POLITICAL HISTORY 



Domesday Survey inter alia the valuable manor of Sturminster Marshall 

 (involving also Lytchett Minster and East Aimer), once Archbishop Stigand's. 

 In 1258, Henry III granted to the great Earl Simon (who had married his 

 sister Eleanor) the manor of Bere, which he had from his father. 



During the Barons' War Corfe came again to the front. In 1258 by 

 the Provisions of Oxford it was placed in the hands of Stephen Longespee ^ 

 brother of William, who had been killed on crusade in 1250. It was one of 

 the three castles which, six years later, on the surrender of the Prince of 

 Wales, Simon placed in the custody of his son the younger Simon, to prevent 

 the effectual sending of foreign troops by the queen. ^ Its connexion with 

 the de Montforts ended with the captivity there of Aimery and Eleanor de 

 Montfort, who had in 1275-6 been taken at sea off Bristol.^ 



The de Montfort lands in Dorset, on the fall of the great earl, lapsed 

 to the crown. Edmund, son of Henry III, brother of Edward I,* who in 1267 

 was made governor of Sherborne Castle, was granted Shapwick ; ^ Kingston 

 and Blandford went to Henry de Lacy, grandson of John de Lacy (made 

 earl of Lincoln 1232), who was son-in-law to Hawise, sister of that Ran- 

 dolf of Chester (o.s.p.) who had helped Henry III at Lincoln in 12 17. For 

 this he was rewarded with the earldom of Lincoln, being nephew of the first 

 earl, William of Roumare, who was himself nephew and heir of Robert 

 son of Gerald, who, in Domesday, held Corfe Mullen, Lye, Ranston, and 

 Povington. Henry de Lacy received full investiture of the earldom in 1272. 

 In 1258 he had married Margaret Longespee, the above-mentioned heiress. 



The Quo Warranto of 1275 did not, in Dorset, deal with the greater 

 barons, with one exception. For the most part those summoned were 

 ecclesiastics, such as the abbesses of Tarrant and Shaftesbury, the abbot of 

 Cerne, and the dean and chapter of Salisbury. Their offences were mainly 

 of the nature of taking wreck of the sea, or free warren, without authority. 

 Among the local secular land-holders, William Ic Moyne, summoned for 

 taking free warren, wreck of the sea, and assize of bread and ale, in Winfrith 

 and Owermoigne, pleaded that he held in chief of the king by serjeanty, and 

 that his ancestors had had these rights.* Walter de la Lynde, summoned for 

 the same cause, answered on the first count, a grant of King Henry's, which 

 not improbably later gave rise to the legend of the White Hart of Blackmoor. 

 The only great baron, among the secular land-holders, was Gilbert of Clare 

 earl of Gloucester. Three years earlier the Hundred Rolls^ stated that, for 

 years past, he had diverted to his own court Helwell, which formerly owed 

 suit to the hundred court of CuUiford Tree. In 1275 he was summoned for 

 encroachments on the royal rights in the hundreds of Rowburgh, Haslor, 

 Culliford Tree, Pimperne, and Ugscomb. He alleged in answer a grant of 

 Henry I, made at Marlborough. The matter was ordered to be further 

 inquired into.^ He was also accused of taking free chase on the highway 

 between Shaftesbury and Blandford and ' over the hill from the west,' with a 



' Provisions of Oxf. ; Tit. Les Nums des Cheveteins Chasteaus le ret. Stubbs, Chart. 392 ; j^nn. 

 Burton (Rolls Ser.), i, 453. 



^ j4nn. Wig. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 453 ; Stubbs, Charters, (ed. 1895), 409. 



' Thom. Wykes, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 267 ; Gervase, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 284. 



* Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), 97. ' Patent R. 51 Hen. Ill, m. 8. 



' Abbrev. Plac. (Rec. Com.), 184. ' Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), 10 1. 



' Ptae. Jbbrev. (Rec. Com.), 183, Rot. 5 d. 



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