“Whoever sets about to describe the manners of the inhabitants of this County in general, or in particular, according to their situation, he will find them in comparison with those of other parts of England in some respects better, in others the same. Their manners seem to be in the main of the best sort, according to the general idea of manners. They are sociable in their entertainments, cheerful at meals, liberal in their hospitality, hasty, but soon brought to temper, impatient of dependance and bondage, kind to the distressed, compassionate to the poor, fond of their relations, sparing of labour, free from resentment, not given to excess in eating, undesigning, fond of borrowing other people’s property, abounding with woods and pastures, rich in meat and cattle. They border on one side the Britons, and by long commerce of manners are become very like them. Nor must I forget to observe that the County of Chester bounded by Lime (Macclesfield) Forest from the rest of England enjoys distinguished immunities, and by the indulgences of our Kings and the great merit of its Earls is more accustomed to attend on the Sword of its own Prince than on the Crown of the Sovereign in the assembly of the people, and without restraint or reserve determine the most important causes within its own territories. Hence Chester itself is much frequented by Irish, a neighbour to the Welsh, and plentifully supplied with provisions by the English; beautifully situated, its gates are of an ancient form of building; approved by hard experience. It has merited the name of City by its river and its watch-towers, defended by a watchful guard of holy men and through the mercy of our Saviour it has always been preserved by divine assistance.”
The late Professor Freeman has said: “Chester was the last English city to bow to the Norman invader. After the fall of Chester no integral part of the English kingdom remained unsubdued. William was full King over all England.”
Recognising, as the Romans before him had done, that Chester was the key to Wales, and also that it could be made the headquarters for an invasion of Ireland, the Norman Conqueror placed a great military camp there, and in A.D. 1070 granted to his kinsman and follower Hugh, surnamed Lupus of Avranches (which is situate on the borders of Normandy and Brittany close by Mont St. Michael), the whole of the present county of Chester, and as much of the neighbouring parts of Wales as he could secure, to hold as an independent state inferior to the Crown of England, “ita libere ad gladium, sicut ipse Rex totam tenebat Angliam ad coronam,” “as the very words of the Charter do run,” saith Camden. Which words, says Leycester the Chester antiquary, “some expound to be the tenure of being Sword-bearer of England, whence we read in Matthew Paris that when Henry III. married Eleanor of Provence, A.D. 1236, the marriage was pompously solemnised, and all the great men of the kingdom used those offices and places which had of ancient right belonged to their ancestors at the coronation of the Kings. The Earl of Chester (John Scot) then carried the Sword of St. Edward (which is called Curtein) before the King in token that he was an Earl Palatine and had power by right to restrain the King if he should do amiss, his Constable of Cheshire attending on him.
“But although this office might have of ancient right belonged to the Earls of Chester ever since the time of Hugh Lupus, yet I believe there is something more magnificent couched in these words of the first Charter or donation—namely, a dignity inherent in the Sword, as purchased by it, and to be kept by it also; for as in the Crown of England there is an inherent right of regality annexed, so here is given an inherent right of dignity in the Sword. This is to hold as freely by the Sword as the King holds by the Crown, only inferior to the King. Hence was it that whatsoever we say concerning the pleas of the Crown or to be done against the King’s Crown and Dignity, the same is also said (but in a more limited sense) concerning the pleas of the Sword of Chester, or against the Sword and Dignity of the Earl of Chester, as is most evident out of the records and indictments of those times.”
There were seven of these Norman Earls, viz.:—
I. Hugh Lupus, before mentioned.
II. Richard his son who, when only twenty-five years of age and soon after his marriage, was drowned in the White Ship catastrophe, together with his bride and the two sons (William and Richard) of King Henry the First.
III. Randle Meschines, Viscount Bayeux of Normandy.
IV. Randle Gernons.
V. Hugh Cyveilioc.