daughter, Anna, became

his wife in 1794. In 1798 the institution was established at Clifton,

its first superintendent being Humphry Davy, who investigated the

properties of nitrous oxide in its laboratory. The original aim of the

institution was gradually abandoned; it became an ordinary

sick-hospital, and was relinquished by its projector in the year before

his death, which occurred on the 24th of December 1808. Beddoes was a

man of great powers and wide acquirements, which he directed to noble

and philanthropic purposes. He strove to effect social good by

popularizing medical knowledge, a work for which his vivid imagination

and glowing eloquence eminently fitted him. Besides the writings

mentioned above, he was the author of _Political Pamphlets_ (1795-1797),

a popular _Essay on Consumption_ (1799), which won the admiration of

Kant, an _Essay on Fever_ (1807), and _Hygeia, or Essays Moral and

Medical_ (1807). He also edited John Brown's _Elements of Medicine_

(1795), and _Contributions to Physical and Medical Knowledge,

principally from the West of England_ (1799).

A life of Beddoes by Dr John E. Stock was published in 1810.

BEDDOES, THOMAS LOVELL (1803-1849), English dramatist and poet, son of

the physician, Thomas Beddoes, was born at Clifton on the 20th of July

1803. His mother was a sister of Maria Edgeworth, the novelist. He was

sent to Bath grammar school and then to the Charterhouse. At school he

wrote a good deal of verse and a novel in imitation of Fielding. In 1820

he was entered at Pembroke College, Oxford, and in his first year

published _The Improvisatore_, afterwards carefully suppressed, and in

1822 _The Bride's Tragedy_, which showed him as the disciple of the

later Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists. The play found a small circle

of admirers, and procured for Beddoes the friendship of Bryan Waller

Procter (Barry Cornwall). Beddoes retired to Southampton to read for his

degree, and there Procter introduced him to a young lawyer, Thomas

Forbes Kelsall, with whom he became very intimate, and who became his

biographer and editor. At this time he composed the dramatic fragments

of _The Second Brother_ and _Torrismond_. Unfortunately he lacked the

power of constructing a plot, and seemed to suffer from a constitutional

inability to finish anything. Beddoes was one of the first outside the

limited circle of Shelley's own friends to recognize Shelley's genius,

and he was certainly one of the earliest imitators of his lyrical

method. In the summer of 1824 he was summoned to Florence by the illness

of his mother, but she died before he arrived. He remained some time in

Italy, and met Mrs Shelley and Walter Savage Landor before he returned

to England. In 1825 he took his degree at Oxford, and in that year he

began what he calls (_Letters_, p. 68) "a very Gothic styled tragedy"

with "a jewel of a name." This work was completed in 1829 as the

fantastic and incoherent drama, _Death's Jest Book or The Fool's

Tragedy_; but he continued to revise it until his death, and it was only

published posthumously. On leaving Oxford he decided to study anatomy

and physiology, not, however, without some hope that his studies might,

by increasing his knowledge of the human mechanism, further his efforts

as a dramatist. In the autumn of 1825 he entered on his studies at

Gottingen, where he remained for four years. In 1829 he removed to

Wurzburg, and in 1832 obtained his doctorate in medicine, but his

intimate association with democratic and republican leaders in Germany

and Switzerland forced him to leave Bavaria without receiving his

diploma. He settled in Zurich, where he practised for some time as a

physician, and was even elected to be professor of comparative anatomy

at the university, but the authorities refused to ratify his appointment

because of his revolutionary views. He frequently contributed political

poems and articles to German and Swiss papers, but none of his German

work has been identified. The years at Zurich seem to have been the

happiest of his life, but in 1839 the anti-liberal riots in the town

rendered it unsafe for him, and early in the next year he had to escape

secretly. From this time he had no settled home, though he stored his

books at Baden in Aargau. His long residence in Germany was only broken

by visits to England in 1828 to take his master of arts degree, in 1835,

in 1842 and for some months in 1846. He had adopted German thought and

manners to such an extent that he hardly felt at home in England; and

his study of the German language, which he had begun in 1825, had almost

weaned him from his mother-tongue; he was, as he says in a letter, "a

non-conductor of friendship"; and it is not surprising that his old

friends found him much changed and eccentric. In 1847 he returned to

Frankfort, where he lived with a baker called Degen, to whom he became

much attached, and whom he persuaded to become an actor. He took Degen

with him to Zurich, where he chartered the theatre for one night to give

his friend a chance of playing Hotspur. The two separated at Basel, and

in a fit of dejection (May 1848) Beddoes tried to bleed himself to

death. He was taken to the hospital, and wrote to his friends in England

that he had had a fall from horseback. His leg was amputated, and he was

in a fair way to recovery when, on the first day he was allowed to leave

the hospital, he took curare, from the effects of which he died on the

26th of January 1849. His MSS. he left in the charge of his friend

Kelsall.

In one of his letters to Kelsall Beddoes wrote:--"I am convinced the man

who is to awaken the drama must be a bold, trampling fellow--no creeper

into worm-holes--no reviser even--however good. These reanimations are

vampire cold. Such ghosts as Marloe, Webster, &c., are better

dramatists, better poets, I dare say, than any contemporaries of

ours--but they are ghosts--the worm is in their pages" (_Letters_, p.

50). In spite of this wise judgment, Beddoes was himself a "creeper into

worm-holes," a close imitator of Marston and of Cyril Tourneur,

especially in their familiar handling of the phenomena of death, and in

the remoteness from ordinary life of the passions portrayed. In his

blank verse he caught to a certain degree the manner of his Jacobean

models, and his verse abounds in beautiful imagery, but his _Death's

Jest Book_ is only finished in the sense of having five acts completed;

it remains a bizarre production which appeals to few minds, and to them

rather for the occasional excellence of the poetry than as an entire

composition. His lyrics show the influence of Shelley as well as the

study of 17th-century models, but they are by no means mere imitations,

and some of them, like the "Dirge for Wolfram" ("If thou wilt ease thy

heart"), and "Dream Pedlary" ("If there were dreams to sell"), are among

the most exquisite of 19th-century lyrics.

