years later the Moriscoes once more
gained possession of it. Edward II granted the island to one of the
Despencers, and in his own distress attempted to take refuge here:

'To Lundy, which in Sabrin's mouth doth stand,
Carried with hope (still hoping to find ease),
Imagining it were his native land,
England itself; Severn, the narrow sea;
With this conceit, poor soul! himself doth please.
And sith his rule is over-ruled by men,
On birds and beasts he'll king it once again.

''Tis treble death a freezing death to feel;
For him on whom the sun hath ever shone,
Who hath been kneeled unto, can hardly kneel,
Nor hardly beg what once hath been his own.
A fearful thing to tumble from a throne!
Fain would he be king of a little isle;
All were his empire bounded in a mile.'

But the winds were against him, and he was driven on to the Welsh coast,
into the hands of his enemies.

During the reign of Henry VIII, French pirates seized the island, and
plundered and robbed at large, but they were accounted for by the valour
of Clovelly fishermen, who made a determined attack, and killed or made
prisoners of the whole band. In 1608 a commission was held to consider
the grievances of merchants who complained of piracy in the Bristol
Channel; and in 1610 'another commission was issued to the Earl of
Nottingham to authorize the town of Barnstaple to send out ships for the
capture of pirates, and the deposition was taken of one William Young,
who had been made prisoner by Captain Salkeld, who entitled himself
"King of Lundy," and was a notorious pirate.' Two years later 'the _John
of Braunton_ and the _Mayflower_ of Barnstaple caught as notorious
Rogues as any in England.' After another thirteen years: 'The Mayor of
Bristol reports to the Council that three Turkish pirate vessels had
surprised and taken the island of Lundy with the inhabitants, and had
threatened to burn Ilfracombe.' During an inquiry following this report,
evidence was given that seems very curious when one considers the date,
nearly halfway through the seventeenth century: 'From Nicholas Cullen,
"That the Turks had taken out of a church in Cornwall about sixty men,
and carried them away prisoners."'

French pirates made Lundy their headquarters three years later, and in
June, 1630, Captain Plumleigh reported that 'Egypt was never more
infested with caterpillars than the Channel with Biscayers. On the 23rd
i