Charles I was so called by the Puritan party, because he waged war on the Parliament. Blood Tax. The sixteenth section of the Crimes Act of 1882, by which it was proposed to levy compensation for murder or maiming on the ratepayers of the district where the crime was committed, was so called by the Irish members. Blood-red Wedding. _See_ Noces Vermeilles. Blood-wite. Another name for _Were-gild_. Bloods, The Five. The five chief septs or clans in Ireland in the middle ages. They were the O’Neills of Ulster, the O’Briens of Thomond, the O’Connors of Connaught, the O’Lachlans of Meath, and the M’Murroughs of Leinster. Bloody Assize of Eperies. A tribunal established by Leopold I of Austria after the defeat of the Turks at Vienna and their expulsion from Hungary. It was intended to remove those who had been concerned in Tököli’s rising, and many nobles and magnates were brought before this tribunal on the charge of being in correspondence with Tököli. Most of those accused were condemned, and so numerous were the victims that thirty executioners were employed. Bloody Assizes. The Assizes held by Jeffreys on the Western Circuit, shortly after the suppression of Monmouth’s rebellion in 1686. Hundreds of Monmouth’s adherents were sent to the scaffold, or transported as slaves to the West Indies. Bloody Statute. The Act of the Six Articles, passed in the reign of Henry VIII, was so called. Blue-Grass State. A name sometimes given to the State of Kentucky, U.S.A., which contains the famous blue grass region, celebrated for the raising of horses. Blue Laws of Connecticut. A series of enactments said to have existed in Connecticut, circ. 1640, by which the death penalty was inflicted for idolatry, blasphemy, witchcraft, theft, perjury, adultery and disobedience to parents. It is, however, generally believed that they are apocryphal. Bluff King Hal. The nickname of Henry VIII. Board of Control. The board established by Pitt’s India Act in 1784 to supervise the Government of India by the East India Company. Bobbing John. The sobriquet of the Earl of Mar, the Jacobite leader in the rebellion of 1815. He was a notorious trimmer. Bocca di Leone. The name given to the opening in the wall of the antechamber in the Doge’s Palace at Venice, into which anonymous accusations were dropped. Bocland. In Saxon times, land held by grant or by charter from the public lands. Body of Liberties. The first constitution of Massachusetts, prepared by Nathaniel Ward. It provided that all public officials should be chosen annually by the freemen of the plantation. Each town also elected deputies to a general assembly, to serve for one year. Each town had the right to make its own by bye-laws. It further provided for the annual election of judges, and for equal justice to all, including foreigners, while severe penalties were enacted for witchcraft and blasphemy. Bomba.