Kelsall published Beddoes' great work, _Death's Jest Book: or, The

Fool's Tragedy_, in 1850. The drama is based on the story that a

certain Duke Boleslaus of Munsterberg was stabbed by his court-fool,

the "Isbrand" of the play (see C.F. Floegel, _Geschichte der

Hofnarren_, Leipzig, 1789, pp. 297 et seq.). He followed this in 1851

with _Poems of the late Thomas Lovell Beddoes_, to which a memoir was

prefixed. The two volumes were printed together (1851) with the title

of _Poems, Posthumous and Collected_. All these volumes are very rare.

Kelsall bequeathed the Beddoes MSS. to Robert Browning, with a note

stating the real history of Beddoes' illness and death, which was kept

back out of consideration for his relatives. Browning is reported to

have said that if he were ever Professor of Poetry his first lecture

would be on Beddoes, "a forgotten Oxford poet." Mr Edmund Gosse

obtained permission to use the documents from Browning, and edited a

fuller selection of the _Poetical Works_ (2 vols., 1890) for the

"Temple Library," supplying a full account of his life. He also edited

the _Letters of Thomas Lovell Beddoes_ (1894), containing a selection

from his correspondence, which is full of gaiety and contains much

amusing literary criticism. See also the edition of Beddoes by Ramsay

Colles in the "Muses' Library" (1906).

BEDE, BEDA, or BAEDA (672 or 673-735), English historian and theologian.

Of Baeda, commonly called "the Venerable Bede," almost all that we know

is contained in the short autobiographical notice which he has appended

to his _Ecclesiastical History_:--"Thus much concerning the

ecclesiastical history of Britain, and especially of the race of the

English, I, Baeda, a servant of Christ and priest of the monastery of

the blessed apostles St Peter and St Paul, which is at Wearmouth and at

Jarrow, have with the Lord's help composed, so far as I could gather it,

either from ancient documents, or from the tradition of the elders, or

from my own knowledge. I was born in the territory of the said

monastery, and at the age of seven I was, by the care of my relations,

given to the reverend Abbot Benedict (Biscop), and afterwards to

Ceolfrid, to be educated. From that time I have spent the whole of my

life within that monastery devoting all my pains to the study of the

scriptures; and amid the observance of monastic discipline, and the

daily charge of singing in the church, it has ever been my delight to

learn or teach or write. In my nineteenth year I was admitted to the

diaconate, in my thirtieth to the priesthood, both by the hands of the

most reverend Bishop John (of Hexham), and at the bidding of Abbot

Ceolfrid. From the time of my admission to the priesthood to my

(present) fifty-ninth year, I have endeavoured, for my own use and that

of my brethren, to make brief notes upon the Holy Scripture, either out

of the works of the venerable fathers, or in conformity with their

meaning and interpretation." Then follows a list of his works, so far

as, at that date, they had been composed. As the _Ecclesiastical

History_ was written in 731, we obtain the following dates for the

principal events in Bede's uneventful life:--birth, 672-673; entrance

into the monastery, 679-680; ordination as deacon, 691-692; as priest,

702-703.

The monastery of Wearmouth was founded by Benedict Biscop in 674, and

that of Jarrow in 681-682. Though some 5 or 6 m. apart, they were

intended to form a single monastery under a single abbot, and so Bede

speaks of them in the passage given above. It is with Jarrow that Bede

is chiefly associated, though no doubt from the close connexion of the

two localities he would often be at Wearmouth. The preface to the prose

life of Cuthbert proves that he had stayed at Lindisfarne prior to 721,

while the Epistle to Egbert shows that he had visited him at York in

733. The tradition that he went to Rome in obedience to a summons from

Pope Sergius is contradicted by his own words above, and by his total

silence as to any such visit. In the passage cited above, "monastic

discipline, the daily charge of singing in the church, learning,

teaching, writing," in other words devotion and study make up the even

tenor of Bede's tranquil life. Anecdotes have been preserved which

illustrate his piety both in early and in later years; of his studies

the best monument is to be found in his writings. As a little boy he

would take his place among the pupils of the monastic school, though he

would soon pass to the ranks of the teachers, and the fact that he was

ordained deacon at nineteen, below the canonical age, shows that he was

regarded as remarkable both for learning and goodness.

For the rest, it is in his works that we must chiefly seek to know him.

They fall into three main classes: (1) scientific; (2) historical; (3)

theological. The first class comprises works on grammar, one on natural

phenomena, and two on chronology and the calendar. These last were

inspired largely by the Paschal Question, which was the subject of such

bitter controversy between the Roman and Celtic Churches in the 7th

century. They form a natural transition to the second class. In this the

chief place is held by the _Ecclesiastical History of the English

Nation_. By this Bede has justly earned the title of the Father of

English History. By this almost exclusively he is known to others than

professed students. It is indeed one of the most valuable and one of the

most beautiful of historical works. Bede has the artist's instinct of

proportion, the artist's sense for the picturesque and the pathetic. His

style too, modelled largely, in the present writer's opinion, on that of

Gregory in the _Dialogues_, is limpid and unaffected. And though it

would be wrong to call Bede a critical historian in the modern sense of

the words, he shows a very unusual conscientiousness in collecting his

information from the best available sources, and in distinguishing

between what he believed to be fact, and what he regarded only as rumour

or tradition. Other historical works of Bede are the _History of the

Abbots_ (of Wearmouth and Jarrow), and the lives of Cuthbert in verse

and prose. The _History of the Abbots_ and the prose life of Cuthbert

were based on earlier works which still survive. In the case of the

latter it cannot honestly be said that Bede has improved on his

original. In the _History of the Abbots_ he was much nearer to the

facts, and could make additions out of his own personal knowledge. The

Epistle to Egbert, though not historical in form, may be mentioned here,

because of the valuable information which it contains as to the state of

the Northumbrian Church, on which the disorders and revolutions of the

Northumbrian kingdom had told with disastrous effect. It is probably the

latest of Bede's extant works, as it was written in November 734, only

six months before his death. The third or theological class of writings

consists mainly of commentaries, or of works which, if not commentaries

in name, are so in fact. They are based largely on the works of the four

great Latin Fathers, SS. Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose and Gregory; though

