POLITICAL HISTORY 



meet the political necessities of the situation. With this revolution in 

 military policy, there sprang up a number of inferior defences, castles, 

 towers, peels and fortified houses, posted here and there on the chief 

 estates, where their owners might be secure from sudden incursions. 

 Noteworthy evidence of the political change may be gathered from the 

 prompt action of some of the local dignitaries as soon as the protecting 

 presence of the great Edward was withdrawn. On the same day of the 

 month following his death, 24 August 1307, three licences to crenellate 

 and enclose with a stone wall were granted for the security of the Cum- 

 berland march ; to Robert de Tilliol for his house of Scaleby on the 

 north of the Eden, to Richard le Brun for Drumburgh (Drombogh) on 

 the southern shore of the upper reach of the Solway, and to William de 

 Dacre for Dunmalloght at some distance from the Border.* The licences 

 on record do not represent the activity which prevailed in the four- 

 teenth century in the progress of self-defence. Though the castle of 

 Carlisle was still regarded as the bulwark of the county's safety, every 

 considerable landowner took measures to protect himself and his depen- 

 dants with leave or without it. The commune of Cumberland was not 

 always satisfied with the military protection afforded them by the new 

 devices of the central authority. In 1322 the most famous of Border 

 captains was declared to be of little use, and a petition was sent up that 

 he might be superseded. 3 Again and again representations were made 

 that the castle and city of Carlisle were in perilous state and too little 

 attention was given to the defence of the northern frontier. 4 The 

 neglect of the central government threw the district on its own re- 

 sources. During the reign of Edward II. we have John de Denum 

 showing that he had kept his fortress called the Tower of Melmerby at 

 his own expense with a garrison of twelve men, ' always well defended 

 by the grace of God against the Scots to the great damage and loss of 

 their men ' ; he now petitioned that his lands were so wasted that he 

 could not support a garrison in the Tower, and it would be a serious 

 inconvenience to the county if ' she ' was taken.* Individual efforts like 



and the king's lieutenant there (Pat. 27 Edw. I. m. 28). The chronicler of Lanercost writes under the 

 years 1309 and 1311 as if the office had not been long created : ' Nee potuerunt custodes, quos rex Angliae 

 posuerat in Marchia, resistere tantae multitudini Scottorum quos (Robertus de Bruse) adduxerat ' (Cbron. 

 de Lanercost, 213, 217). For the obligation of the tenants of Cumberland to attend the Border meeting, 

 called Endemot, in the twelfth century, and its character as an institution, see V.C.H. Cumb. i. 324-6. 



1 When the custody of the March changed hands in February 1323, the castles and peels delivered 

 to the charge of the new warden were Carlisle, Naworth, Cockermouth, Egremont and Highhead in 

 Cumberland, and the castles of Appleby, Brougham and Mallerstang in Westmorland, with small per- 

 manent garrisons (Excheq. Accts. bundle 16, nos. 9, 13). The garrison of Carlisle consisted of five 

 knights, thirty-four men-at-arms, forty hobelars and forty foot. The men maintained in the other 

 castles were very few in comparison. The feudal levy of Cumberland, returned by the sheriff in 

 1323-4, was made up of twelve knights and forty-eight men-at-arms (hominum ad arma), whose names 

 are given by Palgrave (Purl. Writs, ii. [ii.], 650). 



1 Pat. i Edw. II. pt. i. mm. 15, 16, 18. 



3 This complaint was made against Sir Andrew de Harcla in 1322 (Royal Letter, No. 4342). The 

 document has been printed by Mr. Stevenson in Cbron. de Lanercost (Maitland Club), 537-8. 



4 See specially the petition of the commune of Cumberland about 1355 in Cat. of Scot. Doc. (Scot. 

 Rec. Pub.), iii. 290. 



6 Ancient Petition, No. 5208 ; see also ibid. No. 5206. 



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