Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/178

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s.vi. AUG. 24, 1912.

her father, the Earl, had an earlier wife than his recorded wife Bertreda, and the possibility of this largely depends upon his age.

Until recent years it has generally been thought that Sir Thomas, who defended the legitimacy of Amicia, had the better of the argument ; but he was not able to produce any record which mentioned any wife other than Bertreda.

Now, from the evidence produced in the discussion (' Amicia Tracts,' Chetham Soc.) and elsewhere, it appears that Bertreda was 29 years old in 1185, being born, therefore, about 1155-6, and that she was married in 1169. So when we find the Earl and the Countess mentioned together in the Pipe Rolls of 1158-9 and 1159-60, it is clear that " the Countess " cannot possibly have been Bertreda, and that if " the Countess " refers to his wife, the Earl must have been married before. The Countess is not mentioned in the accounts of 1160 or 1161, and if she was the wife, it might be argued from this that she had died.

It is, of course, well known that Maud (or Matilda), mother of Hugh Cyfelioc, lived till 1189, and she might be "the Countess " mentioned in these entries. But it may be pointed out that in the Roll of 1161-2 she is clearly mentioned, not as " the Countess." but as " the Earl's mother." It is true that the mother of the Earl was sometimes called " Comitissa " after her husband's death. Thus, in - the Pipe Roll of 1129-30, " Lucia Comitissa Cestrie " occurs as rendering account of her Lincoln- shire lands in dower, her husband, the Earl Randle Meschin, having just died. Her son Randle, the next Earl, was not then married. Again, a mandate, dated about 1158, from Henry II. is directed to Hugh, Earl of Chester, and " M. Comitisse" (Coll. Top. et Gen., ii. 247). It is not quite clear, but probably this was Matilda, the Earl's mother. Of course, here, as in the Pipe Roll entries, if it could be shown that a first wife is indicated, we should have the evi- dence upon the production of which Sir Peter Leycester said he would burn his book.

As to the reason why the lands of the Earl of Chester were being farmed for the King during these years, it might be suggested that it was because the Earl was under age and his lands in wardship, and Mr. Helsby's statement (Ormerod's ' Cheshire,' 1882, i. 31, note) that " there is no evidence that he [the Earl] was in wardship after his father's demise " may have to be modified. That such an incident of tenure could apply

to the earldom would seem clear. Since- Leycester's day definite statements have been discovered in the ' Annales Cestrienses * (Record Society) that Earl Hugh was borm in 1147 and married to Bertreda in 1169 ; and if we accept these dates, he was only about 7 years old when his father died. But if infancy was the reason for the entries, we- should naturally expect them to have begun immediately upon the death, in 1153, of his father, Earl Randle. The Roll for 1 1 53-4 is not extant, but we have those for 1155-6' and 1156-7, and the entry relating to the lands of the Earl of Chester does not occur in either of them, but is found for the first time, in 1157-8, and then for only half the year. Apparently something occurred' by which, about March, 1158, the lands of the Earl were taken into the King's hands for four and a half years, being restored in. 1162.

If the date of 1147 for the birth of Hugh given in the ' Annales Cestrienses ' is- accepted, he was, of course, an infant during- these four and a half years, but had not reached 21 when the lands were restored,, which again strikes at the wardship theory, unless by some special circumstance it was; determined when he was 15 years old.

R. S. B.

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