Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/817

 YORK 789 jail, a merchants' hall, handsome assembly rooms, a concert room, theatre, lecture hall, numerous charitable institutions, and extensive cavalry barracks. The manufactures are not very important ; and though the means of com- Tork Minster. inunication are very extensive, the trade of the town is mostly local. The archbishop of York is primate of England, though inferior in rank to the archbishop of Canterbury, who is styled primate of all England. His ecclesiastical prov- ince includes the dioceses of Carlisle, Chester, Durham, Manchester, Ripon, Soder and Man, and York. During the Roman dominion York was the seat of the general government of the island. The emperors Septimias Severus and Constantius Chlorus died here, and Constan- tine the Great was here proclaimed empe- ror. Under the Saxon heptarchy it was the capital of Northumbria, and afterward of Dei- ra. . The citizens joined the Scots and Danes against William the Conqueror, who after their defeat razed the city to the ground. It was partially rebuilt, but destroyed by fire in 1137. During the massacres of Jews which took place in England after the coronation of Richard I., several hundred Jewish inhabitants of York, having in vain attempted to defend themselves in the castle, slew their wives and children, set fire to the houses, and perished in the Fairfax captured York from the roy- alists in 1644, and in 1688 James II., for its opposition to the arbitrary measures of the crown, took away its charter. YORK, Dnke of, a title formerly conferred on younger sons of the kings of England. It was first borne by Edmund Plan- tagenet, fifth son of Edward III., who was created duke of York Aug. 6, 1385, and died in 1402. He was the founder of the house of York, the house of the white rose ; while his elder brother John of Gaunt, fourth son of Ed- ward III., created duke of Lan- caster Nov. 13, 1362, was the founder of the rival house of the red rose ; and their respective claims were urged for nearly half a century in the so-called wars of the roses. (See ENGLAND, vol. vi., p. 610.) The first duke of York was succeeded by his son Ed- ward, who fell at Agincourt in 1415, and was succeeded by his nephew Richard, son of Anne Mortimer, who was great-grand- daughter of Lionel duke of Clar- ence, third son of Edward III. It was by virtue of this descent from the duke of Clarence that the house alleged its superior right over that of Lancaster, which was descended from the fourth son of Edward III. The title was subsequently borne by Edward Plantagenet, afterward Edward IV. ; Richard Plantagenet, sup- posed to have been murdered in 1483 by his uncle Richard III. ; Henry Tudor, afterward Henry VIII.; Charles Stuart, afterward Charles I. ; and James Stuart, afterward James II. It was conferred by the pretender, James III., on his second son Henry Benedict, known in history as Cardinal York, the last of the roy- al family of the Stuarts. (See STUAKT, HENRY BENEDICT MAEIA CLEMENT.) After the acces- sion of the house of Hanover to the British throne, George I. created, July 5, 1716, his brother Ernest Augustus, prince-bishop of Os- nabruck, duke of York and Albany. He died in 1728, and Edward Augustus, the second son of Frederick, prince of Wales, received the title in 1760, but died childless in 1767. The last duke of York and Albany was FREDERICK, second son of George III. (born Aug. 16, 1763, died Jan. 5, 1827). He received the title Nov. 29, 1784. He had at the age of six months re- ceived the dignity of prince-bishop of Osna- briick, that bishopric being held alternately by a Catholic and a Protestant. It was secular- ized in 1803, and became a part of Hanover. He returned to England in 1787 from the con- tinent, where he had gone to study the mili- tary art, and took his seat in the house of lords. In 1789 he fought with pistols on Wimbledon