POLITICAL HISTORY 



and its right to Parliamentary representation was duly recognized. It had no 

 doubt been represented in the various assemblies to which knights of the shire 

 had been summoned during the thirteenth century, but the ' Model Parlia- 

 ment ' of 1295 is the first in which the names of its members are recorded. 

 To that famous assembly Lancashire sent no fewer than ten representatives, 

 two for the county (Matthew de Redman and John de Ewyas), and two each 

 from the four boroughs, Lancaster, Preston, Wigan, and Liverpool. ^'^ But 

 except in 1 307 the two last were not again represented until the sixteenth 

 century, while Preston and Lancaster did not regularly send members, and 

 ceased to send them altogether after 1331 and 1337 respectively.^^' 



The representatives were elected in the County Court. It was one of 

 the charges against William le Gentil that as sheriff he sent to the Parliament 

 of October, 1320, Gilbert de Haydock and Thomas de Thornton, without 

 election and ' out of his own head.' "* 



Four of the chief tenants in the shire were summoned to Parliament as 

 peers. Two of these, however, were great magnates outside the county, 

 Henry de Lacy earl of Lincoln and Salisbury (who removed Stanlaw Abbey 

 to Whalley) in Yorkshire, Cheshire and elsewhere, and Theobald Butler 

 (Walter) of Weeton (whose nephew became earl of Ormond in 1328) in 

 Ireland."^ William le Boteler baron of Warrington,^'^ and Thomas Grelley 

 baron of Manchester,^" received writs of summons from 1295 and 1308 

 respectively, but Boteler's descendants were not summoned, and Grelley was 

 the last of his line. 



Edmund of Lancaster died more than ten years (5 June, 1296) before 

 his brother the king. His great heritage passed (save the Welsh estates) to 

 his elder son Thomas, who, unlike his father, chose to call himself earl of 

 Leicester and Ferrers (Derby) as well as of Lancaster. Thomas' marriage to 

 Alice, heiress of Henry de Lacy, brought him on her father's death in 1 3 1 1 

 two more earldoms and vast estates in various counties.''^ His demesne lands 

 in Lancashire received a large accession by the acquisition of the Lacy fiefs 

 of Clitheroe (Blackburnshire), Widnes, and Penwortham."' 



Earl Edmund had always remained a trusted and faithful servant of his 

 abler brother. Thomas of Lancaster was of a different temper and lived 

 under a less fortunate star. He aspired to an influence in the kingdom pro- 

 portionate to his birth and territorial position, but his cousin Edward II pre- 

 ferred to give his confidence to a Gaveston and a Despenser, and Thomas 

 allowed his resentment to hurry him into violence which he had not the 

 ability to carry to a successful issue. He did indeed remove Gaveston from 

 his path in 1312,'°'' but with circumstances of treachery which alienated some 



'" Returns of Members of Pari. (1878), p. 5. Wigan received a borough charter from John Mansell, rector 

 and lord of the manor in 1246, confirmed by Henry III in the same year ; Hist. ofCh. of Wigan (Chet. Soc), 9. 



'" Returns of Members of Pari. The sheriffs in their returns state poverty as the reason v/\vy there were 

 no boroughs which could send representatives. 



'** Ibid. 60 ; Assize R. 425, m. 14. It was further alleged that Haydock and Thornton were paid 

 double what was lawful for their expenses ; ibid. 



"= G.E.C. Complete Peerage, ii, 95. "» Ibid, i, 38 1 . 



'" Ibid, iv, 93. Here the date of his death is confused with that of his brother-in-law ; cf. Tait, 

 Mediaeval Manchester, 145. He granted a charter to his burgesses of Manchester in 1 301 ; ibid. 62. 



"° Among them Bolingbroke, afterwards the birthplace of Henry IV. 



"' Three Lanes. Doc. (Chet Soc. [Old Ser.], Ixxiv), i. 



"" Some fifty Lancashire men received pardons in Oct. 1 3 1 3, for various acts committed in connexion 

 with the capture and death of Gaveston ; Cal. Pat. 13 13-17, p. 21. 



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