POLITICAL HISTORY 



tation of the county since the hostilities began. The treacherous 

 Scottish race, he complained, by repeated incursions during the past 

 four years, had destroyed and burned the greater part of his diocese 

 with its inhabitants, so that the monasteries were pillaged and the 

 religious men dispersed ; some of the churches with their parishes 

 were reduced to ashes and their incumbents forced to beg alms for 

 their sustenance ; and taxation was out of the question, for in many 

 places there was nothing for the tax-gatherer to find. 1 



The war with Scotland was the means of reviving the old subject 

 of the military immunity of the Cumberland and Westmorland men 

 from service beyond their own frontiers. In their conflict with King 

 John, the knights of Cumberland maintained that their obligation con- 

 sisted in the safe convoy of the army on its passage through the two 

 counties to and from Scotland. As soon as war was declared in 1297 

 they reasserted their constitutional rights and made agreement with the 

 king's northern officers that if they joined the expedition their action 

 must be regarded as voluntary service. It was stipulated that the ex- 

 pedition (ceste chevauchee] they were about to undertake of their own 

 free will should not be turned as a service to them or their heirs ; nor 

 should the king nor his heirs be able to challenge any service as of 

 right from them nor their heirs by reason of that expedition. The 

 required guarantee was given to the lieges of the two counties by the 

 king's officers, 3 and afterwards ratified in 1300 by letters patent in 

 which King Edward acknowledged that the said expedition (equitatus) 

 should not be to their prejudice, and should not be drawn into a pre- 

 cedent, and that neither he nor his heirs should claim any service by 

 reason thereof. 3 In the tumultuous days which followed, the people of 

 Cumberland and Westmorland asserted their right to the enjoyment of 

 these exceptional privileges, maintaining that their service to the king 

 and his ancestors in war consisted in meeting the army on its march to 



i Carl. Epis. Reg., Halton MS. f. 59 ; Letters from the Northern Registers (Rec. Com.), 151. 



1 Mr. Stevenson has printed this important deed from the Privy Seals, 25 Edw. I., in the Public 

 Record Office. As it is of undoubted interest in the political history of Cumberland, it may be repro- 

 duced here : ' Henry de Percy e Robert de Clifford a touz les loiaus e feus nostxe seigneur le roi du cunte 

 de Cumberlaund, saluz. Cum vous nous eies grantez greablement de chivaucher ad tout vostre pouersur 

 les enemyes nostre segneur le rei en Escoce, en aide du dist nostre seigneur le rei e de nous, qe a coe fere 

 sumes ordynez par ses lettres patentes, alegaunz pur vous qe coe ne deves fere de drait, e priaunz qe coe 

 a vous ne a vos heirs ne soit tourne en servage : nous eantz regars a vostre bone volentee, vous grauntoms, 

 e par cestes noz lettres patentes obligoms de fere vous aver les lettres patentes nostre seigneur le rei seeles 

 de sun seel, entre le jour de cestes lettres fetes e la feste Saint Michel prochain suaunt, qe ceste chevauchee 

 qe vous de vostre bone volentee ove nous enpernes, ne sait tourne en servage a vous ne a vos heirs : ne 

 qe le dist nostre segneur le reys ne ses hers vers vous ne vers vos heirs nul servis de drait par ceste chevauchee 

 peuse chalanger. En tesmogne de queu chose, a cestez nos lettres patentes avous mys nos selz. Escrites 

 a Kardoil, le jour de Saint Johan le Batist en le an du dist nostre segnur le rei Edwarde vint e quynt ' 

 (Doc. illustrative of Hist, of Scot. ii. 186-7). ^ n tne same collection of Privy Seals occurs a document in 

 similar terms for the satisfaction of the men of Westmorland. 



3 Pat. 28 Edw. I. m. 6. The letters patent, after a recital of the terms of the agreement between 

 the men of Cumberland and Westmorland and Henry de Percy and Robert de Clifford, ' nuper custodes 

 municionis nostre in partibus Cumbr' et Westmerl',' end thus : ' Nos concessionem et obligacionem pre- 

 dictas acceptantes volumus et concedimus pro nobis et heredibus nostris quod dictus equitatus, quern 

 prefati homines comitatuum predictorum in Comitiva dictorum Henrici et Roberti fecerunt, sicut pre- 

 dictum est, non cedat eis vel eorum heredibus in prejudicium vel trahatur in consequenciam in futurum.' 

 This document has been printed by Palgrave in Parl. Writs, i. 345. 



251 



