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Stanley (from whom the Athole Family derived their title) was 
through Sir John de Stanley, to whom on the attainder of Henry 
Percy, Earl of Northumberland, the Island was granted by 
Henry IV. The first patent was for life, but was afterwards 
eancelled and replaced by another making the grant in perpetuity. 
English chivalry which had been conspicuous in the reign of 
Edward III. had degenerated in that of the unwarlike Richard IL., 
and Sir John Stanley, who had travelled much, was almost the 
only English chevalier of his time. On his return to England he 
was followed by a French combatant, who defied the whole English 
nation. Sir John accepted the challenge and killed him, and thus 
won the favour of the heiress of Lathom and Knowsley, whose 
knight he had declared himself, and whom he subsequently 
married. Sir John Stanley and his successors held Man and the 
Isles pertaining thereto by homage and on payment to the King 
of a cast of Falcons at his Coronation. It may be mentioned that 
Percy’s tenure was on condition that he or his deputy should bear 
at the coronation “ Illum gladium nudum quo cincti eramus 
quando in partibus de Holderness applicuimus vocatum ‘ Lancastre 
Sworde.’” and it was to be borne “ad sinistrum humerum, sive 
sinistros humeros Regis.” The patronage of the Bishopric of Man, 
founded by St. Patrick, A.D. 447, and the most ancient in the 
British Isles, was vested in the King of Man. The See of Sodor 
(Sudoer or Southern Islands) was instituted by Pope Gregory IV. 
400 years later. Sir John Stanley, son of the first Sir John, King. 
and Lord of Man, by advice of the Deemsters, convened the people 
at a Tynwald, where, standing on the Tynwald Mount, a barrow 
formed of earth taken from each of the twenty-four parishes in the 
Island, attended by officials and the Taxiaxi (House of Keys), 
he promulgated the laws which from the birth of time had been 
locked up in the breasts of their magistrates (called breast- 
law). This ceremony is continued to the present day, a remarkable 
survival from the most ancient times, “It is indeed remarkable” 
—to quote Professor Worsaae, of Copenhagen—“ that the last 
