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A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE, Cumberland, and Westmorland 'de jure predecessorum suorum,' but without effect as regards this county. The knights taken in Lancaster castle upon its surrender—by Theobald Walter, as we may suppose—were summoned to Winchester to make their peace with Richard on the day after the king's second coronation. The Pipe Rolls of this and the following year contain numerous references to the fines made 'pro habenda benevolentia Regis.' From 1194 until 1267 the honour remained in the crown.

The reign of John was an important period in the history of the honour. Primarily for his own advantage the king took steps to increase the revenue and develop the resources of the county, some of his measures—as, for instance, the foundation of the burgh and port of Liverpool and the charter of liberties to the knights, thegns, and free tenants dwelling within the metes of the forest of the honour of Lancaster —having far-reaching consequences in the future development of the county. In the intervening period before the grant of the honour and county to Henry's "youngest son, Edmund, on 30 June, 1267, we may notice the grant of the king's demesne land between Ribble and Mersey in 1229 to Ranulf, earl of Chester and Lincoln, for a goshawk yearly, which, upon the partition of the earl's possessions in 1233, fell to the share of William de Ferrers, earl of Derby, in right of his wife, Agnes, the third sister of earl Ranulf. After the death of Edmund, the honour descended to his son, Thomas of Lancaster, upon whose attainder and death in March, 1322, it escheated to the crown. By Act of Parliament on 7 March, 1327, the attainder of Earl Thomas was reversed, and his brother, Henry Plantagenet, succeeded to his title and possessions as earl of Lancaster, earl of Leicester, and High Steward of England. Henry died on 22 September, 1345, and was succeeded by his only son Henry, who was created duke of Lancaster in 1351 with Palatine jurisdiction for life within the county. Upon his death in 1361 the honour reverted to the crown, but his daughter, and eventually sole heir, Blanche, having married John Plantagenet, styled 'of Gaunt,' fourth (but third surviving) son of Edward III., her husband claimed and obtained the honour, and finally, in 1362, the entirety of Duke Henry's possessions, being in the same year created duke of Lancaster and endowed with like Palatine jurisdiction. On 28 February, 1377, the county was erected into a Palatinate for the life of the duke, and in 1396 these rights were further extended and settled in perpetuity on the dukes of Lancaster. Gaunt died on 3 February, 1399, when his only son, by Blanche, his first wife, succeeded as duke of Lancaster, and on 30 September following was elected king, as Henry IV., when this and all his honours merged in the crown. One of Henry's first acts as king 'was to grant in Parliament a charter, in which the lands and possessions of the Duchy of Lancaster were declared to be a separate inheritance distinct from the lands and possessions of the crown. The prerogatives of the king were annexed to all the possessions so separated, but ... the ordering of all matters connected therewith was 296