Bede's reading is very far from being limited to these. His method is

largely allegorical. For the text of scripture he uses both the Latin

versions, the Itala and the Vulgate, often comparing them together. But

he certainly knew Greek, and possibly some Hebrew. Indeed it may be said

that his works, scientific, historical and theological, practically sum

up all the learning of western Europe in his time, which he thus made

available for his countrymen. And not for them only; for in the school

of York, founded by his pupil Archbishop Ecgberht, was trained Alcuin

(Ealhwine) the initiator under Charles the Great of the Frankish

schools, which did so much for learning on the continent. And though

Bede makes no pretensions to originality, least of all in his

theological works, freely taking what he needed, and (what is very rare

in medieval writers) acknowledging what he took, "out of the works of

the venerable Fathers," still everything he wrote is informed and

impressed with his own special character and temper. His earnest yet

sober piety, his humility, his gentleness, appear in almost every line.

"In history and in science, as well as in theology, he is before all

things the Christian thinker and student." (Plummer's _Bede_, i. 2.) Yet

it should not be forgotten that Bede could hardly have done what he did

without the noble library of books collected by Benedict Biscop.

Several quaint and beautiful legends have been handed down as to the

origin of the epithet of "venerable" generally attached to his name.

Probably it is a mere survival of a title commonly given to priests in

his day. It has given rise to a false idea that he lived to a great

age; some medieval authorities making him ninety when he died. But he

was not born before 672 (see above); and though the date of his death

has been disputed, the traditional year, 735, is most probably correct.

This would make him at most sixty-three. Of his death a most touching

and beautiful account has been preserved in a contemporary letter. His

last hours were spent, like the rest of his life, in devotion and

teaching, his latest work being to dictate, amid ever-increasing bodily

weakness, a translation into the vernacular of the Gospel of St John, a

work which unhappily has not survived. It was a fitting close to such a

life as his.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The above sketch is largely based on the present

writer's essay on Bede's Life and Works, prefixed to his edition of

Bede's _Historia Ecclesiastica, &c._ (2 vols., Clarendon Press, 1896).

_Beda der Ehrwurdige und seine Zeit_, by Dr Karl Werner (Vienna,

1875), is excellent. Gehle, _Disputatio ... de Bedae vita et Scriptis_

(Leiden, 1838), is still useful. Dr William Bright's _Chapters of

Early English Church History_ (3rd ed., Clarendon Press, 1897) is

indispensable. See also Ker, _Dark Ages_, pp. 141 ff. Of the collected

works of Bede the most convenient edition is that by Dr Giles in

twelve volumes (8vo., 1843-1844), which includes translations of the

_Historical Works_. The Continental folio editions (Basel, 1563;

Cologne, 1612 and 1688) contain many works which cannot by any

possibility be Bede's. The edition of Migne, _Patralogia Latina_ (1862

ff.) is based on a comparison of the Cologne edition with Giles and

Smith (see below), and is open to the same criticism. On the

chronology and genuineness of the works commonly ascribed to Bede, see

Plummer's ed., i., cxlv-clix.

On the MSS. early editions and translations of the _Historia

Ecclesiastica_, see Plummer, u.s., i., lxxx-cxxxii. The edition of

Whelock (Cambridge, fol. 1643-1644) is noteworthy as the first English

edition of the Latin text, and as the _editio princeps_ of the

Anglo-Saxon version ascribed to King Alfred (see ALFRED THE GREAT).

Smith's edition (Cambridge, fol. 1722) contained not only these, but

also the other historical works of Bede, with notes and appendices. It

is a monument of learning and scholarship. The most recent edition is

that with notes and introduction by the present writer, u.s. It

includes also the _History of the Abbots_, and the Epistle to Egbert.

Of books iii. and iv. only, there is a learned edition by Professors

Mayor and Lumby of Cambridge (3rd ed., 1881). A cheap and handy

edition of the text alone is that by A. Holder (Freiburg im Breisgau,

1882, &c.). The best-known modern English translation is that by the

Rev. L. Gidley (1870). Of the minor historical works a good edition

was edited by Rev. J. Stevenson for the Eng. Hist. Soc. in 1841; and a

translation by the same hand was included in _Church Historians of

England_, vol. i., part ii. (1853). See also Plummer's edition, pp.

cxxxii-cxlii. (C. Pl.)

BEDE, CUTHBERT, the pen-name of Edward Bradley (1827-1889), English

author, who was born at Kidderminster on the 25th of March 1827. He

entered University College, Durham, in 1845, and later studied at

Oxford, where he made the acquaintance of J.G. Wood, the naturalist. He

took holy orders, and eventually became rector of Stretton in

Rutlandshire. Here he gained a reputation as a humorist and numbered

among his friends Cruikshank, Frank Smedley, Mark Lemon and Albert

Smith. He wrote for various magazines and, in the pages of the

_Illustrated London News_, introduced the double acrostic. He is chiefly

known as the author of _The Adventures of Mr Verdant Green, an Oxford

Freshman_ (1853), which he also illustrated and of which a third part

appeared in 1856. Several well-known Oxford characters of the time are

depicted in its pages, such as Dr Plumptre the vice-chancellor, Dr Bliss

the registrar, and the waiter at the Mitre. The book abounds in innocent

fun. In 1883 he was given the living of Lenton, or Lavington,

Lincolnshire, where he died on the 12th of December 1889.

