The Earldoms Under Edward I

Extract

I do not propose to lay before you to-night any new theory of the constitutional position of the earldoms under Edward I. My purpose is political rather than constitutional, and, where it is not political, biographical and topographical. I wish to attempt the task of describing simply and clearly what were the number and nature of the earldoms under Edward I., with what great houses they were connected, in what districts their strength mostly lay, what manner of men the earls themselves were, and in what relations they stood to the king. I fear that I have no novelty to bring forward. The details that I shall use will come nearly all from very obvious sources, such as the printed Calendars of Post Mortem Inquests, Dugdale's ‘Baronage,’ the Lords' ‘Reports on the dignity of a Peer,’ and the ordinary chronicles and printed records of the time. Many of my facts I came across in a task that has occupied me a good deal lately, and which I have found to be by no means an easy one. I have been trying to construct a territorial map of England under Edward I., with the special view of finding out in what districts lay the power of the chief baronial houses. My excuse for laying my facts before you is that, however trite and dull they may seem, they are not always known by those who might be expected to know them. When lecturers and text-book writers—to say nothing of more serious authors—are still sometimes content to repeat the grossest inaccuracies as to the power and position of the greater nobles—when the standard historical atlas makes the ‘Grafschaft Oxford’ the ‘Gebiet der Vere,’ and the ‘Grafschaft Westmoreland’ the ‘Gebiet der Nevill,’ the elementary truths that I wish to drive home cannot be said to have obtained very general acceptance.