The Honour of Lancaster was a medieval English honour (a large estate) located primarily in the north-west of England, between 1066 and the 15th century.
The Honour of Lancaster was a medieval English honour (a large estate) located primarily in the north-west of England, between 1066 and the 15th century.
The Honour of Lancaster was established after the Norman conquest of England after a wide band of territory, including the lands between the River Ribble and the River Mersey, was granted by William the Conqueror to Roger the Poitevin, a powerful Norman lord. [1] The Domesday Book does not say that Roger owned Lancaster, which is listed as part of the manor of Halton. One entry does imply he had a castle somewhere which has been argued to be either Clitheroe or Penwortham. It is thought that he began building Lancaster Castle afterwards. [1] The lands in the north-west of England formed a largely autonomous palatinate, but was linked to other land holdings stretching down as far as Suffolk, collectively known as the Honour of Lancaster. [2] Roger sided with Robert of Bellême against Henry I and was subsequently exiled, but the Honour remained intact as a distinct collection of estates. [3]
Henry I gave the Honour to one of his nephews, Stephen of Blois, who later became king after Henry's death. [3] Control of the northern parts of the Honour was disputed during the civil war known as the Anarchy. [4] Henry II took the Honour, before it passed to Stephen's son, William, in the late 1150s. [5] William's widow held the Honour for a period, before it passed back to the Crown in 1164. [6] In 1189 Richard I granted the Honour to Prince John, when the estates were listed as providing a revenue of £200 a year. [6]
By the end of the 12th century, a County of Lancaster was increasingly being referred to in the Pipe rolls. [6] It later became common to describe parts of the honour as within or without the Lyme, to substitute the county border. [7]
Since 1194 the honour had been held by the crown, but in 1267 it was given to Edmund Crouchback (father of the House of Lancaster), the son of King Henry III, when he was created the 1st Earl of Lancaster, subsequently becoming part of the Duchy of Lancaster. [8]
Stephen, often referred to as Stephen of Blois, was King of England from 22 December 1135 to his death in 1154. He was Count of Boulogne jure uxoris from 1125 until 1147 and Duke of Normandy from 1135 until 1144. His reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda, whose son, Henry II, succeeded Stephen as the first of the Angevin kings of England.
Lancaster Castle is a medieval castle and former prison in Lancaster in the English county of Lancashire. Its early history is unclear, but it may have been founded in the 11th century on the site of a Roman fort overlooking a crossing of the River Lune. In 1164 the Honour of Lancaster, including the castle, came under royal control. In 1322 and 1389 the Scots invaded England, progressing as far as Lancaster and damaging the castle. It was not to see military action again until the English Civil War. The castle was first used as a prison in 1196 although this aspect became more important during the English Civil War. The castle buildings are owned by the British sovereign as Duke of Lancaster; part of the structure is used to host sittings of the Crown Court.
Blackburn Hundred is a historic sub-division of the county of Lancashire, in northern England. Its chief town was Blackburn, in the southwest of the hundred. It covered an area similar to modern East Lancashire, including the current districts of Ribble Valley, Pendle, Burnley, Rossendale, Hyndburn, Blackburn with Darwen, and South Ribble.
Lancashire is a county of England, in the northwest of the country. The county did not exist in 1086, for the Domesday Book, and was apparently first created in 1182, making it one of the youngest of the traditional counties.
de Lacy is the surname of an old Norman family which originated from Lassy, Calvados. The family took part in the Norman Conquest of England and the later Norman invasion of Ireland. The name is first recorded for Hugh de Lacy (1020–1085). His sons, Walter and Ilbert, left Normandy and travelled to England with William the Conqueror. The awards of land by the Conqueror to the de Lacy sons led to two distinct branches of the family: the northern branch, centred on Blackburnshire and west Yorkshire was held by Ilbert's descendants; the southern branch of Marcher Lords, centred on Herefordshire and Shropshire, was held by Walter's descendants.
The Beal is a small river in Greater Manchester, England, and is a tributary of the River Roch. It rises in the Beal Valley in green space between Sholver and Royton, before continuing northwards through Shaw and Crompton, Newhey, Milnrow and Belfield.