BEDELL, WILLIAM (1571-1642), Anglican divine, was born at Black Notley

in Essex, in 1571. He was educated at Cambridge, became fellow of

Emmanuel in 1593, and took orders. In 1607 he was appointed chaplain to

Sir H. Wotton, then English ambassador at Venice, where he remained for

four years, acquiring a great reputation as a scholar and theologian. He

translated the _Book of Common Prayer_ into Italian, and was on terms of

closest friendship with the reformer, Sarpi (Fra Paolo). In 1616 he was

appointed to the rectory of Horningsheath (near to Bury St Edmunds,

where he had previously laboured), which he held for twelve years. In

1627 he became provost of Trinity College, Dublin, and, in 1629, bishop

of Kilmore and Ardagh. He set himself to reform the abuses of his

diocese, encouraged the use of the Irish language, and personally

undertook the duties generally discharged by the bishop's lay

chancellor. In 1633 he resigned his see. In 1641, when the Protestants

were being massacred, Bedell's house was not only left untouched, but

became the place of refuge for many fugitives. In the end, however, the

rebels insisted upon the dismissal of all who had taken shelter in his

house, and on the bishop's refusal he was seized and imprisoned with

some others in the ruined castle of Loughboughter. Here he was detained

for several weeks, and when released, rapidly sank from the effects of

exposure, and died on the 7th of February 1642.

His life was written by Bishop Gilbert Burnet in 1685, and also by his

elder son (ed. T.W. Jones, for the Camden Society, 1872).

BEDESMAN, or BEADSMAN (Med. Eng. _bede_, prayer, from O. Eng. _biddan_,

to pray; literally "a man of prayer"), generally a pensioner or almsman

whose duty it was to pray for his benefactor. In Scotland there were

public almsmen supported by the king and expected in return to pray for

his welfare and that of the state. These men wore long blue gowns with a

pewter badge on the right arm, and were nicknamed Blue Gowns. Their

number corresponded to the king's years, an extra one being added each

royal birthday. They were privileged to ask alms throughout Scotland. On

the king's birthday each bedesman received a new blue gown, a loaf, a

bottle of ale, and a leathern purse containing a penny for every year of

the king's life. On the pewter badge which they wore were their name and

the words "pass and repass," which authorized them to ask alms. In 1833

the appointment of bedesmen was stopped. In 1863 the last payment was

paid to a bedesman. In consequence of its use in this general sense of

pensioner, "bedesman" was long used in English as equivalent to

"servant." The word had a special sense as the name for those almsmen

attached to cathedral and other churches, whose duty it was to pray for

the souls of deceased benefactors. A relic of pre-Reformation times,

these old men still figure in the accounts of English cathedrals.

BEDFORD, EARLS AND DUKES OF. The present English title of duke of

Bedford comes from a line of earls and dukes in the Russell family. In

January 1550 John, Baron Russell, was created earl of Bedford, and in

May 1694 his descendant, William, the 5th earl, became duke of Bedford.

The Russell line is dealt with in the later part of this article. The

title of duke of Bedford had, however, been previously held, notably by

the third son of Henry IV.; and the earlier creations may first be

considered here.

JOHN PLANTAGENET, duke of Bedford (1389-1435), third son of Henry IV.,

king of England, was born on the 20th of June 1389. He received various

dignities after his father became king in 1399, and gained his early

experiences in warfare when he undertook the office of warden of the

east marches of Scotland in 1404; he was fairly successful in this

command, which he held until September 1414. In the previous May his

brother, the new king Henry V., had created him duke of Bedford, and

after resigning the wardenship he began to take a leading part in the

royal councils. He acted as lieutenant of the kingdom during Henry's

expedition to France in 1415, and in August 1416 commanded the ships

which defeated the French fleet at the mouth of the Seine, and was

instrumental in relieving Harfleur. Again appointed lieutenant in July

1417, he marched against the Scots, who abandoned the siege of Berwick

at his approach; and on his return to London he brought Sir John

Oldcastle to trial and was present at his execution. He appears to have

governed the country with considerable success until December 1419, when

he resigned his office as lieutenant and joined the king in France.

Returning to England, he undertook the lieutenancy for the third time in

June 1421, and in the following May conducted the queen to join Henry in

Normandy. He then took his brother's place and led the English troops to

the relief of Cosne, but on hearing of the king's serious illness he

left the army and hurried to his side. Henry's last wish was that

Bedford should be guardian of the kingdom and of the young king, and

that Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, should act as regent in France.

But when Philip declined to undertake this office, it too was assumed by

Bedford, who, after the death of the French king Charles VI. in October

1422, presided at a session of the parlement of Paris, and compelled

all present to take an oath of fidelity to King Henry VI. Meanwhile the

English parliament had decided that Bedford should be "protector and

defender" of the kingdom, and that in his absence the office should

devolve upon his brother Humphrey, duke of Gloucester. Confining himself

to the conduct of affairs in France the protector took up Henry V.'s

work of conquest, captured Meulan and other places, and sought to

strengthen his position by an alliance with Philip of Burgundy. This

task was rendered more difficult as Gloucester had just married

Jacqueline, countess of Holland and Hainaut, a union which gave the

English duke a claim on lands which Philip hoped to secure for himself.

Bedford, however, having allayed Philip's irritation, formed an alliance

with him and with John VI., duke of Brittany, at Amiens in April 1423,

and himself arranged to marry Anne, a sister of the Burgundian duke.

