A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



Scotland, * a la Rerecroiz sus Estaynmor,' and going in the vanguard as 

 far as ' la Marche de Solewathe,' and on the return from Scotland they 

 should take the ' reeregarde ' from Solway to the ' Rerecroiz.' It was 

 further alleged that if it happened for the defence of the realm that the 

 king required their services within it, he should pay their wages in 

 their own country before they started. In addition it was pleaded 

 that they should be allowed to be at war or truce with the Scots, 

 as they considered most for the king's honour or their own profit, by 

 the advice of his officers on the frontier, without hindrance or chal- 

 lenge. 1 It is evident that the men of Cumberland and Westmorland 

 were inspired with the belief that the military burden on the two 

 counties was confined to the protection of the frontier, and there can be 

 little doubt that the idea of local sovereignty to which they had so often 

 asserted their claim was handed down from a period when Cumbria 

 was mistress of her own destinies.* 



In the thirteenth century the first steps towards parliamentary 

 representation were taken in the reigns of Henry III. and Edward I. 

 Cumberland no doubt was represented in the assemblies which Henry 

 summoned in 1254 and 1261, while Carlisle also in 1283 was invited 

 to send 'two of its wiser and more experienced citizens' to the national 

 council which Edward brought together at Shrewsbury for the trial of 

 David brother of the Welsh prince Llewelin. On this occasion, in 

 contradistinction to the usual practice, the writ was addressed to the 

 mayor and citizens. 3 In his later parliaments Edward treated the town 



i Tower Miscell. Roll, No. 459 ; Cat. of Scot. Doc. (Scot. Rec. Ser.), iii. 135. Mr. Bain has dated 

 this petition between 1315-20, but there is a strong presumption that it belongs to the period 1297-1300, 

 when the lieges were disputing with Percy and Clifford about their obligations to service in the Scottish 

 wars. For a discussion of the early history of these claims to immunity from service beyond the frontier, 

 see V.C.H. Cumb. i. 321-8. 



* It may be, as Professor Maitland has said, that Northumbrian tenures were extremely puzzling to 

 the lawyers at Westminster (Engl. Hist. Rev. v. 630), but the tenants of Cumberland and Westmorland 

 succeeded at this time in establishing their historic claims to what are not unlike the military privileges 

 of a palatine state. The exemption of the two counties from service beyond their own borders, by reason 

 of the exceptional burden of defence thrown upon them owing to their geographical position, may be 

 illustrated by reference to the privileges enjoyed by the people of Chester on the frontier of Wales. Among 

 the privileges confirmed to the barons of that shire by Earl Ranulf (Blundevil) late in the twelfth century 

 occur the following : ' that by reason of the heavy service which the barons discharged in Cestreshyre 

 none of them shall do service to the Earl without the border {extra lymam) except of his own free will and 

 at the Earl's cost : and if the Earl's knights of England, who owe ward to the Earl at Chester, be sum- 

 moned to perform their ward, and there be no army of the Earl's enemies present, and no need for the 

 barons, the barons may return to their homes and rest ; and if an army of the Earl's enemies be in readiness 

 to come into his land of Cestreshyre, or if the castle be besieged, the said barons with their army and view 

 (et visu sud) shall come forthwith at the Earl's summons to remove that army to the best of their power, 

 and when that army has retired from the Earl's land, the said barons with their army may return to their 

 own lands and rest while the knights of England perform their ward, and the said barons are not needed, 

 saving to the Earl the services which are due from them ' (Pat. 28 Edw. I. m. 22, by inspeximus). There 

 is much reason to believe that these palatine claims may be accounted for by the previous incorporation 

 of Cumbria in the old kingdom of Northumberland. It is a striking feature of northern history how 

 palatinates, regalities, and liberties, like Durham, Hexham, Tyndale, Sedbergh, and Lancaster, sprang 

 up on its ruins. For a full discussion of this important subject, see Mr. Page's article on ' Northumbrian 

 Palatinates and Regalities ' in Arckceologia, li. 1-12, and Dr. Lapsley's argument in The County Palatine 

 of Durham, 16-21, 109. There was no opportunity for the district of Cumberland and Westmorland to 

 grow into a fully equipped palatinate like its northern neighbours, as it devolved to the administration of 

 the Crown so early as 1 120. 



' Parl. Writs (Rec. Com.), i. 16. 



252 