Staining is a village and civil parish in Lancashire, England, on the Fylde coast close to the seaside resorts of Blackpool and Lytham St Annes, and the market town of Poulton-le-Fylde. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 2,290. Historically, the village was part of the township of Hardhorn-with-Newton. Now the hamlet of Newton is part of the civil parish of Staining; Hardhorn belongs to Poulton-le-Fylde.
Clitheroe Castle is a ruined early medieval castle in Clitheroe in Lancashire, England. It was the caput of the Honour of Clitheroe, a vast estate stretching along the western side of the Pennines.
Ightenhill is a civil parish in the Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a population of 1,975.
Skerton is an area in the north of Lancaster, Lancashire, England, on the other side of the River Lune to the castle. It was formerly a township, but in the late 1800s it was incorporated into Lancaster and the neighbouring townships. Skerton Bridge takes the A6 southwards towards the city centre.
Musbury Tor or Tor Hill is a flat-topped hill in south-east Lancashire, England. It overlooks the village of Helmshore and separates Alden Valley to its south and Musbury Valley to its north. Mainly consisting of farmland and pastures, its summit is 340.1 metres (1,116 ft) above sea level. The hill is a prominent landmark and can be seen from much of Helmshore and is often colloquially referred to as ‘the Tor’ by the local population. 'Tor View' is a name shared by several houses and a local Special School.
Pilkington was a township in the parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham, hundred of Salford and county of Lancashire, in northern England.
Albert de Gresle was a non-resident lord of the manor of Manchester.
The Honour of Clitheroe is an ancient grouping of manors and royal forests centred on Clitheroe Castle in Lancashire, England; an honour traditionally being the grant of a large landholding complex, not all of whose parts are contiguous. In the case of Clitheroe, this complex was loosely clustered around the ancient wapentake of Blackburnshire.
The Pilkington family has its origins in the ancient township of Pilkington in the historic county of Lancashire, England. After about 1405 the family seat was Stand Old Hall which was built to replace Old Hall in Pilkington. The new hall was built on high land overlooking Pilkington's medieval deer park. Stand Old Hall was replaced by Stand Hall to the south in 1515 after the Pilkingtons were dispossessed. Stand Old Hall became a barn. It is possible that Sir Thomas Pilkington had permission to “embattle” his manor house in 1470 building a stone tower. It was a ruin by the 1950s and demolished in the early 1960s.
Robert de Gresle (1174–1230) was a Lord of the manor of Manchester, the first of his family to take up residence in Manchester. Initially the Gresle family, were absentee landlords, living elsewhere, with Stewards to represent them locally.
William de Lancaster I, or William Fitz Gilbert, was a nobleman of the 12th century in Northwest England during the Anarchy, and the period during which his region was ruled by King David I of Scotland. His position survived the return of English rule under King Henry II, and his most important lordship, which had previously come together under Ivo de Taillebois, would evolve into what was eventually known as the barony of Kendal. According to a document some generations later, he was also referred to as William de Tailboys when younger, and then became "William de Lancaster, baron of Kendal". He died in about 1170.
The extent of the medieval district of Craven, in the north of England is a matter of debate. The name Craven is either pre-Celtic Britain, Britonnic or Romano-British in origin. However, its usage continued following the ascendancy of the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans – as was demonstrated by its many appearances in the Domesday Book of 1086. Places described as being In Craven in the Domesday Book fell later within the modern county of North Yorkshire, as well as neighbouring areas of West Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria. Usage of Craven in the Domesday Book is, therefore, circumstantial evidence of an extinct, British or Anglo-Saxon kingdom or subnational entity.
The honour of Pontefract, also known as the feudal barony of Pontefract, was an English feudal barony. Its origins lie in the grant of a large, compact set of landholdings in Yorkshire, made between the Norman conquest of England in 1066 and the completion of the Domesday Survey in 1086. An expansive set of landholdings spanning sixty parishes and six wapentakes in Yorkshire, the honour was created primarily to serve a strategic, defensive function in a potentially hostile frontier zone. The first lord was Ilbert de Lacy, who built a castle at Pontefract which became the caput of the honour. Alongside the Yorkshire holdings, a smaller number of dispersed possessions elsewhere in England belonged to the honour.
Ilbert II de Lacy, Baron of Pontefract and Lord of Bowland, was an English noble.