A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



of its administrative work was conducted by officers of his appointment, he 

 lacked the higher regalities possessed by the bishop of Durham or the earl 

 of Chester — regalities once enjoyed by his own predecessors, the old lords of 

 Lancaster. 



Lancashire was still under the jurisdiction of the king's courts, his 

 justices still went on assize there, though the earl took the fines and 

 amercements they inflicted, and no cause could be begun by its inhabitants 

 without a writ from the royal chancery.-" Its liability to contribute to 

 royal taxation was unquestioned, for unlike Durham and Cheshire it sent 

 representatives to Parliament.'" 



None of the practical reasons which dictated the creation of palatinates 

 in the eleventh century could now be adduced for severing this direct rela- 

 tion with the crown and calling into existence (or reviving) another county 

 palatine. The Scottish invasions of the late reign had not been repeated, 

 and had a palatinate been needed as a bulwark against Scotland Cumberland 

 would have served the purpose better. 



No more adequate motive for the conversion of Lancashire into a 

 county palatine can be discovered than a desire to do honour to one who was 

 not only the greatest collateral member of the royal house but a distinguished 

 soldier. Henry ' of Grosmont,' who became fourth carl of Lancaster on 

 the death of his father in 1345, was at that very moment winning laurels 

 as commander of the English forces in Gascony."" Six years later Edward III 

 decided to recognize his cousin's eminent services by conferring upon him 

 the new title of duke, as yet borne only by his own eldest son the duke 

 of Cornwall. Wishing to accompany this titular promotion by some 

 corresponding accession of power, and probably not considering it desirable 

 further to deplete the crown estates by grants of land Edward gave him the 

 rights of a palatine earl in the county of Lancaster, a piece of generosity 

 which cost him little in a pecuniary sense, as the bulk of the ordinary crown 

 revenue from the shire was already drawn by the duke. The obvious 

 objections to such a rending of the unity of the kingdom, which the 

 memory of Thomas of Lancaster could hardly fail to suggest, may have been 

 thought to be met sufficiently by making the grant to Henry for his life 

 only,"' and withholding even from him some of the privileges attaching to 

 the older palatine counties. By the charter of 6 March, 1351, there 

 was granted to him a chancery in which writs should be issued by his own 

 chancellor, justices of his own to try all pleas, whether pleas of the crown 

 or not, touching the common law and all other liberties and jura regalia 

 pertaining to a palatine earl ' as fully and freely as the earl of Chester is 

 known to have them in the county of Chester ' ; with certain exceptions 

 which were carefully enumerated. °" 



In the county palatine of Lancaster the crown retained the right of 

 Parliamentary and clerical taxation, the royal prerogative of pardon and the 



"" In 1342 the sheriff was rebuked for toing to prevent appeals to the king and neglecting to deliver 

 his writs ; Cal. Cicsf, i 341-3, pp. 401, 470, 551. 



«* For the devices by whxh Parliamentary taxation was extended to Durham see Lapsley Co Pal tj 



'^'"'' w't' . "' ^'"- ^'"'^ ^"^- '''''■'' '°^ ' ^•^•^- Co'^P'^'^ Peerage, y, 6. See p. 204 n. 256. 



In any case the reasons which had prompted the revision of the charter of 1 342 (see above p 205) were 

 equally operative against a grant-in-tail of a county palatine. In the ducal dignity itself, to which the 

 palatinate was an appendage, he only received a life estate ; Courthope, Hist. Peerage Ixiil 

 =" W. J. Hardy, C/:art. o/Duety of Lane. 9. <S ' ^ 



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