• 1 Crown, afterwards in the Church ; but this
Church property was reduced by the Norman William first to the whole tithes, and afterwards to those of the Church of Oakham only. In the reign of Edward II. it appears that the Crown was possessed of the hundreds of Martinsley, Alstoe, and East Hundred, all which that king granted to the Lady Margaret, wife of Piers de Gaveston, Duke of Cornwall, then his favourite, and to be held by her during the royal pleasure. The hundred of Wrangdyke was then the property of Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick ; but his son Thomas being a minor at his father's death, Edward gave this estate to Hugh he Despenser the elder, another favourite, in plea of its being in satisfaction of a debt due to him of £6,770. During these transactions the hundred of Okeham or Oakham Soke is never mentioned, but it has been conjectured that it then formed part of Martinsley Hundred. In the reign of Henry VIIL, we are told by Leland that the shire of Rutland lieth in a manner, as it were, in a roundel, and lieth partly on Wiland Water, from Stamford to the very bridge of Rokingham." Drayton, in his pleasant ambling verses, praises this little county in the following terms :-
"Love not thyself the less, although the least thou art ; What thou in greatness want'st wise Nature cloth impart In goodness of thy soil; and more delicious mould, Surveying all this isle, the sun did pe'er behold. Bring forth the British vale, and bo it no so rare, But Gamuts with that vale for richness may compare. What forest nymph is found, how brave soo'or she be, But Lyfield shows herself as brave a nymph as she ? What river ever rose from bank or swelling hill Than Rutland's wandering Wash a delicator rill? Small shire that can't produce, to this proportion good, One vale of special name, one forest, and one flood! O Celsius! thou fair vale, coin° on in grass and corn, That Beaver [Bolvoir] ne'er be said thy sisterhood to scorn. And lot thy Ocham [Oakham] boast to have no little grace, That her the pleased Fates did in this bosom place ! And Lyfield, as thou art a forest, live so free, That every forest nymph may praise the sports in thee. And down to Welland's course, 0 Wash! run ever clear, To honour and to be much honour'd by this shire!"
When Rutland first became an earldom has been a matter of dispute. Some believe it to have been one soon after the Conquest, as among the witnesses enumerated in a charter granted by Henry I. in 1101 to Herbert de Losing, first Bishop of Norwich, and the monks of the Holy Trinity there, we find the name of " Rotbertus—Comes Rutland." This, however, is the only instance of that nature on record. The first Earl is generally said to have been Edward Plantagenet, son and heir apparent of Edmund of Langley, Duke of York, fifth son of Edward III., created February 25, 1391, but with limitation of the title during his father's life only. Ile was made Duke of Albe- marle in 1397, but was degraded from that title in 1399. This is Shakespeare's " Aumerle." The earldom became extinct on his succession to the dukedom of York in 1402. The younger members of the House of York, however, seem afterwards to have assumed the title of this earldom ; but there was no regular creation to the dignity after the year 1402, till it was conferred by Henry VIII. in 1525 on Thomas Manners, eighteenth Baron Ross, of Hamlake, in whose family it has continued ever since.
Ecclesiastically the county was always under the Archdeacon of Northampton, and part of the diocese of Lincoln till 1541, when Henry VIII., on erecting the new bishopric at Peterborough, assigned the archdeaconry to the latter jurisdiction, and Rutland is now one of the rural deaneries of that diocese. The churches at Tickencote, Little Casterton, Empingham, Essendine, and Ketton, all on the east side of the county, date from the Norman period ; but the first named was rebuilt in 1792, and " only the elabor- ately ornamented arch between the nave and chancel, and part of the groining of the chancel, with the font, remain. Essendine is a small church, with a nave and chancel, and a gable for two bells at the western end ; and the architecture is partly Norman, partly Early English."
The county during the reign of Henry II. was entrusted to the administration of Richard de Humet, and afterwards (from the year 1180) to William Molduit (or Mauduit). The Basset and Despenser family are also said to have had some jurisdiction in the same reign. In the reign of Richard I. the families of Albini and Fresney predominated ; in John's reign those of Normanvil and Brabro. During the long reign of Henry III. we find pre-eminent the families of Basset, Rockingham, Greneham, and Markinal. Under Edward I. we find the families of Wakervil, Bovile, and Whitlebers. In the first years of Edward III., the Audley family succeeded the favourite, Gaveston, in the leading position, through the marriage of their head with his widow, and were succeeded by the families of Bohan, Wade, and Whittles- borough,—which last were also powerful in the reign of Richard II., with that of Ondeley, who were still in the ascendant in the reign of Henry V. In the reign of Henry VI. the gentry comprised Greneham and Beaufo, Knights of the Shire ; Basinges of Empingham (Knight), Colepepper of Exton, and Plesington of Burley (Knights) ; Brown of Wodehead, Davis of Tickencote, Brown of Tighe, Plesington of Wisendine, Fiore of Oakham, Clerk of Stokedry, and Chycelden of Branston (Esquires). The Bassets seem to leave then sunk to the rank of "gentlemen." The Alackworths comeforward in the reign of Edward IV., the Ilarringtons in that of Henry VII., as do the Digbys of Martesthorpe. The family of Sapcote, which appears in Henry VI:a reign as of Ketton, " merchant," now begins to figure frequently among the list of Sheriffs of the county ; and the Feild- ings and Berkeleys often appear. At the close of Elizabeth's reign the family of Palmer comes to the front. In the reign of Henry VII. we find the first mntion in the Sheriffs' list of "Nowell of Brooke," and the name appears again at some intervals as "Nowell," or "Noell," till the reign of James I. They were then raised first to the baronetcy, and afterwards to the peerage, and succeeding to the property and title of Sir Baptist Hick es, first Viscount Campden, laid the foundations of the present family of Noel, Earls of Gainaborough, which, with the Heathcotes (Lords Aveland) and the Manners, is now predom- inant iu Rutland.
