A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE 



and sheriff at various periods of his life. He was sheriff of the county from 

 1190 to 1194," at a time when John strove to undermine the authority 

 of his absent brother, which William Longchamp upheld. Staffordshire 

 felt the effect of John's schemes, and the sheriff charged the crown with 

 ,9 2s. 6d. for defending the county against malefactors ; he was also granted 

 jT26 from the king's purse to preserve the peace. 88 The shrewdness of this 

 bishop was equal to his activity ; he took advantage of Richard's insatiable 

 desire for money to buy the estates of Cannock and Rugeley from him for 

 25 marks (16 13^. 4*?.), and they were added to the possessions of the see. 



King John favoured Staffordshire with several visits, no doubt because the 

 county was particularly loyal to him, also because he was fond of hunting in 

 its forests. 69 In March, 1 200, he came through Burton to Lichfield, where 

 he spent two days ; in 1204 he was again at Lichfield for three days, and 

 two years afterwards paid another visit, at which date he bestowed the first 

 charter on Stafford, though he never visited that town. 



A letter written by Thomas de Erdinton, sheriff of Salop and Stafford- 

 shire in 1215, to the king in answer to his question, who, and how many 

 knights bore arms against him in the war, shows the state of parties in 

 Staffordshire clearly. He tells the king that in the county of Stafford there 

 were not any opposed to John at first except Robert Marmion (he incurred 

 John's anger by this opposition so that his castle of Tamworth was ordered to 

 be razed, but the order was not carried out), who still remains disaffected, 

 and Hervey Bagot, who had made himself Sheriff of Staffordshire by means of 

 the barons, but had accepted the king's peace at the hands of the Earl of 

 Chester ; and also except two brothers of Hervey Bagot, who were still 

 against the king in the following of Fulk Fitz Warin. 70 



Ranulph Earl of Chester, whom Dugdale calls ' the greatest subject of 

 England of his time,' was one of John's chief supporters, though he was not 

 afraid to rebuke him for his evil life. 71 For his services to King John William 

 de Ferrers was confirmed in his earldom of Derby, and was also rewarded by 

 many grants of lands. At the 'fair of Lincoln' in 1217 the newly -created earl 

 and the Earl of Chester helped to overthrow the French party, 72 but in the 

 rising of Richard Earl of Cornwall, in 1227, both these great barons joined 

 him. The two earls, indeed, seem to have been great friends, and in 1217 

 they went a pilgrimage to Palestine together. 



Ranulph of Chester was the last earl but one of his line, and his sister 

 Agnes brought Chartley to the Ferrers family by marrying William de 

 Ferrers. 73 On the death of Ranulph's nephew John the earldom came to the 

 crown. 



During the early years of Henry III Staffordshire played very little part 

 in history, though the Bishop of Lichfield, Alexander de Stavenby, was a 

 politician of considerable eminence. In the middle of the thirteenth century 

 several catastrophes, due to natural causes, occurred in the county. On the 

 night of 2 October, 1254, Burton was visited by a fire, but the amount of 

 damage is not recorded, 74 and in the same year, about 20 November, 



67 Coll. (Salt Arch. Soc.), ii, 10. Ibid, ii, 14. " Eyton, Antlj. ofShrops. ii, 185. 



70 Eyton, Antlq. ofShrops. x, 326. " Dugdale, Baronage, i, 42. 



71 Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. ii, 541. n Dugdale, Baronage (ed. 1675), i, 45. 

 74 Ann. Man. (Rolls Sen), i, 323. 



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