A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 
Court, appears most probable, not only from the returns made by the 
sheriffs, but also from the king’s act in creating the old province held 
by Ranulf Meschin into a diocese, with the bishop’s seat in the city 
from which both the district and the diocese took their name. There 
is no certain evidence that the strip of country to the east of the Eden 
ever acknowledged the sway of the English king before it was made 
into the barony of Gillesland by Henry II. The constant association of 
its owner, Gille son of Boet, with Scottish transactions’ while he lived, 
combined with the English declaration of the spurious nature of his 
tenure, is enough to show that, up to the last, he looked upon the king 
of Scotland as his liege lord. The barony of Coupland south of the 
Derwent was no part of the land or district of Carliske when Henry I. — 
formed it into a diocese. These three separate states, if they may be so 
termed, were thrown into the crucible after the death of king Henry, 
when Stephen ceded to David king of Scots the old fief of English 
Cumbria as the price of his usurpation. The sovereignty of the Scottish 
Crown again extended along the mountain range to the King’s Cross on 
Stainmore and to the Duddon on the western coast. David made Carlisle 
his residence, and died there’ in 1153. When Malcolm’ the Maiden, 
grandson of David, was forced by Henry II. to yield up southern 
Cumbria in 1157, and when we find the revenues of the recovered 
province accounted for by that king’s officers, the old territorial arrange- 
ment, as it existed in the days of Henry I., was continued. The land 
of the Scotic laird, Gille son of Boet, having been occupied and formed 
into a barony, was committed to Hubert de Vallibus, and included in 
the county or sheriffdom of Carlisle. In this way things went on till 
after the Scottish invasion under William the Lion in 1174, which upset 
the whole district and threw all matters of English revenue into con- 
fusion. When the war clouds cleared away, there must have been a 
reconstruction of the northern states at the Exchequer and a revision of 
existing boundaries for fiscal purposes. It is about this time that the 
counties of Cumberland and Westmorland rise above the surface of 
authentic history with defined boundaries as we now know them. The 
old phrase of the county of Carlisle was abandoned in the Pipe Rolls, its 
last appearance being in 1175, and the new designation of the county of 
Cumberland was introduced in 1177. The barony of Coupland, which 
was reckoned as a separate area in the rota of itinerant justices‘ in 1176, 
was included in the accounts of the sheriff of Cumberland for 1178, 
though it retained some shadow of its former independence for man 
years, the county of Coupland, the knights of Coupland, and the 
countess of Coupland occurring again and again. About the same 
time the barony of Appleby was severed from the Honor of Carlisle, 
1 Reg. Epis. Glasg. i. 7; Haddan and Stubbs, vol. ii. pt. i. p. 18. 
2 Twysden, Symeon of Durham, 281 ; Palgrave, Documents and Records, i. 103 ; Hoveden, i. 212. 
3 Radulf de Diceto, Ymagines Historiarum, 1. 302, Rolls. 
* Benedict Abbas, i. 108, ed. Stubbs ; Hoveden, ii. 88, ed. Stubbs ; Walter of Coventry, i. 256, ed. 
Stubbs. 
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