This marriage was celebrated at Troyes in the following June, and the

war against Charles, the dauphin of France, was prosecuted with vigour

and success. Bedford sought to restore prosperity to the districts under

his rule by reforming the debased coinage, granting privileges to

merchants and manufacturers, and removing various abuses. He then

granted some counties to Philip to check the growing hostility between

him and Gloucester, and on the 17th of August 1424 gained a great

victory over a combined army of French and Scots at Verneuil. But in

spite of the efforts of the protector the good understanding between

England and Burgundy was partially destroyed when Gloucester invaded

Hainaut in October 1424. The ambition of his brother gave Bedford

trouble in another direction also; for on his return from Hainaut

Gloucester quarrelled with the chancellor, Henry Beaufort, bishop of

Winchester, and the council implored Bedford to come to England to

settle this dispute. He reached London in January 1426, and after

concluding a bond of alliance with Gloucester effected a reconciliation

between the duke and the chancellor; and knighted the young king, Henry

VI. Bedford then promised to act in accordance with the will of the

council, and in harmony with the decision of this body raised a body of

troops and returned to France in March 1427. Having ordered Gloucester

to desist from a further attack on Hainaut, he threatened Brittany and

compelled Duke John to return to the English alliance; and the success

of his troops continued until the siege of Orleans, to which he

consented with reluctance, was undertaken in October 1428. Having

assured himself that Philip was prepared to desert him, Bedford sent

orders to his army to raise the siege in April 1429. He then acted with

great energy and judgment in attempting to stem the tide of disasters

which followed this failure, strengthened his hold upon Paris, and sent

to England for reinforcements; but before any engagement took place he

visited Rouen, where he sought to bind the Normans closer to England,

and after his return to Paris resigned the French regency to Philip of

Burgundy in accordance with the wish of the Parisians. Retaining the

government of Normandy Bedford established himself at Rouen and directed

the movements of the English forces with some success. He did not

interfere to save the life of Joan of Arc. He was joined by Henry VI. in

April 1430, when the regency was temporarily suspended, and he secured

Henry's coronation at Paris in December 1431. In November 1432 his wife

Anne died, and in April 1433 he was married at Therouanne to Jacqueline,

daughter of Pierre I., count of St Pol. But notwithstanding Bedford's

vigour the English lost ground steadily; and the death of Anne and this

marriage destroyed the friendly relations between England and Burgundy.

Negotiations for peace had no result, and when the duke returned to

England in June 1433 he told parliament that he had come home to defend

himself against the charge that the losses in France were caused by his

neglect, and demanded that his detractors should make their accusations

public. The chancellor replied that no such charges were known to the

king or the council, and the duke was thanked for his great services.

His next act was to secure an inquiry into the national finances; and

when asked by the parliament to stay in England he declared that his

services were at the king's disposal. As chief councillor he offered to

take a smaller salary than had been previously paid to Gloucester, and

undertook this office in December 1433, when his demands with regard to

a continual council were conceded. Bedford, who was anxious to prosecute

the war in France, left England again in 1434, but early in 1435 was

obliged to consent to the attendance of English r epresentatives at a

congress held to arrange terms of peace at Arras. Unable to consent to

the French terms the English envoys left Arras in September, and Philip

of Burgundy made a separate treaty with France. Bedford only lived to

see the ruin of the cause for which he struggled so loyally. He died at

Rouen on the 14th of September 1435, and was buried in the cathedral of

that city. He left a natural son, Richard, but no legitimate issue.

Bedford was a man of considerable administrative ability, brave and

humane in war, wise and unselfish in peace. He was not responsible for

the misfortunes of the English in France, and his courage in the face of

failure was as admirable as his continued endeavour to make the people

under his rule contented and prosperous.

The chief contemporary authorities for Bedford's life are: _Vita et

gesta Henrici Quinti_, edited by T. Hearne (Oxford, 1727); E. de

Monstrelet, _Chronique_, edited by L.D. d'Arcq. (Paris, 1857-1862);

William of Worcester, _Annales rerum Anglicarum_, edited by J.

Stevenson (London, 1864). See also _Proceedings and Ordinances of the

Privy Council of England_, edited by J.R. Dasent (London, 1890-1899);

W. Stubbs, _Constitutional History_, vol. iii. (Oxford, 1895); P.A.

Barante, _Histoire des ducs de Bourgogne_ (Paris, 1824).

In 1470 GEORGE NEVILL (c. 1457-1483), son of John, earl of

Northumberland, was created duke of Bedford; but after his father's

attainder and death at the battle of Barnet in 1471 he was degraded from

the peerage.

The next duke of Bedford was JASPER TUDOR (c. 1430-1495), half-brother

of King Henry VI. and uncle of Henry VII. He was made earl of Pembroke

in 1453. Having survived the vicissitudes of the Wars of the Roses he

was restored to his earldom and created duke of Bedford in 1485. The

duke, who was lord-lieutenant of Ireland from 1486 to 1494, died without

legitimate issue on the 21st of December 1495.

JOHN RUSSELL, 1st earl of Bedford (c. 1486-1555), was a son of James

Russell (d. 1509). Having travelled widely, he attained some position at

the court of Henry VII., and was subsequently in great favour with Henry

VIII. In 1513 he took part in the war with France, and, having been

knighted about the same time, was afterwards employed on several

diplomatic errands. He was with Henry at the Field of the Cloth of Gold

in 1520, and, returning to military service when the French war was

renewed, lost his right eye at the siege of Morlaix in 1522. He was soon

made knight marshal of the royal household, and in 1523 went secretly to

France, where he negotiated a treaty between Henry and Charles, duke of

Bourbon, who was anxious to betray the French king Francis I. After a

short visit to England Russell was sent with money to Bourbon, joining

the constable at the siege of Marseilles. In 1524 he visited Pope

Clement VII. at Rome, and, having eluded the French, who endeavoured to

capture him, was present at the battle of Pavia in February 1525,

returning to England about the close of the year. In January 1527 he was

sent as ambassador to Clement, who employed him to treat on his behalf

with Charles de Lannoy, the general of Charles V. The next few years of

Russell's life were mainly spent in England. He was member of parliament

for Buckingham in the parliament of 1529, and although an opponent of

the party of Anne Boleyn, retained the favour of Henry VIII. He took an

active part in suppressing the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, and was one

of the commissioners appointed to try the Lincolnshire prisoners.

Honours now crowded upon him. His appointment as comptroller of the

king's household in 1537 was followed by that of a privy councillor in

1538; then he was made lord high admiral, high steward of the duchy of

Cornwall and a knight of the garter. In March 1539 he was created Baron

Russell of Chenies, and in 1542 became high steward of the university of

Oxford, and keeper of the privy seal. In 1539, when Charles V. and

Francis I. were threatening to invade England, he was sent into the

west, and crossed to France when Henry attacked Francis in 1544. He was

in command of an army in the west of England in 1545, and when Henry

died in January 1547 was one of the executors of his will. Under Edward

VI. Russell was lord high steward and keeper of the privy seal, and the

defeat which he inflicted on the rebels at Clyst St Mary near Exeter in

August 1549, was largely instrumental in suppressing the rising in

Devonshire. In January 1550 he was created earl of Bedford, and was one

of the commissioners appointed to make peace with France in this year.