There are but few historical events which specially belong to Rutland during this period. In 1381 Henry de Spencer, Bishop of Norwich, assembled a force at Burley to suppress the insurrec- tion of the Commons in Norfolk, under John the Litester, or Dyer ; and in 1468 the Lincolnshire insurgents, under Sir Robert Wells, were defeated with great loss by Edward IV. at Hornfield, in Empingham parish. This battle is commonly known as Lose- coat Field, from (it is said popularly, but doubtfully) the fugitives throwing off their coats to escape more quickly. In the time of the Civil War of the reign of Charles I. Rutland was contested between the two parties, by the Noels on the King's side, and the Harring- tons on that of the Parliament.
Of the castles erected in Leicestershire immediately after the Norman Conquest there are but few remains, except in the case of Ashby de la Zouch. Of Groby, near Leicester, the earthworks and a few fragments of the masonry remain. Belvoir, which gave its name to another old castle, is now the name of an erection of the first Earl of Rutland, of the Manners family, at the end of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century. The medimval castles of Kirkby, Maxhoe (with its brick courses), and Whitwick still show traces of their former importance. Of the religious houses of this period we have still " the nunnery ruins of Gracedieu (of the thirteenth century), the Norman Priory of Ulverscroft, the Abbey of Leicester, and very slight traces of Lubbesthorpe Abbey." The most important of the old mansions and halls " are Coleorton, the house at Donuington (of the thirteenth century), Bradgate Hall, slight remains of the residence of the Lords Grey of Groby, and Nevil Holt Hall. Of churches, Leicester and Melton are the principal of middle-age date ; but there are also many village churches of similar antiquity. On the accession of William Rufus, Leicestershire was ravaged by Hugh Grentemaisnil, who supported the cause of Robert of Normandy ; and William Rufus took Leicester Castle. During the reigns of Henry IL, John, and Henry III. the county was also much dis- tracted by civil struggles, and the castles being frequently held by the barons in arms against the Crown, the last-named king utterly demolished most of them. This county was also the scene of the close of the Civil War of the Roses at Bosworth Field in 1485. In the Civil War of Charles I.'s time the great families of the county were divided, though the Puritan gentry were the stronger, but the mass of the people seem to have leant to the side of the Parliament. Several severe skirmishes took place in the county in the years from 1613 to 1613. On the 31st of May, 1645, the King took Leicester by storm, but the town was retaken four days after the battle of Naseby, which occurred a fortnight later. In his subsequent marches the King came once or twice to Belvoir or Ashby. Belvoir Castle was taken by storm from the Cavaliers in November of the same year, and the garrison of Ashby sur- rendered in the February following.
A list of the Knights of the county of Leicester who served under King Edward I. in his wars supplies us with some names of leading families during the Plantagenet period. Among these are those of Segrave, Artas, Brabazon, Grandoue, Tcimiuell, liardi- schull, Maloure, Barington, Harcourt, Peverell, Pereyes, Hamelyn, Nevyle, Estantou, Dangervyle, Bordet, Digby, Hercy, La Souche, St. Andrew, Le Brea, Flamville, De Estle, Barnakes, Escho- laston, Ribbeaford, Marmyon, Emysforde, Cantoue, Dene, Clemsby, Turvile, Charnels, Verdon, Bereford, and Garshull. A list of gentry of the reign of Edward II. gives us among others De Vere, De Belo- mont, De Ferrers, Le Grey, Corbett, Moton, Skeffiugton, Talbot, Boiwell, Farnham, Basset, Maleverers of Lobenhant, Audley, Maunsell of Tirlington, Dauvers, Thorpe, Linley, Shirforde, Grim, Dosville, Shelton, Cotes, Revede, Overton, Halleforde, Wellesburgh, Martivans, Paynel, Le Botiller, De la Beaumesn, Merston, Harcourt, Le Despenser, Le \Valleys, Griffin, &c. Till the reign of Elizabeth the counties of Leicester and Warwick had one Sheriff between them. After that period we find the following families among others prominent in the lists :—Poole, Hastings, Villers, Cave, Beaumont, Ashby, Noel, Turpin, Purfrey, Skef- fingtou (once more), Skipwith, Staveley, Hartopp, IIalford (again), Shirley, Fontaine, Wolleston, Bainbrigge, Brokesby, St. John, Burton, Whatton, Pahnes, Temple, Stafford, Hastings, Hesilrige of Noxeley, &c. At the present day, besides Manners, Duke of Rutland, at Belvoir Castle, the Greys of Groby, Earls of Stamford, and the Earl of Ferrers, the principal influence in the county is in the hands of the IIalfords, Farnhams, and Hartopps.
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