By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A. 



149 



period, 1 but it falls properly within the scope of the topographer 

 and antiquary to note some points of his special relation to Boy ton 

 and the Giffards, and the result of this will be to illustrate and 

 confirm some of the most interesting particulars supplied to the 

 Wilts Magazine, twenty-eight years ago, by Mr. Fane. 



A.D. 1296. Upon the decease of Edmond, Earl of Lancaster, 

 Leicester, Derby, Steward of England, &c, surnamed Crouch- Back, 

 his eldest son Thomas succeeded him in all his honours and estate, 

 being then about twenty-one years of age, and having previously 

 betrothed or married Alice, daughter and eventually sole heiress of 

 Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, who was also Earl of Salisbury in 

 right of his wife, Margaret, then deceased, heiress o£ William 

 Longespee, and granddaughter of William Longespee, Earl of 

 Salisbury. 



A.D. 1300. Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, was with King Edward 

 the First, and the English army at the siege of Carlaverock, in 

 Scotland. He was then about twenty-five years old. It is related 

 that his arms were " those of England with a label of France, and 

 he did not wish to display any others." 2 His brother Henry at the 

 same siege bore the arms of England, " with a blue baton, without 

 the label." 



A.D. 1310. Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln and Salisbury, 

 being about sixty, dies, having solemnly charged his son-in-law, 

 Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, to stand up boldly in defence of the 

 Church and nation, and to take counsel with Guy, Earl of Warwick. 



1 For a critical review of the character, position, and actions, of Thomas Earl 

 of Lancaster, see Constitutional History of England, by Professor Stubbs, vol. ii., 

 pp. 322, 349 ; Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1875. One sentence may be quoted : 

 " The cause was better than the man or the principles on which he maintained it." 



2 Siege of Carlaverock, p. 46. Cf. Sir N. H. Nicolas ; London. Nichols, 1828. 

 The words of the original French text of the contemporary poem are very re- 

 markable and full of meaning, which is somewhat missed in the above-quoted 

 translation : — 



'* De Engleterre au label de France 



Et ne veul plus mettre en souffrance." 

 " Souffrance " is here a word of heraldic and feudal import. These arms declared 

 his nearness to the English throne, and his affinity to the royal family of France. 

 This was his paternal coat, than which nothing could be more honourable, and ho 

 did not wish to obtain recognition for his many additional achievements. 



