Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/38

 30 THE END OF THE NORMAN January libere sicut rex Angliam ad coronam, and to which * swerde of dignitie ' we can trace the ivs gladii, the placita ad gladium meum pertinentia or contra dignitatem gladii Cestrie, and similar expressions in Cheshire records. At Northampton, too, on 22 November, Hawise, suo iure comitess of Lincohi by grant of her brother as already mentioned, was allowed (no doubt as part of the general arrangement among the co-heirs sanctioned by the king) to transfer to her son-in-law, John de Lacy (and his heirs by her daughter Margaret), the third penny of the coimty of Lincohi and the title of earl thereof .^ The claims to share in the inheritance of Ranulph were like- wise temporarily settled at Northampton on ^22 November in the following way.^ To each co-heir was allotted, as a permanent pourparty, a definite manor or castle for a chief seat {pro capitali messuagio) ; and to each was given, ad praesens, a further allot- ment of manors and lands as a temporary holding (in tenancia partis sue) until an effective partition could be arranged among them. To each was given the right to claim a larger share from the other coparceners, if not fully satisfied with the allotment, a provision which was the cause of subsequent litigation. We are told in a later record ^ that these allotments were effected by an 'extent' of the inheritance, and that the comitatus of Chester was thereby given to Earl John, but we have not been able to come upon the document itself, if it ever existed. Possibly the partition was simply made in the presence of the co-heirs, and as John was probably in possession of the county no orders for seisin, &c., may have been necessary in his case. From the discussion which subsequently arose, it would seem that the exact way the partition had been made was not at all clear even a few years later. which has not yet appeared. The oldest reference I have observed is in a draft petition of 1450 to the king by the men of Cheshire {Archaeologia, Ivii. 71) ; see also Joum. of the Chester Arch. Soc. viii, N.S., p. 29, where the spelling is modernized, and in King's Vale Royal (Ormerod, i. 126-7). The draft petition gives the statement about the gift of the coimty to Hugh Lupus, ' as olde writyngs maketh mencon '. These words are omitted in the petition as lodged, which suggests that to indicate so vague a source as ' old writings ' for such a basic charter was considered weak. Probably the grant was verbal. For the original status of the palatine carls see Davis, England under the Normans and Angevins, app. no. 1, and Lapsley's Durham. Some curious information is collected in Davis's Reports . . . des cases . . . en Ireland, 1694, svh 'Le Case del Countie Palatine de Wexford '. For the Chester sword see Lysons's Cheshire, p. 461 ; Trans, of the Hist. Soc. of Lane, and Cliesh. ii. 15 ; Ormerod, i. p. li. the instance of Hawise. A confirmation to her of her brother's rights as earl of Lincoln is entered on the Patent Roll 27 October 1232, but was cancelled (owing to his death) and the grant of 22 November substituted. The Complete Peerage (ed. Gibbs), iv. 661, quotes the grant of 27 October in connexion with the third penny, but omits to state the grant was cancelled. « Cal. of Close Rolls, 22 November 1232. • Post, p. 41.
 * Cal. of Pat. Rolls and Ormerod, L 28, 697 ; the grant was by the king, at