"Versus quasi medium chori jacet dominus Willelmus Fitzwarryn Baro, et Isabella uxor sua quondam Regina Man."
Collectanea Top. et Geneal. v. 278.
MR. GIBSON has also correctly added, that in my note to this entry I have not afforded any information about the lady Isabel. It is true that I searched for such information in vain; and the information I gave in lieu was the date of the death of William Lord Fitz-Warine, viz., the 35 Edw. III. (1361), and the name of the lady he is known from record (Ex. 22 Edw. III. no. 39.), to have married, namely, Amicia, daughter and heir of Sir Henry de Haddon. As there is not the slightest ground for imagining that this Amicia was ever "Queen of Man," it must therefore be concluded, supposing that the register of the Grey Friars gives a faithful reflection of the epitaph, that the Lord Fitz-Warine had a second wife. I am not inclined to adopt MR. GIBSON'S suggestion that this lady was Sibilla, daughter of William de Montacute, first Earl of Salisbury, because the lordship of Man descended to the second earl, and he possessed it until the 16 Ric. II. (1393). It seems therefore that the only "Queen of Man" that could be the wife of William Lord Fitz-Warine, must have been the widow of the first Earl of Salisbury, who died in 1343. The wife of that earl and the mother of his heir was Katharine, daughter of William Lord Granson, as Mr. Beltz gives that name, correcting the more prevalent form of Grandison. The question therefore to be decided is—Did this lady survive him, or did he marry a second wife named Isabella? In either case, I think it is clear that the lady buried at the Grey Friars was the Dowager Countess of Salisbury. Mr. Beltz has given a memoir of Sir William Fitz-Warine in his Memorials of the Garter, but he was not aware of the baron's connexion with "the Queen of Man." Dying of the plague on the 28th Oct. 1361, it was probably in haste that his body was interred in the church of the Grey Friars, and the queen may have fallen a victim to the same pestilence. There is an effigy in the church at Wantage which is ascribed to this Lord Fitz-Warine; and it is accompanied by one of a lady, probably Amicia Haddon, on whose death, some time before his own, that monument may have been erected. These effigies are engraved in the series by Hollis. There is a peculiarity attending the barony of this William Fitz-Warine. He was first summoned by writ in 1342 [qu. if 1343, and thus after his marriage with the Dowager Countess of Salisbury?]; and though he left a son and heir, Sir Ivo Fitz-Warine, that son was never summoned to parliament. A similar course has been observed in other cases where the title to a barony was jure uxoris, in which condition may be included the state of the second husband of a countess, there being instances of men in that position being summoned to parliament as barons, whilst the countesses their wives were living, and no longer. Thus it is possible that Fitz-Warine was summoned, because he had married the countess and "queen;" and his son Ivo was not summoned, because he was the son of Amicia Haddon.
With regard to the titles of King or Queen of Man, they do not appear to be recognised by records, but merely by the chroniclers. Dugdale has quoted from the history of Thomas de la Marc, that William, Earl Of Salisbury, having in 16 Edw. III. (1342) conquered the Isle of Man (from the Scots), the king gave him the inheritance, and crowned him king thereof; and Walsingham and Otterbourne (p. 153.) relate that the Vice-Chamberlaine, Sir William Scrope, in 16 Ric. II. (1393) purchased the sovereignty of the Isle of Man cum corona. But the word dominus, not rex, is employed in Latin records, and seigneur in French. On the seal of the first Earl of Salisbury he is styled dominus de dynbi et mannie, and on his counterseal dominus de man et de dynbi; and on a counter or privy seal of the second earl he is styled dominus mannie et de dynbi (i.e. Denbigh, not "Derby," as misprinted in p. 132. antea). These seals have been recently engraved in the Salisbury volume of the Archæological Institute. The second earl in his will, made the 20th April, 1397, styles himself "Earl of Salisbury and Lord of the Isles of Man and Wiht," although he had then sold the lordship of Man some years before. In the Harleian charters is a bond from the purchaser to the famous Sir Richard Whityngton, citizen and mercer of London, dated 29th Aug. 1393, in which he is described as "William le Scrope, Seigneur de Man et des Isles;" and in the truce with France on the 10th March, 1394, "Monsieur Gwilliam le Scrope" is recorded to have assented to the proceedings "pour le seigneury de Man," as one of the allies of the King of England. (Fœdera, iii. part iv. p. 95.) It is not easy to determine when or where these potent subjects really assumed the rank or title of "king" and "queen;" and it must be recollected that the King of England himself was at the same period content to call himself only "Lord of Ireland," as the Earl of Salisbury was "Lord of Man."
It may stimulate MR. GIBSON, as a north countryman, to further researches in this matter to remind him that it is to Katharine, Countess of Salisbury, at the Castle of Wark in Northumberland, that Mr. Beltz has traced the anecdote related by Froissart of the especial admiration which King Edward III. conceived for a Countess of Salisbury; connected with which are some of the legendary stories of the origin of the Order of the Garter (see Memorials of the Garter, pp. 63. et seq.). It would be a remarkable fact to ascertain that the object of the king's gallantry became afterwards even a nominal queen.
JOHN GOUGH NICHOLS.
Replies to Minor Queries.
Bastides (Vol. v., p. 150.).
—The town of Kingston-upon-Hull was founded by King Edward I., when he returned from Scotland, through Yorkshire, in 1299, and it may be seen in Hollar's map of the town, as it was in 1640, that the ground plan coincides exactly with MR. PARKER'S description of the "Villes Anglaises" in France.
F. HH.