POLITICAL HISTORY 



The attitude of the county of Lancaster to the rising is not directly 

 recorded ; the outlawry of Gilbert son of Waltheof, the master Serjeant of 

 West Derby wapentake, which was only remitted on payment of the heavy 

 fine of jr4oo, seems, however, to point to his participation, and Hamon de 

 Masci had some land in the county.^"' But any wide complicity would have 

 left more traces upon the Pipe Rolls. Apart from the periodical visitations 

 of the itinerant justices, the only outstanding events in the history of the 

 county during the remainder of the reign are the grant in 1 179 of a charter 

 to Preston, which was perhaps the result of a royal visit,"" and the gift some 

 years later of the valuable district of Cartmel to the famous William the 

 JVIarshal, who had been the trusted adviser of the king's eldest son."^ It was 

 under Henry II, though the exact date is unknown, that a body of loyal 

 Welshmen, dispossessed by Owen Gwynedd's conquests in Flintshire, migrated 

 to Lancashire with Robert Banaster, whose castle at Prestatyn had been 

 destroyed in 1 167, and founded more than one local family."' Banaster was 

 no doubt promised compensation here but does not seem to have obtained 

 possession of Makerfield until after Henry's death. 



Although the county of Lancaster was now a recognized administrative 

 area it does not appear under that name in the list of districts included in the 

 northern circuit of the justices as rearranged in 1179. 'Inter Rible et 

 Meresee ' and ' Lonecastre ' are still distinguished as in Stephen's day."' It 

 is doubtful whether this must be regarded as a mere official clinging to 

 ancient nomenclature or as implying that the justices held separate assizes for 

 the two districts, once distinct but now united in a single county. In any case 

 the two regions retained a certain individuality, and long afterwards the name 

 ' Between Ribble and Mersey ' was still in use."* The entire honour of Lan- 

 caster was included in the huge appanage with which Richard, in 1 1 89, shortly 

 after his accession, too trustfully invested his brother John, count of Mortain. 

 Here, as in the other territories granted, among which were the counties of 

 Derby and Nottingham, the whole of the regalities were transferred and 

 for nearly five years the honour disappears from the Pipe Rolls."' Over 

 a large part of England John enjoyed all the powers which the palatine 

 earl of Chester and the bishop of Durham had long exercised in more 

 restricted areas. In some of the districts comprised in his fief the castles 

 were retained by the crown, but Lancaster Castle was handed over to him, 

 and this, with the importance of Lancashire as the door to his Irish posses- 

 sions, perhaps explains the special favour he seems to have shown to his men 



^"^ Lanes. Pipe R. ^i, 6\. 



"° The burgesses received the liberties of Newcastle-under-Lyme ; ibid. 412. For presumptive evidence 

 that Henry hunted in the forest of Lancaster during the virinter 1 178-9 see ibid. 40. 



'"As the sheriiF in 1 187-8 claimed deduction of the rent of Cartmel for a year and nine monthi 

 (ibid. 66), Mr. Farrer ascribes the grant to 1 185 or 1 186, but as Marshal only returned from a long campaign 

 in the Holy Land in the autumn of 11 87 {Diet. Nat. Biog.) the grant may have been made in that or the 

 following year with a lien upon past revenue. 



'" e.g. the Welshes (Le Waleys) of Aughton, Litherland, and Welch Whittle and the Hultons of Hulton 

 represented f. 1200 by Yorwerth son of Bleddyn ; Lanes. Inq. \, 20, 65. In 1229 the ' Banaster Welsh- 

 men' resisted a tallage of 20 marks, claiming to have always paid voluntary aids in lieu of tallage. Twelve of 

 them were summoned to Westminster to show warrant ; Cal. of Close, 1227-31, p. 159. They are said to 

 have been still called Mes Westroys ' under Edw. \. ; Whalley Coueher, 113. 



"' Hoveden, C3«». (Rolls Ser.), ii, 191. From 1202, when the extant records of their proceed- 

 ings begin, the justices seem to have held a single session for the county, generally at Lancaster but sometimes 

 at Preston or Wigan. 



■» See below, p. 194. Norgate, John Lackland, 25-7. 



189 



