CHAPTER XV 

 DUFFIELD FRITH 



DUFFIELD FRITH, or forest, was the name of a con- 

 siderable expanse of forest land a few miles to the north 

 of the county town. Though one of the smaller of the 

 royal forests, it had a circuit of somewhat over thirty miles, 

 even in the days of Queen Elizabeth, when it had undergone 

 considerable reduction. 



Henry de Ferrers, one of the chief favourites of the 

 Conqueror, held no fewer than 1 14 manors or lordships in 

 Derbyshire, at the time of the Domesday Survey, as well as 

 many others on the borders of the shire. Duffield, on the 

 Derwent, at the entrance of the valley that gave access to 

 the lead mines of Wirksworth, made an admirable centre 

 for the controlling government of the great Norman baron. 

 Here, on a site formerly used both by Romans and Saxons, 

 he erected a most massive fortress, which was demolished 

 temp. Henry III., in consequence of the rebellion of his 

 descendant, Robert Earl Ferrers. 



From the time when the forfeited Ferrers' estates were con- 

 firmed by the Crown on Edmund Earl of Lancaster, Duffield 

 and Duffield Frith became part of the honor of Tutbury, 

 and formed a valuable section of the property of the earldom, 

 afterwards the Duchy of Lancaster. The frith was not a true 

 royal forest until Henry Duke of Lancaster came to the 

 throne as Henry IV. in 1399. It had, however, been techni- 

 cally ruled as a royal forest for more than a century before 

 that date; for Edward I., at the beginning of his reign, 

 granted his brother Edmund the right of having justices of 

 the forest, whenever the king appointed such for his own 

 forests, and also granted him and his heirs of the earldom 



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