A HISTORY OF DORSET 



his wife Aveline,^ daughter of Isabella de Fortibus, Lady of the Isle of Wight. 

 But his father-in-law's death was so recent that his influence would no doubt 

 avail, for a time, to shelter Gaveston against the Earl of Lancaster. After 

 the execution of the latter, in 1322, his widow. Countess Alice, remarried 

 without the royal assent. Her estates were seized, and most of them were 

 given in 1323 to the younger Despenser,' who had married Eleanor, elder 

 daughter of Gilbert of Clare, and had livery of her purparty of his lordships 

 and lands.' 



Edward II was for a time confined in Corfe Castle before he was taken 

 to Berkeley. One account even gave it as his place of execution.* Hence 

 probably arose one version of the story of his brother Edmund of Kent. It 

 was said that the earl, being anxious to restore his brother, was made the 

 victim of a plot by which a certain friar was persuaded of the truth of the 

 tale that the king was still alive and in Corfe Castle. To this end the friar 

 was smuggled into the castle, and was shown the supposed king. Reporting 

 to the earl, the latter was persuaded to incriminate himself by a letter to the 

 brother, whom he supposed still living, though captive : and this letter was 

 used by Isabella and Mortimer as an excuse to ruin and execute him. It is, 

 however, probable that Stow's account is much too detailed, and that the 

 details given result from a mixture of the two facts of the temporary im- 

 prisonment of the king at Corfe, and of the application by the Earl of Kent 

 to a certain friar to raise his brother's spirit for him.^ 



The Mortimers appear in 1285 as already holding lands in Dorset. 

 Edmund Mortimer earl of March had lands in Winterborne Steepleton, 

 and held Chilcombe, which, however, he subinfeudated to the prior of 

 St. John of Jerusalem, as did Roger Mortimer, lord of Chirk, his manor 

 of Stottingway in the hundred of Culliford Tree.* Simon de Montacute 

 {pb. 1 3 17), in return for services in Edward's Welsh campaign in 1277, 

 received additions to the Dorset lands which had descended to him from 

 the original Drogo de Montacute of Domesday Book, tenant of the count of 

 Mortain in Nyland and in Toller.' In 1299 he was made constable of Corfe 

 Castle. His grandson William, who helped Edward III to arrest Mortimer, 

 was rewarded by grants of land forfeited by him, including Sherborne Castle, 

 Corfe Castle, and Purbeck Chase.* Later, Simon obtained also the manor of 

 Canford,' which had passed from Henry de Lacy and Countess Margaret to 

 their daughter Alice. On the death of Thomas of Lancaster she remised it 

 to the crown, who granted it to the Earl of Surrey for life, and then to 

 Hugh le Despenser, and on his forfeiture to William de Montacute the 

 elder." Later again he obtained the manors of Marshwood, Wootton, 

 Worth, Frome Whitfield, and Poole. '^ In 1337 he was created earl of 



' SeeDugdale, Baronage, ii, 114 ; Genealogist, May, 1905 ; Feud. Aids, \, 15, 17, 19, 22, &c. 



'See Cat. Anct. Deeds, A. 214, 215, 4587, 249, 250. ' Dugdale, Baronage, i, 392. 



* Ann. Bermondes. (Rolls Scr.), iii, 472 ; Vita Edtcardi Secundi (Rolls Ser.), 76. 



'See Leland, Collectanea, \, 686 ; Stow, Chron. 129 ; article on 'Edmund of Kent' in Diet. Nat. Bicg.; 

 Bond, Corfe Castle, 23. 



^ Feud. Aids, i, 3, 6, 20. See Hutchins, op. cit. ii, 845, where it is included in the hundred of 

 Ugscomb. 



^ Dom. Bk. i, 79. 'Pari. R. ii, 606 ; Chart. R. 4 Edw. Ill, m. I, No. 2. 



' Chart. R. 9 Edw. Ill, m. 6, No. 26 ; Close, 2 Ric. II, m. 23. 



" Chart. R. 1 1 Edw. Ill, m. 26, No. 54. 



"Ibid. 9 Edw. Ill, m. 3, No. 16 ; 10 Edw. Ill, m. 18, No. 36. 



140 



