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 A HISTORY OF RUTLAND 36 carucates of land which belong to the county of Nottinghamshire, of which Simon Basset has to render account ' ; no mention of this sum appears in the account of Rutland, which in this case follows that of Nottingham- shire and Derbyshire, instead of that of Northamptonshire as usual.^* In I 176 the pleas were held by the itinerant justices Hugh de Gundeville, William Fitz Ralph, and William Basset, and on this occasion East Hundred was fined for no fewer than four murders." It is noticeable, however, that neither in this year nor in 1 179 does Rutland appear in the list of counties allotted to the itinerant justices as given by the writer of the Gesta Henrici II, though in both cases it formed part of a group including the surrounding counties of Lincoln, Leicester, and Northampton, and was duly visited by the justices.'* This discussion of the status of Rutland in the reign of Henry II must take the place of anything that can be called history at this period. There is no clear evidence that Henry II ever visited the district," nor does it appear to have been much involved in the revolt of 1 173—4 ; Richard de Morevill was, however, deprived of the land at Whissendine which he held of the King of Scotland as Earl of Huntingdon, apparently for taking that king's part against Henry.''^ The history of the Forest of Rutland, which at this time and later was of considerable importance, is dealt with elsewhere. Richard I on his return to England in the spring of 1 194 went to meet the King of Scotland at Clipstone ; the two kings travelled south together, and on 6 April they stayed at the house of Peter, the forester of Rutland,*" while John was at Oakham in March 1206 and in May and August 1207.*^ It is in the reign of John that Rutland at length definitely appears as a county. In 1204 he followed the example of early kings by granting Rutland, Rockingham, and other places to Isabella in dower, and in this grant Rutland is described as comitatus.*^ The Pipe Roll of 11 go states that the farm of Rutland was paid to Eleanor, the widow of Henry 11;** and Richard appears to have made a similar grant to Berengaria, since in 1209 Innocent III wrote to John demanding the restoration of her dower, including Rutland, on pain of the interdict of all the places concerned." John must have found it difficult to comply with this demand, as he had already granted all this dower to Isabella. This grant was followed next year by a hereditary grant of the county of Rutland at the ' old farm ' of £10 to Ralph de Normanville, who had been sheriff since 1202.*° It would •^ Pi/>e R. 15 Hen. II (Pipe R. Soc), 65, 67. " Ibid. 22 Hen. II, 54. " Gesta Hen. II (Rolls Ser.), i, 107, 228. Nor does Rutland appear in the list of the counties of England with their religious houses, castles, &c., given in the Mappa Mundi of Ger'ase of Canterbury (Op. Hist. [Rolls Ser.], ii, 414 et seq.), which was probably written about 1200. " Eyton, Itin. Hen. II, 207, includes it in the list of those counties ' the King's presence in which is only evidenced by his Miseruordia pro Forests recorded on the Pipe- Rolls.' "• ^bbrev. Plac. (Rec. Com.), 79, 80. " Roger of Hoveden, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 243. "Rot. Chart. (Rec. Com.), 128. For some reason the charter was re-enrolled in 1215 ; ibid. 213. The account of the jurors of 1286 (Assize R. 725, m. 7 d.) that the four hundreds of Rutland formerly belonged to Northamptonshire, and that after their separation Isabella held them, seems sufficiently accurate. " Pipe R. 2 Ric. I. " Cat. of Papal Letters, i, 33 ; Rymer, Toedera, i, 102. England as a whole lay under interdict at this time ; and the pope threatened that the interdict should not be removed from these places unless satisfaction was made. " Rot. Chart. 149. He first accounted at Michaelmas 1203 ; Pipe R. 5 John. 170
 * ' Hardy, Itin. John, in Descr. Pat. Rolls (Rec. Com.).