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FEUDAL BARONAGE came again to prosecute his claim, he lured back the unscrupulous earl by grants exceeding in magnitude those conceded by Stephen. Henry's charter was issued at Devizes and regranted Stephen's concessions to the earl, including 'totum honorem comitis Rogeri Pictavensis ubicunque aliquid haberet,' the great honour of William Peverel and many other fiefs. The earl had hardly taken possession of these vast territories when death removed him from the scene, and made way for the conclusion in November of the same year of a compromise between Henry and Stephen, embodied in the treaty of Wallingford. By the promise to Stephen's only surviving son, William Earl Warenne, of all the fiefs which his father had held before he became king, including of course the honour of Lancaster, Henry disposed of the claim to the crown which the son of Stephen might have made. In 1155, Henry II. was perhaps in possession of the honour during the minority of the earl of Warenne, and confirmed to Shrewsbury Abbey the gifts of 'Earl Roger, surnamed the Poitevin,' of his sheriff Godfrey, of Pain de Vilers, and of William, constable of Chester. Very soon after this, Warenne was in possession of the honour, or of the greater part of it, for there is no record of the date when the king of Scots surrendered 'Lancaster.' This must in any case have occurred before the spring of 1158, for in January the earl accompanied Henry to Carlisle, and either in going or returning confirmed an agreement and exchange of lands made between Ewan, abbot of Furness, and his neighbour, Michael le Fleming. In August of the same year the earl went to Normandy, and was with the king in the Toulouse campaign of 1159. His death occurred in the retreat from Toulouse in October of the same year. His dealings with the honour as recorded by charters are few in number. He confirmed Broughton in Amounderness to Ughtred son of Huck, ancestor of the Singleton family, and gave land in Walton, Wavertree, and Newsham, near Liverpool, to Waldeve de Walton to be his serjeant of the wapentake of West Derby. The honour probably formed part of his widow's dower until her re-marriage in 1164 to the king's illegitimate brother Hameline. It was then resumed by the crown, and from Michaelmas 1164 until Midsummer 1189 the issues were yearly accounted for in the Pipe Rolls.

Immediately after his accession Richard granted to his brother John, count of Mortain, amongst other vast possessions the castle and honour of Lancaster, with the county. For the next five years it remained in John's hands. Many of his charters of this period have been preserved, and the terms of many others are recoverable from his confirmations of former grants, made after he succeeded to the crown. In 1194 the honour was resumed by the crown in consequence of John's rebellion. The king of Scots promptly took occasion to press his claim to the county together with 295