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Coupland was the valiant De Coupland who in the battle with the 
Scots at Neville’s Cross, near Durham, when assailed by David II., 
King of Scotland, with blows repeated until he even dashed his 
teeth out, in the hope of either provoking him to slay or be 
slain by him, forbore to retaliate, and obliged the king to live and 
become his prisoner. For this deed King Edward rewarded 
Coupland with a pension of 4500 a year (a large sum in those 
days) until he could give him an equivalent in land; and seeing 
that the battle was fought in the year 1346, and the grant of the 
barony was made in 1347, it may, I think, fairly be assumed that 
such grant was made in return for the above services. The last 
William had, as before stated, an elder brother Ingelram, and this 
Ingelram had a son of the same name, Lord of Courcy in France, 
who married Isabel, daughter of Edward III., and to him the king 
granted the reversion of the English estates, after the death of John 
de Coupland and Joan his wife and the heirs of his body, except 
the reversion of a moiety of the Manor of Ulverston, which he gave 
to Furness Abbey. This Ingelram de Courcy had one daughter, 
Philippa, who married Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, from whom, 
in the reign of Richard II., she was divorced for what in those 
days I presume was considered a sufficient reason, namely, the 
want of children. She died in 1411, and the Fee again reverted 
to the Crown for want of heirs. Henry IV. next granted it to 
John, Duke of Bedford; and Henry VI., in 1443, granted it to 
John de Beauford, Duke of Somerset, and his heirs male. This 
John, Duke of Somerset, was grandson of John of Gaunt, Duke of 
Lancaster, and son of Edward III. He died the same year the 
grant was made to him, without leaving issue male, and the estate 
consequently again reverted to the Crown; whereupon the king 
granted it by letters patent to Margaret, a daughter and heiress of 
the said Duke, and widow of the Earl of Richmond, under the 
title of Countess of Richmond, though at the time she was the 
wife of Henry Stafford, son of Humphrey, the then the Duke of 
Buckingham. In consequence of this grant to the Countess of 
Richmond, this portion of the barony received the name of the 
Richmond Fee, which it retains to the present day. 
