Calculating a determinant. $D_n$=\begin{vmatrix}
a & 0 & 0 & \cdots  &0&0& n-1 \\
0 & a & 0 & \cdots &0&0& n-2\\
0 & 0 & a & \ddots &0&0& n-3 \\
\vdots & \vdots & \ddots & \ddots & \ddots&\vdots&\vdots \\
\vdots & \vdots & \vdots & \ddots & \ddots& 0&2 \\
0 & \cdots & \cdots & \cdots &0&a&1  \\
n-1 & n-2 & n-3 & \cdots & 2 & 1& a\\
\end{vmatrix}
I tried getting the eigenvalues for A =
\begin{vmatrix}
0 & 0 & 0 & \cdots  &0&0& n-1 \\
0 & 0 & 0 & \cdots &0&0& n-2\\
0 & 0 & 0  & \ddots &0&0& n-3 \\
\vdots & \vdots & \ddots & \ddots & \ddots&\vdots&\vdots \\
\vdots & \vdots & \vdots & \ddots & \ddots& 0&2 \\
0 & \cdots & \cdots & \cdots &0&0&1  \\
n-1 & n-2 & n-3 & \cdots & 2 & 1& 0\\
\end{vmatrix}
For $a=0$  , the rank of the matrix is $2$ , hence $\dim(\ker(A)) = n-2 $  
$m(0)>=n-2$
However, I was not able to determine the other eigenvalues.
Testing for different values of n :
for $n=2$ : 
$D_2 = a^2-1$
for $n=3$ :
$D_3 = a^3 -5a$
$D_n$ seems to be equal to $a^n - a^{n-2}\sum_{i=1}^{n-1}i^2$ .
However I'm aware that testing for different values of $n$ is not enough to generalize the formula.
Thanks in advance.

Develop with respect to the first column. Then 
$$
\begin{aligned}
D_n &= aD_{n-1} -(n-1)\cdot (n-1)\cdot a^{n-2}
\\
&=aD_{n-1}-(n-1)^2a^{n-2}\ .
\end{aligned}
$$
This recursion, together with $D_1=a$ gives for $n\ge 2$ the solution
$$
D_n= (a^2-(1^2+2^2+\dots+(n-1)^2)a^{n-2}\ .
$$
(The sum in the first factor has a closed formula.)
