heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

THE EURES. 153
When James VI. of Scotland assumed the throne of England, the
office became no longer necessary. The borderers on each side of the
Scottish boundary wall became, at least outwardly, friendly, and the "Moss
"Troopers" no longer having the pretext of national hostility, and living
simply for themselves by plunder, and by the black mail which they compelled
the inhabitants to pay for their safety became common objects of
terror and detestation, and were eventually exterminated, chiefly by the
efforts of Lord William Howard ("Belted Will") and Charles Howard,
Lord Carlisle, whose mother was Mary Eure, eldest daughter of Sir Ralph's
eldest son.
The King, therefore, having previously employed Lord Eure as ambassador
to the Emperor Rudolph II., and also to Denmark, appointed him
Lord President of the Council in the Principality of Wales, 1 6 1 6 a similar
position, though, then, one comparatively of "otium cum dignitate," but
which in days gone by had been as difficult and troublesome.* For the
Marches of Wales were supposed to have been settled by the Saxons to
prevent the incursions of the British, or Welsh, and those who obtained
seigniories therein by right of conquest were termed Lord Marchers of
Wales. The chief officer amongst them for the government was a Warden.
Edward IV. acquired Ludlow Castle, the stronghold of the Mortimers,
through his grandmother, Lady Anne Mortimer, sister of Edmund Mortimer,
fifth Earl of March ;
and some years after his accession to the throne
repaired the castle, and made it the Court of his son the Prince of Wales,
who was sent hither (as Hall " relates) for justice to be done in the Marches
" of Wales, to the end that by the authoritie of his presence the wild
" Welshmen and evil-disposed persons should refrain from their accustomed
" murthers and outrages." And Sir Philip Sydney (some years afterwards)
observed, that since the establishment of the Lord President and Council
the whole country of Wales had been brought from their disobedience and
barbarous incivility to a civil and obedient condition, and freed from those
sports and felonies with which the Welsh had annoyed them. But the
young Prince, of course, was never Lord President, as he was murdered at
thirteen. He seems only to have been sent to give importance to Alcock,
successively Bishop of Rochester, Worcester, and Ely, the first President,
who certainly was surrounded by a most stately Court. Besides a Vice-
President probably Lord Rivers the Council comprised a Lord Chancellor,
Lord Treasurer, Lord Keeper of the Privy Purse, Lord Treasurer of the
King's Household, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Principal Secretary of
State, with the Judges of Assize for the counties of Salop, Gloucester,
Hereford, and Monmouth, the Justices of the Grand Session of Wales, the
* History of Ludltnv,