A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE 



John Fitz Philip, Geoffrey de Gresley, John de Audley, Roger Bagot of 

 Brinton, John de Swynnerton, Richard de Bromley, William de Rideware, 

 Giles de Erdington, and many more. 8 * 



Against Robert de Ferrers Henry had a special grudge because he had 

 married the king's niece, Mary of Angouleme, and yet was opposed to him. 

 This was aggravated by Ferrers capturing Prince Edward and imprisoning 

 him. In 1264 he defeated the royalists at Chester, but soon after Edward, 

 his old opponent, laid waste his lands in Derbyshire and Staffordshire, and 

 demolished his stronghold of Tutbury. 85 Such determined hostility brought 

 about his own downfall and that of his family. In 1265 he was brought to 

 trial, confessed, and was forgiven, yet with extraordinary infatuation he again 

 raised an army and seized Chesterfield, 84 but was defeated, attainted, and his 

 lands confiscated. 



Immediately after the battle of Lewes, Earl Simon, acting in the name 

 of Henry, appointed for the first time a ' custos pacis ' in every county in 

 England, who appears to have superseded the sheriff and wielded almost 

 despotic power, the custos for Staffordshire being Ralph Basset of Drayton, 85 

 who at the battle of Evesham fell fighting against the king with Hugh le 

 Despenser, Richard Trussel of Kibblestone, and William de Bermingham. 88 

 The last-named was a tenant of Roger de Somery, one of Henry's few 

 supporters, and their being found on opposite sides shows that the feudal tie 

 was severed. 87 



It is perhaps fitting that in the early years of the reign of the great legis- 

 lator Edward I the history of Staffordshire should be concerned with a famous 

 lawsuit, which not only is a good illustration of the litigation of the time, 

 but was important in the annals of the county. In the second year of the 

 reign Robert de Ferrers, the staunch opponent of Henry III, sued Edmund 

 Crouchback, the late king's son, to whom all Ferrers' lands, with two ex- 

 ceptions, had been given, that he might redeem his lands according to the 

 Dictum de Kenilworth. 



This was an agreement drawn up between Henry and his tenants in 

 chief during the siege of Kenilworth, by which those who had been disin- 

 herited might upon submission recover their estates, and was published on 

 31 October, 1266. In it was a special clause by which Ferrers was to pay 

 seven years' revenue and give up his castles. 88 Edmund appeared and said that 

 Ferrers could not claim the benefit of the Dictum de Kenilworth, since after 

 it was passed he had offered of his own free will to redeem his lands and 

 himself from prison for 50,000 ; an enormous sum when its present value 

 is considered, and especially considering that the annual value of the Earl of 

 Derby's estates at this time was put at jf^ooo. 89 



This sum was to be paid by the Quindene of St. John the Baptist, and 

 if not paid then Edmund was to hold the land until it was paid, and he 



81 Coll. (Salt Arch. Soc.), viii (2), 5. ra Dugdale, Baronage, 263 ; Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 230. 



94 Ann. Man. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 370 ; Mosley, Hist, of Tutbury, 16. Robert de Ferrers, though hostile to 

 the king, was not a loyal supporter of the barons ; Rishangcr says of him, ' fidus nee Regi nee Baronibus' ; 

 Chnn. and Ann. (Rolls Ser.), 13. In the summer of 1263 he marched about the country plundering and 

 burning indiscriminately. He incurred the hostility of Simon de Montfort at Lewes and was imprisoned by 

 him ; Engl. Hist. Rev. x, 3 I. 



85 Coll. (Salt Arch. Soc.), viii, 4. " Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 365. 



87 Coll. (Salt Arch. Soc.), viii, 6. M Stubbs, Const. Hist, ii, too. 



89 Dugdale, Baronage, i, 265. 



228 



