the Royal Prince, ran aground and was captured. He himself was seized and carried to Holland, where he was paraded through the towns and exhibited to the populace. He returned to England in 1667.
AYTON, a'ton. Sir Robert (1570-1638). A
Scottish poet. He was born at the Castle of
Kinaldie, Fifeshire, and was educated at Saint
Andrews, where he took the degree of M.A. in
lo88. From France, where he went for study,
he addressed, in 1603, a panegyric in Latin hex-
ameters to James I. This poem was the making
of Ayton's fortune, for he was soon appointed
one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber and pri-
vate secretary to the Queen. These honors were
continued by Charles I. Ayton was on terms of
familiarity with the most eminent men of his
time, poets, wits, and philosophers alike, among
them Hobbes and Ben Jonson. He was a poet of
slight merit. He has, however, the distinction
of being one of the first Scotchmen to write in
the English of the court. To him have been at-
tributed the originals of two songs by Burns, one of which is "Should Aukl Acquaintance Be Forgot?" But Ayton probably did not write them. He died in Whitehall Palace in 1638. Consult Rogers, Poems, with memoir (Edinburgh, 1871).
AYTOUN, .a'ti5on, William Edmondstoune
(1813-65). A Scotch poet. He was born in Edin-
burgh, June 21, 1813. He received his education
at the university there, and was called to the
Scottish bar in 1840. In 1845 he was appointed
professor of rhetoric and belles-lettres in tlie Uni-
versity of Edinburgh, and after the formation of
the Derby ministry in 1852, he was promot-
ed to the shrievalty of Orkney. He married a
daughter of John Vilson. During many years
Aytoun devoted himself to literary work. His
first important work was The Life mid Times of
Richard I. (1840) — a subject well treated and sin-
gularly in consonance with his romantic nature.
He was also a master of caricature and parody
and many of the Bon Gaultier Ballads were from
his pen. In 1848 he published the popular Lays
of the Scottish Cavaliers and Other Poems, which
established his reputation as a poet of the school
of Scott. Among his subsequent writings are:
Firmilian: A Spasmodic Tragedy (1854); and
Bothwell (1856), a narrative poem of consid-
erable length, in the measure and manner of
Scott. His edition of the Scottish Ballads. 2
vols., appeared in 1858. In the following year he
issued, in conjunction with Theodore Martin.
translations of various minor poems of Goethe.
Hp was for many years one of the most frequent
and brilliant contributors to Blackwood's Maga-
zine. Aytoun was distinguished at once as poet
and humorist. His poems exhibit a ballad-like
simplicity and a fiery flow of narration, while
his tales — the best known and appreciated of
which are The Glenmutchkin Railway and How I Became a Yeoman — possess a certain robust humor and farcical abandonment which made them widely popular. Aytoun died August 4, 1865. His life was written by Theodore Martin (London, 1867 ).
AYUB IBN SHADI, ;i-v?iob' 'b'n shii'd*
(?-1173). The father of Sal'adin. He was a
Kurd, and a member of the tribe of Rawadiya.
With his two sons he went to Bagdad, and thence
to Tikrit, which he made his home, and where his
body lies in an elaborate tomb, surmounted by a
cupola. He won high military rank in Syria
and Mesopotamia, and lived to see his famous
son subjugate the Fatimites and establish the
Ayubite Dynasty in Egypt and Syria. The Cru-
sades and the wars of the Mongols were impor-
tant events in the history of this dynasty. In
1250 the Ayubites were supplanted in Egypt by
the Mamelukes, who murdered Turan Shah, the
last prince of the line.
AYUB KHAN, Klin. The youngest son of Shere Ali. His father made him Governor of Herat, and he retained that position under his brother, Yakub. After Yakub's abdication he actively opposed the English, and on July 27, 1880, he overwhelmed General Burrows's command at Kushk-i-Nakhud, after which he laid siege to Kandahar. General Roberts hastened from Kabul, performing a memorable march, to relieve Kandahar, and on September 1 dispersed the forces of Ayub Khan, who fell back on Herat. In 1881 Ayub Khan captured Kandahar, but he was unable to maintain himself against the new Ameer, Abd-ur-Ralunan. After the loss of Herat he went to Persia, where he was under the espionage of the Persian Government, acting for the English. During the insurrection of the Ghilzais, in 1888, he formed a conspiracy to capture Herat, but was detected and delivered to the English, who imprisoned him at Rawal-Pindi, in the Punjab.
AYUNTAMIENTO, a-yoon'ta-myin'to (Sp.
from yunlar. Lat. iunr/ere. to join; cf. jnnta).
The name given to the municipal councils in
Spain. Wide powers of self-government were
enjoyed by the cities under Roman rule, and
these rights were greatly augmented during the
long struggle of the Christian kings against the
Mohammedans. In 1521 the cities felt them-
selves powerful enough to rise against Charles I.,
under the celebrated Juan de Padilla (q.v.). The
insurrection was suppressed, the liberties of the
to^^-ns were greatly curtailed, and under the
Bourbons the last vestiges of municipal freedom
disappeared. The Liberal Cortes of 1812 reëstab-
lished many of the ancient powers of the towns,
but these were abolished on the restoration of
Ferdinand VII. During the troubled times that
followed previous to 1875, the ayuntamientos, as
political factors, were exalted or suppressed, ac-
cording as the Liberal or Reactionary elements
were in power. At present the communes pos-
sess a wide scope of authority in the administra-
tion of municipal affairs, but enjoy nothing of
the political influence which formerly the towns
exercised. At the head of the commune is the
ayuntamiento, elected by the people, and ap-
pointing from among its own members the al-
calde and his subordinates, the tenientes. As a
rule, the councils are not free from the inter-
ference of the Central Government in matters
touching on general politics.
AYUTHIA, ii-yoo'the-a. A city in Siam on the Menam River. 45 miles north of Bangkok, founded in 1351, and long the national capital. It was assaulted and nearly destroyed by the Burmese in 1767, but until well into the Nineteenth Century was the second city in the kingdom. It still possesses importance as the centre of trade with South Laos, most of its business being direct with Bangkok. The present town, called Krung-Kras, is built largely on the water. The old city is, for the most part, in
