Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/450

 416 MedicEval Military Architecttire. Cockermouth Castle has but a scanty history, which perhaps accounts for the perfect condition of its outer walls. In 122 1 Henry HI. ordered it to be laid siege to, and, if taken, destroyed ; but this fate it either escaped, or, if carried out, it was restored a century later with great completeness. It makes no figure in the Wars of the Roses, nor does it appear to what extent it shared in the vicissitudes of the house of Percy. The town seems to have been taken by surprise in 1387 by a band of Scottish marauders. Mary of Scotland rested here, no doubt on her way from Working- ton to Carlisle, after her landing in Cumberland. In August, 1648, the castle, held for the Parliament, was attacked by the Royalists of the neighbourhood, and held out a month, till relieved by the Parliamentary General Ashton. It seems to have been spared the usual fate of English castles of that period at the hands of one or the other party. In 1688, the only habitable parts were the gateway and the courthouse, probably the adjacent building. DESCENT. Cockermouth was the caput " of the barony of AUerdale, usually called in the Inquisitions the Honour of Cockermouth. There is no collected list of the lands held of the Honour, but they seem to have been extensive, and are specified in divers inquisitions from time to time, with the names of their holders. The original grantee seems to have been William, brother of the well-known Ranulph de Meschines, Earl of Chester. He received, either from the Conqueror or from Henry I., the territory of Copland, between the Dudden and the Derwent, and was probably the founder of the castle of Cocker- mouth, as he was of the Monastery of St. Bees. His son Ranulph died childless, and his heir was Cicely, who married Robert de Romilly, Lord of Skipton. Cockermouth came to Alice, their third daughter and co-heir, who married William FitzDuncan, Earl of Moray, in Scotland, nephew to King Malcolm. Amabel, their second daughter and co-heir, had Egremont, and married Reginald de Lucy, living 20 Henry II. ; while Cicely, the elder daughter, married William le Gros, Earl of Albemarle, who died 11 79. Their second daughter, Hawise le Gros, married, first, William de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, and secondly, William de Fortibus, in her right Earl of Albemarle, and who (12 15) had restored to him by King John the manor of Cockermouth, and (12 16) certain confiscated lands held of the Honour. In February, 1221, King Henry ordered the Sheriff of Westmoreland to summon his forces to lay siege to, take, and utterly destroy the Castle of Cockermouth ; but later in the year the manor was granted again to the Earl. It is said that this Earl held half the castle, which escheated to the Crown, and was granted in 1323 by Edward II, to Anthony, Lord Lucy, who held the other moiety. The descent, however, is exceedingly obscure. It appears that Richard de Lucy, Amabel's son, had Egremont, and died about 15 John, leaving Amabel and Alice. His wife, Ada de Morville,