Page:VCH Staffordshire 1.djvu/271

 POLITICAL HISTORY great floods are recorded by which a large number of people of both sexes, old and young, and little children in their cradles, were drowned. In the next year an extraordinary hailstorm visited the valley of the Trent, followed by a whirlwind which levelled trees and buildings with the earth, and there was a universal destruction of hay by floods such as had not happened for many years. 75 Through the writs of protection, issued to those who applied for them while employed in the king's service, we are enabled to obtain an authentic record of those Staffordshire tenants who fought in the various wars of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. These writs gave complete protection against all personal actions and against any pleas in the superior courts of law except pleas of dower and last presentation. When Henry III invaded Brittany in 1230 such writs were issued to the following Staffordshire tenants : 76 Ralph Basset of Drayton, 77 Ralph Basset of Weldon, William de Aldithele (Audley), Henry de Aldithele, William de Dustun, Hervey de Stafford, 78 Adam Mauveisin, Nicholas de Verdun, John Fitz Philip, William Basset, Roger de Somery, 79 Hugh de Oddingesele, Geoffrey de St. Maur, Ralph de Pexhale. In 1253, during the suppression of the rebellion in Gascony by Henry III, the following had writs of protection in the county : 80 John de Chetwinde, Ralph de Arderne, Walkeline de Arderne, Adam Mauveisin, William le Blund, Robert de Stafford, Peter de St. Maur, Adam de Brimton, Philip Marmion, Warinne Fitz Gerald, John de Kaumville, Geoffrey de Genville, John de Verdun, Richard de Alazun, Roger de Somery, Roger de Monhaut, William Hose. In 1257 several Staffordshire tenants assisted the king against the Welsh, and others accompanied Richard Earl of Cornwall, who had been elected king of the Romans, to Germany. In the former expedition, when Henry went on to Chester, he left part of his army with Richard de Clare, who made a secret journey, with only one knight, to confer with Queen Eleanor at Tutbury Castle, where Eleanor is stated to have been staying instead of at Nottingham because she could not endure the smoke of the sea coal. 81 We have now come to the great crisis of Henry's reign, when clergy and laity found a leader against his misgovernment in Simon de Montfort, and in the barons' wars that ensued Staffordshire was almost wholly against the king. Not more than three of the principal tenants of the county were on his side : Philip Marmion, the last of the male line of that family, whose daughter Jane married Sir Alexander de Freville, James de Audley and Roger de Somery ; while of the lesser tenants, only William Bagot of the Hyde, Adam de Brimton, William Wyther, and Hugh de Okeover adhered to the king. Against him were Robert de Ferrers, Hugh le Despenser the Justiciary of England, Ralph Basset of Drayton, Henry de Verdun, William de Handsacre, 74 Ann. Mon. (Rolls Sen), i, 336.
 * Coll. (Salt Arch. Soc.), viii (l), 2 ; Cat. of Pat. 1225-32, p. 357.

77 This Ralph Basset of Drayton is the one of whom Dugdale says he was first of the family in any way memorable ; Baronage (ed. 1675), i, 375. 78 Hervey de Stafford was the son of Millicent, the daughter and heiress of Robert de Stafford who had married Hervey Bagot ; ibid, i, 613. 79 Roger de Somery must have been the de Somery who, in 48 Hen. Ill, was allowed to crenellate Dudley Castle because he supported the king against the barons. 60 Coll. (Salt Arch. Soc.), viii (2), 3 ; Pat. 37 Hen. III. " Ann. Mm. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 203. 227