POLITICAL HISTORY 



In 1140, when Henry, Prince of Scotland, set out for Stephen's court, 

 we are told by John of Hexham that Ranulf stirred up strife against 

 him on account of Carlisle and Cumberland, which he demanded for 

 himself by right of patrimony, and wished to take him by armed force 

 on his return. But Stephen, urged by the entreaty of the queen, saved 

 him from the meditated peril, and thus provoked the bitter enmity of 

 his powerful vassal. 1 Ranulf had recourse to diplomacy to attain his 

 ends. Impressed by the political significance of the visit of Henry of 

 Anjou to Carlisle in 1149, and of the magnificent reception given to 

 him by King David, he renewed his claims on Carlisle. It was one of 

 the most remarkable gatherings that ever took place in the northern 

 city, and boded nothing but ill to the English king. Stephen came to 

 York to watch the proceedings. 8 For the present negotiations were 

 successful. Henry of Anjou undertook, when he became King of 

 England, to restore Newcastle and the whole of Northumberland to 

 David, and Earl Ranulf, remitting his indignation for the loss of Carlisle, 

 obtained the Honor of Lancaster in satisfaction. 3 The political en- 

 tanglements of the Scottish occupation were not confined to the pressure 

 of external enemies. David had foes in his own household. For some 

 reason not recorded an estrangement existed between the king and 

 William fitz Duncan, his nephew, who in right of his wife, Alice de 

 Rumelli, was entitled to the barony of Coupland in south-west Cumber- 

 land as well as the Honor of Skipton in Craven. It was probably his 

 inability to obtain this inheritance that caused him to overrun the dis- 

 trict with relentless barbarity in 1 138, and to destroy the monastery of 

 Calder. 4 At all events it was not till 1151 that he was restored to his 

 fief by David. 5 Death wrought a wonderful change in the political 



1 The Priory of Hexham (Surtees Soc.), i. 131-2, 134. There can be little doubt that Ranulf Meschin 

 did not voluntarily resign Carlisle to Henry I. when he succeeded to the earldom of Chester. The claims 

 of Ranulf, his son, at this period seem to suggest compulsion. Orderic Vitalis (bk. xii. cap. 28) states that 

 ' Ranulf of Bayeux obtained the earldom of Chester, with all the patrimony of Earl Richard, being the 

 next heir as nephew of Matilda, Earl Hugh's sister,' but Dugdale says that he ' left the earldom of Cum- 

 berland on condition that those whom he had enfeoffed there should hold their lands of the king in capite, 

 and settled himself at Chester ' (Baronage, i. 37). 



J Twysden, Decem Serif tores (Gervase of Dover), 1366. 



3 Priory of Hexham (Surtees Soc.), i. 159-61. 



4 Prior Richard's description of the atrocities committed by the Picts under William fitz Duncan in 

 1138 is appalling. Bursting into Yorkshire, ' propter peccata populi, victoriam optinentes, possessiones 

 cujusdam nobilis coenobii, quod in Fuththernessa situm est, et provinciam quae Crafna dicitur, ex magna 

 parte, ferro et flamma destruxerunt. Igitur nulli gradui, nulli aetati, nulli sexui, nulli conditioni par- 

 centes : liberos et cognatos in conspectu parentum suorum, et dominos in conspectu servorum suorum, 

 et e converso, et maritos ante oculos uxorum suarum, quanto miserabilius poterant, prius trucidaverunt ; 

 deinde, proh dolor ! solas nobiels matronas, et castas virgines, mixtim cum aliis feminis, et cum praeda 

 pariter, abduxerunt. Nudatas quoque, et turmatim resticulis et corrigiis colligatas et copulatas, lanceis et 

 telis suis compungentes, ante se illas abegerunt. Hoc idem in aliis bellis, sed in hoc copiosius fecerunt 

 (Priory of Hexham, i. 82-3). Canon Raine remarks on the singularity that any injunction should induce 

 William fitz Duncan to devastate the district of which he was the feudal chief. The only reason that can 

 be alleged to account for his ferocity is that he was kept out of his inheritance by force. The area of devas- 

 tation was extended to Coupland in Cumberland when the monastery of Calder was destroyed (Dugdale 

 Man. v. 349). There is no doubt that the family of William's wife had been expelled from Coupland 

 during the anarchy in 1136-9, for about that time William of Lancaster had possession of the fief by gift 

 of King Stephen. See the charter of Stephen to the abbey of Furness, printed by Mr. Farrer from the 

 Coucher Book of Furness in Pipe Rolls of Lancashire, 304-5. 



6 Priory of Hexham, i. 163. 



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