He opposed the proposal to seat Lady Jane Grey on the throne; supported

Queen Mary, who reappointed him lord privy seal; and assisted to prevent

Sir Thomas Wyat's rising from spreading to Devonshire. In 1554 he went

to Spain to conclude the marriage treaty between Mary and Philip II.,

and soon after his return died in London on the 14th of March 1555. By

extensive acquisitions of land Bedford was the founder of the wealth and

greatness of the house of Russell. Through his wife, Anne (d. 1550),

daughter of Sir Guy Sapcote, whom he married in 1526, he obtained

Chenies, and in 1539 was granted the forest of Exmoor, and also

Tavistock, and a number of manors in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset, which

had formerly belonged to the abbey of Tavistock. In 1549 he received

Thorney, the abbey of Woburn, and extensive lands in the eastern

counties; and in 1552 Covent Garden and seven acres of land in London,

formerly the property of the protector Somerset. He left an only son,

Francis, who succeeded him in the title.

See _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII._ (London, 1862-1901); _State

Papers during the Reign of Henry VIII._ (London, 1831-1852); _Calendar

of State Papers, Edward VI. and Mary_ (London, 1861); J.H. Wiffen,

_Historical Memoirs of the House of Russell_ (London, 1833); J.A.

Froude, _History of England, passim_ (London, 1881 fol.).

FRANCIS RUSSELL, 2nd earl of Bedford (c. 1527-1585), was educated at

King's Hall, Cambridge. He accompanied his father to the French war in

1544, and from 1547 to 1552 was member of parliament for

Buckinghamshire, being probably the first heir to a peerage to sit in

the House of Commons. He assisted to quell the rising in Devonshire in

1549, and after his father had been created earl of Bedford in January

1550, was known as Lord Russell, taking his seat in the House of Lords

under this title in 1552. Russell was in sympathy with the reformers,

whose opinions he shared, and was in communication with Sir Thomas Wyat;

and in consequence of his religious attitude was imprisoned during the

earlier part of Mary's reign. Being released he went into exile; visited

Italy; came into touch with foreign reformers; and fought at the battle

of St Quentin in 1557. Afterwards he seems to have enjoyed some measure

of the royal favour, and was made lord-lieutenant of the counties of

Devon, Cornwall and Dorset early in 1558. When Elizabeth ascended the

throne in November 1558 the earl of Bedford, as Russell had been since

1555, became an active figure in public life. He was made a privy

councillor, and was sent on diplomatic errands to Charles IX. of France

and Mary queen of Scots. From February 1564 to October 1567 he was

governor of Berwick and warden of the east marches of Scotland, in which

capacity he conducted various negotiations between Elizabeth and Mary.

He appears to have been an efficient warden, but was irritated by the

vacillating and tortuous conduct of the English queen. When the northern

insurrection broke out in 1569, Bedford was sent into Wales, and he sat

in judgment upon the duke of Norfolk in 1572. In 1576 he was president

of the council of Wales, and in 1581 was one of the commissioners

deputed to arrange a marriage between Elizabeth and Francis, duke of

Anjou. Bedford, who was made a knight of the garter in 1564, was lord

warden of the Stannaries from 1553 to 1580. He appears to have been a

generous and popular man, and died in London on the 28th of July 1585.

He was buried at Chenies. His first wife was Margaret (d. 1562),

daughter of Sir John St John, by whom he had four sons and three

daughters. His three eldest sons predeceased their father. His second

wife was Bridget (d. 1601), daughter of John, Lord Hussey. He was

succeeded as 3rd earl by his grandson, EDWARD (1572-1627), only son of

Francis, Lord Russell (c. 1550-1585). The 3rd earl left no children when

he died on the 3rd of May 1627, and was succeeded by his cousin.

FRANCIS RUSSELL, 4th earl of Bedford (1593-1641), was the only son of

William, Lord Russell of Thornhaugh, to which barony he succeeded in

August 1613. For a short time previously he had been member of

parliament for the borough of Lyme Regis; in 1623 he was made

lord-lieutenant of Devonshire; and in May 1627 became earl of Bedford by

the death of his cousin, Edward, the 3rd earl. When the quarrel broke

out between Charles I. and the parliament, Bedford supported the demands

of the House of Commons as embodied in the Petition of Right, and in

1629 was arrested for his share in the circulation of Sir Robert

Dudley's pamphlet, "Proposition for His Majesty's service," but was

quickly released. The Short parliament meeting in April 1640 found the

earl as one of the king's leading opponents. He was greatly trusted by

John Pym and Oliver St John, and is mentioned by Clarendon as among the

"great contrivers and designers" in the House of Lords. In July 1640 he

was among the peers who wrote to the Scottish leaders refusing to invite

a Scottish army into England, but promising to stand by the Scots in all

legal and honourable ways; and his signature was afterwards forged by

Thomas, Viscount Savile, in order to encourage the Scots to invade

England. In the following September he was among those peers who urged

Charles to call a parliament, to make peace with the Scots, and to

dismiss his obnoxious ministers; and was one of the English

commissioners appointed to conclude the treaty of Ripon. When the Long

parliament met in November 1640, Bedford was generally regarded as the

leader of the parliamentarians. In February 1641 he was made a privy

councillor, and during the course of some negotiations was promised the

office of lord high treasurer. He was essentially a moderate man, and

seemed anxious to settle the question of the royal revenue in a

satisfactory manner. He did not wish to alter the government of the

Church, was on good terms with Archbishop Laud, and, although convinced

of Stafford's guilt, was anxious to save his life. In the midst of the

parliamentary struggle Bedford died of smallpox on the 9th of May 1641.

Clarendon described him as "a wise man, and of too great and plentiful a

fortune to wish the subversion of the government," and again referring

to his death said that "many who knew him well thought his death not

unseasonable as well to his fame as his fortune, and that it rescued him

as well from some possible guilt as from those visible misfortunes which

men of all conditions have since undergone." Bedford was the head of

those who undertook to drain the great level of the fens, called after

him the "Bedford level." He spent a large sum of money over this work

and received 43,000 acres of land, but owing to various jealousies and

difficulties the king took the work into his own hands in 1638, making a

further grant of land to the earl. Bedford married Catherine (d. 1657),

daughter of Giles, 3rd Lord Chandos, by whom he had four sons and four

daughters. His eldest son, WILLIAM (1613-1700), succeeded him as 5th

earl, fought first on the side of the parliament and then on that of the

king during the Civil War, and in 1694 was created marquess of Tavistock

and duke of Bedford.

