A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 
of Chester, perished with William the Attheling in the winter of 1120,' 
had an effect of great moment on Ranulf’s northern charge. On his 
accession to his cousin’s earldom, the oversight of the ‘ Power of Carlisle’ 
was resumed by the Crown, and no person was appointed to fill his place. 
In 1122, that is, about the time of his departure or soon after, Henry I. 
came to Carlisle? and ordered the city to be fortified with a castle and 
towers, from which acts we may assume that he had taken into his own 
hand the vacated office. Events now began to move more rapidly, and 
much was done during the remaining years of Henry’s reign to establish 
settled government in the district and to make it an integral part of the 
English commonwealth. The king, instead of appointing another great 
vassal in Ranulf’s place, had recourse to the expedient of breaking up 
his province into baronies, and bestowing smaller parcels on various in- 
dividuals for personal service. It is to Henry I. that the ‘Testa de Nevill’ 
ascribes the creation of the baronies of Allerdale, Wigton, Levington, 
Greystoke, and Coupland, the last named barony forming no part of 
Ranulf’s possessions. The city of Carlisle and the forest of Cumberland 
were retained in demesne. The manors within the forest were destined to 
undergo many vicissitudes of ownership by escheat and re-grant during 
the reign of Henry II., about which the Pipe Rolls supply invaluable 
information. Various tenures by serjeanty, like the manors of Hoton, 
Raughton, Newton Reigny, and the rest, several of which date from 
Henry I., are enumerated in the later documents which make up the 
‘Testa de Nevill.’ 
But the settlement of the district by Henry I. was not confined solely 
to its apportionment in chartered allotments. ‘The work of education 
and the arts of peace were stimulated by the foundation of monastic 
centres for the civilization of the district. Ranulf Meschin had founded 
the priory of Wetheral in the beautiful valley of the Eden about seven 
miles above Carlisle. Before Ranulf came, or after Ranulf left, for the 
exact date is in dispute, Henry the king founded the priory of Carlisle. 
It seems unreasonable to suppose that a religious establishment should have 
been placed in a lonely valley like Wetheral, so far distant from the caput of 
the district, had not a religious house been already in existence in Carlisle. 
Henry’s interest in the affairs of his own foundation is well known. The 
‘Testa de Nevill’ furnishes a case in point. The manors of ‘Linstoc’ and 
‘ Karleton’ had been given to Walter, the Norman priest above mentioned, 
at a stated cornage rent. Walter, who was Henry’s chaplain, took the 
religious habit in the priory of St. Mary’s, Carlisle, when by the desire and 
licence of the king he endowed the priory with his worldly possessions. 
Henry, not to be outdone by the piety of his chaplain, remitted the assess- 
ment due to him from the manors and conceded many privileges to that 
house. William Meschin followed the example of his brother, and founded 
the priory of St. Bees on the western headland as a cell of St. Mary’s, York, 
1 Lappenberg, Norman Kings, pp. 329-30, ed. B. Thorpe, 1857. 
® Historia Regum, i. 119 (Symeon of Durham, Surtees Society), ii. 267, ed. T. Arnold ; Chronicle of 
Melrose, in ann. 1122. 
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