POLITICAL HISTORY 



failing to raise it never recovered the bulk of them."' One of his Lancashire 

 tenants, Thomas Grelley, baron of Manchester, had played a prominent part 

 on the baronial sidein 1258. He w^as included not only among the twenty- 

 four commissioners appointed under the provisions of Oxford to arrange for 

 the raising of an aid, but among the twelve who ' to spare expense to the 

 community of the realm ' (which in practice meant the barons) were to 

 represent them in the little council of twenty-seven which was to constitute 

 the Parliament of the realm. ^™ Grelley was also appointed justice of the 

 royal forests south of the Trent,"^ but as he died in 1262, leaving an heir 

 under age, his estates escaped forfeiture. The disturbed state of the country 

 after that year is indicated by the absence of any accounts for Lancashire on 

 the Pipe Rolls. 



The Ferrers' fief between Ribble and Mersey was included in the grant 

 of his estates on 12 July, 1266, to Edmund,^" to whom already in the 

 previous year had been given Montfort's earldom and honour of Leicester."" 

 About twelve months later the whole honour of Lancaster, with the county 

 and castle, was conferred upon him."* In the charter (30 June, 1267) 

 he is not styled earl of Lancaster, but as he was summoned to Parlia- 

 ment under that title from 1276 it is assumed that he obtained this 

 dignity at the time of the grant by the girding of the sword."' In 

 the interval between the grants of the Ferrers and Lancaster honours the 

 castles of Builth and Kenilworth had been conveyed to him and simulta- 

 neously with Lancaster he received the honours of Newcastle-under-Lyme 

 and Pickering, the manors of Scalby, Huntingdon, and Godmanchester, 

 and in Wales, Grosmont, Skenfrith, Whitecastle and Monmouth ; but 

 Lancaster was selected as the caput of his vast appanage, and he was thence- 

 forth known as Edmund of Lancaster, the founder of the great house of 

 that name."^ 



To find a precedent for the position of Edmund in regard to the county, 

 we have to go back to the days when John count of Mortain was lord of 

 Lancaster, though John enjoyed regalities which were withheld from his 

 grandson. All the tenants of the crown there were required to do homage 

 to the earl."^ The entire ordinary revenue of the shire was enjoyed by 

 Edmund, who appointed his own sheriff,"* and only accounted to the crown 

 for certain debts due to the king, such, for instance, as amercements imposed 



'°' Besides Chartley he was allowed to retain (as a tenant of Edmund) a considerable part of his Lanca- 

 shire estate, including Bolton, Chorlcy, and the wapentake of Leyland. These passed after his death to his 

 second son, William Ferrers ofGroby, and his heirs ; Lanes. Inq. i, 268. 



'" Tait, Mediaeval Manchester, 140. '" Cal. Pat. (Rec. Com.), ii, 31. 



"' Dugdale, Baronage, i, 778. It is doubtful whether this grant conveyed or was accompanied by the 

 earldom of Derby (or Ferrers). His son Thomas styled himself Earl Ferrers on one of his seals {Complete 

 Peerage, v, 6), but his grandson Henry was specially created earl of Derby ; ibid. According to Trokelowe 

 {Annates [Rolls Ser.], 70), Edmund used neither this title nor that of earl of Leicester. 



'" Complete Peerage, v, 46. 



^''* Cal. Chart. (Rec. Com.), 94. No services were specified, but the omission was remedied in 1292, 

 when it was decided that the honour should be held by the service of one knight's fee ; Cal. Pat. 1281-92, 



P- 477- 



'" G.E.C. Complete Peerage, v, 5. 



'™ Engl. Hist. Rev.x, 9 seq., 209 seq. ; a careful study of Edmund's career by W. E. Rhodes. 



'" Some sought to escape this on the ground that they had already done homage to the king ; Cal. Pat. 

 1281-92, p. 417. 



■" Roger de Lancaster, to whom Henry in 1266 had committed the custody of the county for 100 marks 

 yearly, was indemnified; Engl. Hist. Rev. x, 33. The sheriffs into whose counties the honour of Lancaster 

 extended were forbidden (1268) to interfere in anything that concerned it ; ibid. 



