VII. Gilbert Venables, Baron of Kinderton, whose heirs male in the direct line continued until 1679—the last survivors of the Barons of Cheshire.
VIII. Nicholas, Baron of Stockport.
IX. Robert, Baron of Rhuddlan.
Each of these barons had his own court of all pleas, suits, and plaints (except such as belonged to the Earl), and power of life and death. The last instance of the execution of this latter power was in the person of Hugh Stringer, who was tried for murder in the court of Sir Thomas Venables, Baron of Kinderton, and was executed in 1597.
The business of these barons was to attend the Earl in Council, follow him, and grace his court, and as an old record sets forth, “they were bound in time of war with the Welsh to find for each knights-fee one horse harnessed or two unharnessed within the divisions of Cheshire. And their knights and free tenants were to be furnished with breastplates and haubergeons, and to defend their respective fees in person.”
The Abbots of Chester and Combermere also had their own courts as well as the barons, and doubtless they and the heads of the other monasteries and priories were called to the Earl’s Council in the same way that other ecclesiastics were summoned to the Parliaments of the early Kings of England. We here give a copy of the plate by Hollar in King’s Vale Royal of “Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, sitting in his Parliament with the Barons and Abbots of that County Palatine.”
Of these Norman Earls of Chester the distinguished pre-eminence of Earl Randle Blundeville during his long and active rule has been noticed by all writers on Cheshire history. That he was a strong man is evidenced by his refusal in 1232 to comply with the demand for money from the county made by Henry III., as well as by his resistance to that King’s permission given to the Pope’s officers to collect Peter’s Pence in his Palatinate, and his expulsion of those officers from the county, whereas all England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales paid.
On one occasion Blundeville was surprised and surrounded in his Castle of Rhuddlan by a superior force of Welsh. He contrived to send a message to his Constable de Lacy for help. It happened that the Abbot’s great fair was being held at Chester, and de Lacy at once collected from those attending it an immense crowd of “Players, Fiddlers, Musicians, and other loose persons,” and marched with them to the relief of Rhuddlan. The Welsh seeing this immense host, and hearing withal the terrible discord of “harp, flute, sackbut, psaltery, and other kinds of music,” evidently concluded that Bedlam was let loose, raised the siege, and took flight.
“Was ever an enemy thrown in such plight?