death of Harold in the
battle of Hastings, but was amongst the first to offer submission on the
approach of the Conqueror; spent his life in a series of feeble attempts
at rebellion, and lived into the reign of Henry I.

EDGEHILL, in the S. of Warwickshire, the scene of the first battle
in the Civil War, in 1642, between the royal forces under Charles I. and
the Parliamentary under Essex; though the Royalists had the worst of it,
no real advantage was gained by either side.

EDGEWORTH, HENRY ESSEX, known as the "Abbe" Edgeworth, born in
Ireland, son of a Protestant clergyman; educated at the Sorbonne, in
Paris; entered the priesthood, and became the confessor of Louis XVI.,
whom he attended on the scaffold; exclaimed as the guillotine came down,
"Son of St. Louis, ascend to heaven!" left France soon after; was
subsequently chaplain to Louis XVIII. (1745-1807).

EDGEWORTH, MARIA, novelist, born at Blackbourton, Berks; from her
fifteenth year her home was in Ireland; she declined the suit of a
Swedish count, and remained till the close of her life unmarried; amongst
the best known of her works are "Moral Tales," "Tales from Fashionable
Life," "Castle Rackrent," "The Absentee," and "Ormond"; her novels are
noted for their animated pictures of Irish life, and were acknowledged by
Scott to have given him the first suggestion of the Waverley series; the
Russian novelist, Turgenief, acknowledges a similar indebtedness; "in her
Irish stories she gave," says Stopford Brooke, "the first impulse to the
novel of national character, and in her other tales to the novel with a
moral purpose" (1766-1849).

EDGEWORTH, RICHARD LOVELL, an Irish landlord, father of Maria
Edgeworth, with a genius for mechanics, in which he displayed a
remarkable talent for invention; was member of the last Irish Parliament;
educated his son in accordance with the notions of Rousseau; wrote some
works on mechanical subjects in collaboration with his daughter
(1744-1817).

EDICT OF NANTES, an edict issued in 1598 by Henry IV. of France,
granting toleration to the Protestants; revoked by Louis XIV. in 1685.

EDIE OCHILTREE, a character in Scott's "Antiquary."

EDINA, poetic name for Edinburgh.

EDINBURGH (263), the capital of Scotland, on the Firth of Forth,
picturesquely situated amid surrounding hills; derives its name from
Edwin, king of Northumbria in the 7th century; was created a burgh in
1329 by Robert the Bruce, and recognised