See Clarendon, _History of the Rebellion, passim_ (Oxford, 1888); J.H.

Wiffen, _Historical Memoirs of the House of Russell_ (London, 1833);

J.L. Sanford, _Studies and Illustrations of the Great Rebellion_

(London, 1858).

The first duke, who married Anne (d. 1684), daughter of Robert Carr,

earl of Somerset, was succeeded in the title by his grandson Wriothesley

(1680-1711), who was a son of Lord William Russell (q.v.) by his

marriage with Rachel, daughter of Thomas Wriothesley, 4th earl of

Southampton, and who became second duke in 1700. Eleven years later the

second duke was succeeded by his eldest son Wriothesley (1708-1732), who

died without issue in October 1732, when the title passed to his brother

John.

JOHN RUSSELL, 4th duke of Bedford (1710-1771), second son of Wriothesley

Russell, 2nd duke of Bedford, by his wife, Elizabeth, daughter and

heiress of John Howland of Streatham, Surrey, was born on the 30th of

September 1710. Known as Lord John Russell, he married in October 1731

Lady Diana Spencer, daughter of Charles, 3rd earl of Sunderland; became

duke of Bedford on his brother's death a year later; and having lost

his first wife in 1735, married in April 1737 Lady Gertrude

Leveson-Gower (d. 1794), daughter of John, Earl Gower. In the House of

Lords he joined the party hostile to Sir Robert Walpole, took a fairly

prominent part in public business, and earned the dislike of George II.

When Carteret, now Earl Granville, resigned office in November 1744,

Bedford became first lord of the admiralty in the administration of

Henry Pelham, and was made a privy councillor. He was very successful at

the admiralty, but was not equally fortunate after he became secretary

of state for the southern department in February 1748. Pelham accused

him of idleness; he was constantly at variance with the duke of

Newcastle, and resigned office in June 1751. Instigated by his friends

he was active in opposition to the government, and after Newcastle's

resignation in November 1756, became lord-lieutenant of Ireland in the

ministry of William Pitt and the duke of Devonshire, retaining this

office after Newcastle, in alliance with Pitt, returned to power in June

1757. In Ireland he favoured a relaxation of the penal laws against

Roman Catholics, but did not keep his promises to observe neutrality

between the rival parties, and to abstain from securing pensions for his

friends. His own courtly manners and generosity, and his wife's good

qualities, however, seem to have gained for him some popularity,

although Horace Walpole says he disgusted everybody. In March 1761 he

resigned this office. Having allied himself with the earl of Bute and

the party anxious to bring the Seven Years' War to a close, Bedford was

noticed as the strongest opponent of Pitt, and became lord privy seal

under Bute after Pitt resigned in October 1761. The cabinet of Bute was

divided over the policy to be pursued with regard to the war, but

pacific counsels prevailed, and in September 1762 Bedford went to France

to treat for peace. He was considerably annoyed because some of the

peace negotiations were conducted through other channels, but he signed

the peace of Paris in February 1763. Resigning his office as lord privy

seal soon afterwards, various causes of estrangement arose between Bute

and Bedford, and the subsequent relations of the two men were somewhat

virulent. The duke refused to take office under George Grenville on

Bute's resignation in April 1763, and sought to induce Pitt to return to

power. A report, however, that Pitt would only take office on condition

that Bedford was excluded, incensed him and, smarting under this rebuff,

he joined the cabinet of Grenville as lord president of the council in

September 1763. His haughty manner, his somewhat insulting language, and

his attitude with regard to the regency bill in 1765 offended George

III., who sought in vain to supplant him, and after this failure was

obliged to make humiliating concessions to the ministry. In July 1765,

however, he was able to dispense with the services of Bedford and his

colleagues, and the duke became the leader of a political party,

distinguished for rapacity, and known as the "Bedford party," or the

"Bloomsbury gang." During his term of office he had opposed a bill to

place high import duties on Italian silks. He was consequently assaulted

and his London residence attacked by a mob. He took some part in

subsequent political intrigues, and although he did not return to

office, his friends, with his consent, joined the ministry of the duke

of Grafton in December 1767. This proceeding led "Junius" to write his

"letter to the duke of Bedford," one of especial violence. Bedford was

hostile to John Wilkes, and narrowly escaped from a mob favourable to

the agitator at Honiton in July 1769. His health had been declining for

some years, and in 1770 he became partially paralysed. He died at Woburn

on the 15th of January 1771, and was buried in the family burying place

at Chenies. His three sons all predeceased him, and he was succeeded in

the title by his grandson, Francis. The duke held many public offices:

lord-lieutenant of Bedfordshire and Devonshire, and chancellor of Dublin

University among others, and was a knight of the garter. Bedford was a

proud and conceited man, but possessed both ability and common-sense.

The important part which he took in public life, however, was due rather

to his wealth and position than to his personal taste or ambition. He

was neither above nor below the standard of political morality of the

time, and was influenced by his duchess, who was very ambitious, and by

followers who were singularly unscrupulous.

See _Correspondence of John, 4th Duke of Bedford_, edited by Lord John

Russell (London, 1842-1846); J.H. Wiffen, _Historical Memoirs of the

House of Russell_ (London, 1833); W.E.H. Lecky, _History of England_,

vol. iii. (London, 1892); Horace Walpole, _Memoirs of the Reign of

George II._ (London, 1847), and _Memoirs of the Reign of George III._,

edited by G.F.R. Barker (London, 1894.)

FRANCIS RUSSELL, 5th duke of Bedford (1765-1802), eldest son of Francis

Russell, marquess of Tavistock (d. 1767), by his wife, Elizabeth (d.

