In 3 Edward II. writs docketed “De summonicione servicii Regis” were issued to Abbots and Abbesses alike for military aid against the Scots, “de fide et dilectione;” and to Nobles, Lords and Ladies alike in “fide et homagio.” On the 13th September following Domina Maria de Graham proffers the service of two knights’ fees for all her lands in England, performed by four servants with four barded horses; and many noble ladies offer equivalent service.
Joane Plantagenet, the Fair Maid of Kent, inherited from her brother the Earldom of Kent, and from her mother the Barony of Wake, by which she was styled the Lady of Wake. She married Sir Thomas de Holland, who, through her, became Earl of Kent without creation. Her son Thomas succeeded both. His widow Alicia died possessed of 27 manors held by direct feudal or military tenure, beside many freeholds. (See “Inquisitions Post Mortem”; 4 Henry IV.)
They could be Knights.—Not only in Romances, not only in Spenser’s “Faery Queene,” but in books of Chivalry, we may see that women could be knights. Mary and Elizabeth were made knights before they were made Queens. Abergavenny Castle was held by knight’s service. William, Baron Cantilupe, by marrying Eva, daughter and co-heir of William, Lord Braose, obtained the Castle and Lands. Her tomb in St. Mary’s Church, Abergavenny, 1246, is of interest as being the earliest stone effigy of a woman known in England. Her daughter, Eva de Cantilupe, succeeded to the barony and the castle, and was a knight. Her tomb is the only instance known of the stone effigy of a woman adorned with the insignia of knighthood, 1247. In 1589, Edward Neville sued for the Barony against Mary, Lady Fane, as being entailed in the Heir Male. His suit was refused. The Lord Chief-Justice Popham determined “that there was no right at all in the Heir Male; the common Custom of England doth wholly favour the Heir General ... and Her Majesty would require to make a new creation to prefer the Heir Male to the Heir Female” (Sir Harris Nicolas’ “Historic Peerages,” p. 15).
Inherited Public Office associated with the Title or Property.—The story of Ela of Salisbury illustrates the views with which the early Normans regarded heiresses. She was born in 1188. Her father, the Earl of Salisbury, died 1196, leaving her sole heir. She inherited both title and lands before his three brothers. Her mother conveyed her away secretly to a castle in Normandy, to save her from possible dangers during her minority. An English knight, William Talbot, romantically undertook, as a troubadour, to discover her whereabouts, and, after two years, brought her back to England. King Richard betrothed her as a royal ward to his half-brother, William Longespée, son of Fair Rosamund, who became, through her, Earl of Salisbury. At King John’s coronation at Westminster, William, Earl of Salisbury, is noted as being present among the throng of nobility. (See “Roger Hoveden.”) He died 1226, leaving four sons and four daughters. Though besieged with suitors, Ela preferred a “free widowhood” to selecting another Earl Salisbury. When her son came of age he claimed investiture of the Earldom, but the King refused it judicialiter, by the advice of the Judges, and according to the dictates of Law. The Earldom and the government of the Castle of Sarum were vested in Ela, not in her dead husband.
The office of Sheriff of Wiltshire, her right by inheritance, she exercised in person until 21 Hen. II., when, probably to facilitate her son’s entrance into the Earldom, she retired as Abbess to the Abbey of Lacock, founded by herself. Even then, however, the youth did not receive the title, and she survived both son and grandson. The note to this Biography adds, “Though the law of female descent, as applied to baronies by writ, has long ceased to govern the descent of earldoms, it certainly did during the first centuries after the Norman conquest.” (Bowle’s “History of Lacock Abbey.”)
Isabella and Idonea de Veteripont, who afterwards married Roger de Clifford, and Roger de Leybourn jointly held the office of High Sheriff of Westmoreland, and insisted on the Burghers bringing their cases to them personally, 15 Ed. I. The office was held afterwards, also in person, during the reigns of the Stuarts, by the brave Anne de Clifford, Countess of Dorset, Pembroke, and Montgomery, and Baroness of Westmoreland. In virtue of her office, she sat on the Bench of Justices in the Court of Assizes at Appleby. (Durnford and East’s “Term Reports,” p. 397; Nicholson’s “History of Westmoreland,” vol. ii., p. 20.) “As the King came out of Scotland, when he lay at York, there was a striffe between my father and my Lord Burleigh, who was then President, who should carie the sword; but it was adjudged to my father’s side, because it was his Office by Inheritance, and so it is lineally descended on me” (Anne Clifford’s Diary, Harl. MSS., 6177). We may add here, though belonging properly to the following chapter, a parallel case:
“William Balderstone had two co-heiresses, Isabel and Jane. Isabel married Sir Robert Harrington of Hornby, and Jane, first Sir Ralph Langton, and second Sir John Pilkington. When Jane was “the young widow” of Sir Ralph Langton, in 1462, she, along with her sister Isabella and Sir Robert Harrington, her sister’s husband, appeared in court to vindicate their right to the offices of the Baylywicks of the Wapentakes of Amoundernes and Blakeburnshire, peacefully occupied by their ancestors time out of mind, and claimed by one Giles Beeston, on the plea of Letters Patent. Giles not appearing, judgment was given in their favour, and a precept issued accordingly to the Sheriff at the Castle of Leicester, 28th May, 2 Ed. IV. (Townley MSS.; “History of Whalley,” vol. ii., p. 358, 4th edition, 1876, by Whittaker.)
The word, Bailiwick, was then applied to the office of a Sheriff. (See 4 Henry IV., c. v.; Statutes, vol. ii.) “Every Sheriff of England shall reside within his Bailiwick.”
“Guy de Beauchamp, late Earl of Warwick, held the manor of Southanton as of inheritance from his deceased wife, Alicia, by the Sergeanty of bearing a Rod before the Justices in Eyre in the county. (9 Edward II.; Blount’s Tenures.”)
Marshal.—Isabel de Clare, only daughter of Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, brought the Earldom into the family of the Marshals of England by marrying William le Marshal. She had five sons (each of whom succeeded to the Office, without leaving an heir) and five daughters. The eldest of these, Maud, Countess of Norfolk, received as her share of the family property the Castles of Strigail and Cuniberg, and, with them, the office of Marshal, and in the 30th Hen. III. “received Livery by the King himself of the Marshal’s Rod, being the eldest who by inheritance ought to enjoy that great Office by descent from Walter Marischal sometime the Earl of Pembroke. Whereupon the Lord Treasurer and the Barons of the Exchequer had command to cause her to have all rights thereto belonging and to admit of such a deputy to sit in the Exchequer for her as she should assign.” (Dugdale Peerage, vol. i., p. 77.) Her son Roger exercised it during the remainder of her life and succeeded her.