POLITICAL HISTORY 



Salisbury, and his son William, the second earl, in 1356 came to an agree- 

 ment with the Bishop of Salisbury about the long-disputed custody of Sher- 

 borne Castle.^ On 31 July, i 381, he was appointed captain against the rebels 

 in Dorset and Somerset ; but the rebellion did not come to a head in 

 Dorset. His great-grand-daughter and heiress Alice, by her marriage to 

 Richard Neville (eldest son of the earl of Westmorland by his second wife, 

 Lady Joan Beaufort, daughter of John of Gaunt), took the inheritance to the 

 Nevilles. After the death of their son at the battle of Barnet it was granted 

 by Edward IV to his own brother George (whom he had made duke of 

 Clarence) on his marriage with Isabel Neville. The lands of the Duke of 

 Clarence included the manors of Todber, Iwerne Courtney, Ibberton, 

 Ranston, Wraxall, Chilfrome, Kentcombe, Mapperton, Puncknowle, Toller 

 Porcorum, and the castle and manor of Corfe.^ The Edmund Mortimer 

 of the reign of Richard II had married Philippa, daughter and heiress of 

 Lionel duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III, who had died seised 

 of the manors of Marshwood, Cranborne, Tarrant Gunville, Pimperne, 

 Steeple, Wyke, and Portland, and the boroughs of Wareham and Wey- 

 mouth.* On her mother's side (as grand-daughter of the coheiress of 

 Gilbert of Clare) she enjoyed also many Dorset manors.* The heir to their 

 grandson Edmund, who died in 1425, was declared to be Richard duke of 

 York, who accordingly had livery of his lands. ^ 



John of Gaunt had succeeded, in right of his wife Blanche (who was 

 sister and heiress of Maud, daughter of Henry duke of Lancaster, brother and 

 heir of Thomas, executed after Boroughbridge), to the manors of Kingston 

 Lacy, Shapwick, and Maiden Newton, the Chase of Wimborne Holt, and 

 the hundred of Badbury.' This formed the nucleus of the Beaufort connexion 

 with Dorset, the Yorkists, as has been said, being well represented also. 

 The two Beaufort sons of the Duke of Lancaster who were laymen en- 

 joyed the Dorset title. John, the eldest, was created marquis of Dorset in 

 1397, but degraded in 1399. In 1402 the Commons petitioned the king to 

 restore to him the name and rank of marquis, but he himself was opposed to ; 

 their request on the ground of the novelty and foreign sound of the title.' 

 His son Henry died, while yet a minor, seised of the castle and lordship of 

 Corfe. Thomas, third of the sons of John of Gaunt by Catherine Swinford, 

 was created earl of Dorset in 141 1 and duke of Exeter (for life only) in 

 1 41 6. He died without issue in 1426. Edmund Beaufort (his nephew 

 and heir, and son of John, first marquis) succeeded as earl of Dorset in 1441, 

 and was created marquis of Dorset in 1442, for his services at the relief of 

 Calais.* His elder brother John duke of Somerset had succeeded to the 

 lands of his grandfather John of Gaunt, and thus it came about that the Lady \ 

 Margaret Beaufort, his daughter, and the mother of Henry VII, was born at • 

 Kingston Lacy. Edmund, the second marquis above mentioned, was killed 

 at the battle of St. Albans in 1455, and left three sons, Henry, Edmund, and 

 John, of whom the youngest, John, was killed at Tewkesbury. In 1452 

 Henry VI made a grant to Queen Margaret of lands in Dorset, mainly 



' Close, 29 Edw. Ill, m. 36. 'Dugdalc, Baronage, ii, 164. 



'Ibid. 168. Mbid. i, 150. 



'Ibid. 1 5 1-2 ; Jc/s o/P.C. (ed. Nicholas), iii, 94-5. 

 * Dugdale, op. cit. ii, 1 14. ' Ibid. 122. 



'Pari. R. 20 Hen. VI, No. 3 ; Jcti o/P.C. (ed. Nicholas), v, 209. 



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