1768), daughter of William Keppel, 2nd earl of Albemarle, was baptized

on the 23rd of July 1765. In January 1771 he succeeded his grandfather

as duke of Bedford, and was educated at Westminster school and Trinity

College, Cambridge, afterwards spending nearly two years in foreign

travel. Regarding Charles James Fox as his political leader, he joined

the Whigs in the House of Lords, and became a member of the circle of

the prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. Having overcome some

nervousness and educational defects, he began to speak in the House, and

soon became one of the leading debaters in that assembly. He opposed

most of the measures brought forward by the ministry of William Pitt,

and objected to the grant of a pension to Edmund Burke, an action which

drew down upon him a scathing attack from Burke's pen. Bedford was

greatly interested in agriculture. He established a model farm at

Woburn, and made experiments with regard to the breeding of sheep. He

was a member of the original board of agriculture, and was the first

president of the Smithfield club. He died at Woburn on the 2nd of March

1802, and was buried in the family burying-place at Chenies. The duke

was never married, and was succeeded in the title by his brother, John.

See Lord Holland, _Memoirs of the Whig Party_ (London, 1854); J.H.

Wiffen, _Historical Memoirs of the House of Russell_ (London, 1833):

E. Burke, _Letter to a Noble Lord_ (Edinburgh, 1837); and Earl

Stanhope, _Life of Pitt_ (London, 1861-1862).

JOHN RUSSELL, 6th duke of Bedford (1766-1839), was succeeded as seventh

duke by his eldest son, Francis (1788-1861), who had an only son,

William (1809-1872), who became duke on his father's death in 1861. When

the eighth duke died in 1872, he was succeeded by his cousin, Francis

Charles Hastings (1819-1891), who was member of parliament for

Bedfordshire from 1847 until he succeeded to the title. The ninth duke

was the eldest son of Major-General Lord George William Russell

(1790-1846), who was a son of the sixth duke. He married Elizabeth,

daughter of George John, 5th Earl de la Warr, and both his sons, George

William Francis Sackville (1852-1893), and Herbrand Arthur (b. 1858),

succeeded in turn to the title.

BEDFORD, a municipal and parliamentary borough, and the county town of

Bedfordshire, England, 50 m. north-north-west of London by the Midland

railway; served also by a branch of the London & North-Western. Pop.

(1901) 35,144. It lies in the fertile valley of the Ouse, on both banks,

but mainly on the north, on which stands the mound which marks the site

of the ancient castle. The church of St Paul is Decorated and

Perpendicular, but its central tower and spire are modern; it contains

the tomb of Sir William Harper or Harpur (c. 1496-1573), lord mayor of

London, a notable benefactor of his native town of Bedford. St Peter's

church has in its central tower masonry probably of pre-Conquest date;

that of St Mary's is in part Norman, and that of St John's Decorated;

but the bodies of these churches are largely restored. There are some

remains of a Franciscan friary of the 14th century. The Congregational

chapel called Bunyan's or the "Old Meeting" stands on the site of the

building in which John Bunyan preached from 1656 onward. His chair is

preserved here, and a tablet records his life in the town, where he

underwent a long but in part nominal imprisonment. He was born at

Elstow, 1-1/2 m. from Bedford, where, while playing on the green, he

believed himself to have received the divine summons to renounce sin. In

the panels of a fine pair of bronze doors in the chapel are scenes

illustrative of Bunyan's _Pilgrim's Progress_. Bedford is noted for its

grammar school, founded by Edward VI. in 1552, and endowed by Sir

William Harper. The existing buildings date from 1891, and have been

increased since that date, and the school is one of the important

public schools of England. Harper's endowment includes land in London,

and is now of great value, and the Harper Trust supports in addition

modern and elementary schools for boys and girls, a girls' high school,

and almshouses. The grammar school annually awards both entrance

exhibitions and two exhibitions to a university or other higher

educational institution. The old grammar school buildings are used as a

town hall; and among other modern buildings may be mentioned the shire

hall and county hospital. There are statues of John Bunyan (1874) and

John Howard (1894) the philanthropist (1726-1790), who founded the

Congregational chapel which bears his name, and resided at Cardington in

the vicinity. There are two parks. Bedford has a large trade as a market

town for agricultural produce, and extensive engineering works and

manufactures of agricultural implements. The parliamentary borough

returns one member. The municipal borough is under a mayor, 6 aldermen

and 18 councillors. Area, 2223 acres.

Bedford (Bedcanforda, Bedanforda, Bedeford) is first mentioned in 571,

when Cuthwulf defeated the Britons here. It subsequently became a Danish

borough, which in 914 was captured by Edward the Elder. In Domesday, as

the county town, it was entered apart from the rest of the shire, and

was assessed at half a hundred for the host and for ship service. The

prescriptive borough received its first charter from Henry II., who gave

the town to the burgesses to hold at a fee-farm rent of L40 in lieu of

all service. The privileges included a gild-merchant, all tolls, and

liberties and laws in common with the citizens of Oxford. This charter

was confirmed by successive sovereigns down to Charles II. During the

15th century, owing to the rise of other market towns, Bedford became

less prosperous, and the fee-farm rent was finally reduced to L20 by

charter of Henry VII. Henry VIII. granted a November fair to St

Leonard's hospital, which was still held in the 19th century at St

Leonard's farm, the site of the hospital. Mary granted two fairs, one in

Lent and one on the Feast of the Conception, and also a weekly market. A

17th century pamphlet on river navigation in Bedfordshire mentions the

trade which Bedford carried on in coal, brought by the Ouse from Lynn

and Yarmouth. The town was also one of the earliest centres of the lace

trade, to the success of which French refugees in the 17th and 18th

centuries largely contributed.

Bedford was represented in the parliament of 1295, and after that date

two members were returned regularly, until by the Redistribution of

Seats Act in 1885 Bedford lost one of its members. The unlimited power

of creating freemen, an inherent right of the borough, led to great

abuse, noticeably in 1769 when 500 freemen[1] were created to support

the political interest of Sir Robert Barnard, afterwards recorder of the

borough.

Bedford castle, of which mention is first heard during Stephen's reign

(1136), was destroyed by order of Henry III. in 1224. The mound marking

its site is famous as a bowling-green.