A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



extorted his nomination as bishop from the abbey, in whom the power of 

 appointment was then vested, and afterwards, though of humble Enghsh 

 birth, claimed to be the son of Angus, earl of Moray (slain in 1130), and 

 ravaged Scotland in support of his pretensions, which David only bought off 

 by entrusting to him the provincia already referred to. He ruled with such 

 violence and insolence that the country people, with the connivance of the 

 ' nobiles,' seized and blinded him.*' 



The assumption that David rested his title to these lands on the pre- 

 Conquest lordship of the earls of Northumbria is supported by the absence 

 of any evidence that he held or claimed territory south of the Ribble. Such 

 a claim might at first sight seem to be implied in his addressing charters to 

 the justices, &c., of 'the whole Honour of Lancaster.' It is, however, 

 doubtful whether the entire fief which Roger of Poitou had forfeited was as 

 yet so described, and even if it were there is ample proof that the designation 

 could be applied in a narrower sense to the part of the present county lying 

 north of the Ribble, of which Roger's castle at Lancaster was the natural 

 centre.^^ The southern half, though it also passed away from Stephen, had 

 gone into other hands than David's. Before May, 1 147, 'Between Ribble 

 and Mersey,' is found in the possession of Ranulf Gernons, earl of Chester." 

 It seems probable that this was one of the districts of royal demesne which 

 the turbulent Ranulf seized upon without law or leave during the anarchy 

 when he made himself for a time all powerful in the North Midlands." A 

 phrase in one of his charters suggests that he may have thought that he had 

 some hereditary claim to a district which had old connexions with his own 

 county." In 1149 an opportunity presented itself of reuniting in his own 

 hands the nascent county of Lancaster. Ranulf, Henry of Anjou, and King 

 David met at Carlisle to concert common action against Stephen, and the 

 Scots king consented to cede the ' Honour of Lancaster ' to the earl in return 

 for the abandonment of his claim to the land of Carlisle, of which his father 

 Ranulf le Meschin had once been lord." Ranulf, whose son was to marry a 

 granddaughter of the king, did homage to David. These arrangements have 

 been thought to betray ' an idea on the part of the earl of throwing off his 

 connexion with the English crown and establishing an independent position 

 partly based on an alliance with Scotland.' *' The earl went off to collect his 

 forces, and David and Henry, moving south with an army, awaited his 

 arrival at Lancaster before attacking Stephen, who was advancing in force 

 towards Yorkshire. They waited in vain, for Stephen seized the opportunity 

 to outbid them by enormous territorial concessions to Ranulf, of which 



*-' Chron. ofSteph. &c. 1,73. For fuller details and difficulties in the story see above, p. 116. The blinding 

 of Wimund, who spent his last years at Byland Abbey, took place before 11 52, when his successor in the see 

 of Man was appointed ; Chron. ofStefh. &c. iv, 1 67. But cf. Fordun, Scotichronicm (ed. Skene), ii, 428. 



° The wider use had come in by 1 1 64 (JLanci. Pipe R. 6), but a charter of Stephen some twenty years 

 before that date distinguishes the ' Honor de Lancastre ' from the ' terra de inter Ribliam et Mersam ' as well 

 as from the 'terra Rogeri Pictovis a Northampton usque in Scotiam ' ; ibid. 368. This restricted application 

 of the name appears also in a passage of Brompton's Chronicle (ed. Twysden in Decern Scriptores, fol. 956), 

 perhaps based on a twelfth-century source : ' Lanchastreschire continet in se quinque modicas schiras West- 

 derbischire, Salfordschire, Leylandschire, Blackbournschire et territorium Lancastrie.^ Perhaps at first the regular 

 appellation of the whole fief was ' Honor Comitis Rogerij Pictaviensis ' ; Lanes. Pipe R. 370. 



** Ibid. 277 ; Tait, op. cit. 169. The date of the charter lies between June, 1 141, and May, 1 147. 



'^ Gesta Stephani (Rolls Ser.), 118. *« Lanes. Pipe R. 319. See above, p. 184. 



*■ Hen. of Hunt. Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 282 ; Sym. Dun. op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 323. 



** Ramsay, Foundations of Engl, ii, 438. The author is unaware that David was already in possession of 

 the territory ceded. 



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