CHAPTER III.

TERRITORIAL DESCRIPTION OF THE FOREST.

BURTON describes Charnwood Forest as "lying upon the north-west side of the countie of Leicester, neere unto Loughborough; in forme somewhat square, of an hard and barren soyle, full of hills, woods, rocks of stone, torres and dels of a kind of slate. This Forrest hath beene very ancient, long before the Conquest, as all Forrests of England were excepting two."............ "It should seeme," he adds, "that this Forrest (as many others in this realme) had been disafforested presently after the Conquest: and that by King Henry the Second it was afforested againe; which by King Henry the Thirde, his grandchilde, was again disafforested, as by his deede, afterwards exemplified by King Henry the Sixth, may appeare." (See Appendix.)

To Burton's description of the situation of the Forest, it is only necessary to add, that it is in the Hundred of West Goscote, and that it comprises a considerable portion of the triangle formed by the towns of Leicester, Loughborough, and Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

Charnwood is not often termed a Royal Forest, though it doubtless had as good a claim to that appellation as others that were so: and it has been held by several Sovereigns, and conferred, at various times, either as a whole or in parts, on their favourites. Sherwood is almost invariably honoured with the prefix of "Royal," which it retained from the circumstance of King John and other Sovereigns having had a hunting palace within its limits. Strictly speaking, however, a Forest cannot be in any other hands but the King's, "as he only hath power to grant a commission to any one to be a Justice in Eyre of the Forest." Hence all Forests were Royal Forests: "though, under a particular Grant, a subject may have a Forest in law."* The Conqueror, who did not hesitate to appropriate to himself fourteen hundred manors—and who actually granted sixty in this county to one favourite; and his successors-who frequently replenished their coffers by unjust attainders, did not omit to secure the interest of their partisans by grants of portions of this district.

To trace how the Forest or its privileges passed to the Grentemaisnells, the Earls of Chester, Leicester, Winchester, the Comyns, the Beaumonts, the Ferrers', the Greys, the Hastings', &c., &c., will now be done with as little documentary detail as is compatible with the plan of a work professing to be, in any degree, historical.

The extensive lordship of Barrow, which includes a considerable portion of what may be called the Eastern Forest, viz.: Quorndon, Woodhouse, Beaumanor, Alderman's Haw, &c.,

4 Inst. 316.

to the boundaries of Sheepshed and Whitwick, was given by the Conqueror to his nephew, Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester.* This Earl held also the manors of Mountsorrel and Loughborough, which still further extended his rights on the Forest.†

A little attention to the descendants of Hugh Lupus, of Hugh de Grentemaisnell, &c., will account for many ancient, and perhaps for some present tenures of parts of the Forest. It will explain, too, how the Comyns became located on Charnwood, and throw light on the cause of the disputes and fines (noticed further on) between the Earl of Arundel and the Earl of Winchester, or Winton, and between the Earl of Arundel and Roger de Somery, respecting the right to hunt, &c., on certain parts of the Forest. On these subjects a considerable degree of misconception prevails, which the statements in Nichols, being diffused over many parts of his work, do not greatly tend to remove.

RANULPH DE BLONDEVILLE, sixth Earl of Chester, died in 1232, and left no issue; his estates therefore devolved on his four sisters, who were—

I.—MATILDA, who married David, Earl of Huntingdon, and by him had a son, John the Scot, the last Earl of Chester, who died without issue, and four daughters, viz. :— 1. Margaret, married to Alan de Galloway, whose daughters, Dervogoyl and Marjory, married respectively John Baliol and John Comyn.

2. Isabella, wife of Robert Bruce, the elder.

3. Matilda, (s. p.)

4. Alda, married to Henry de Hastings.

II.—MABEL, married to William d'Albini, Earl of Arundel, by whom she had Hugh, who died without issue (27 Henry III.), and four daughters, viz.:—

1. Mabel, married to Robert de Tateshall.

2. Nichola, to Roger de Somery, first Baron Dudley, by whom she, too, had four daughters, viz.:

1. Margaret, married to Ralph Lord Basset.

2. Johanna, to John L'Estrange.

3. Elizabeth, to Walter Sulley.

4. Matilda, to Sir Henry Erdington.

3. Cicely, married to Robert de Monte-alto.

4. Isabella, married to John, son of Alan.

III. AGNES, married to William de Ferrars, Earl Ferrars. Their son, William de Ferrars, Earl of Ferrars and Derby, married Margaret, daughter and co-heiress of Roger de Quincy; from which marriage descended Robert, Earl of Ferrars and Derby.

IV. HAWISIA, married to Robert de Quincy, son of Saër de Quincy, Earl of Winchester, and brother of Roger, second and last Earl of that family.

* The ducal houses of Rutland and Devonshire derive their descent from Ranulph de Gernons, fourth Earl of Chester. + In the Grant of Ranulph, Earl of Chester, to Garendon Abbey, he says, "per forestam meam quæ pertinet ad Feodum de Barwâ."

Cotemporary with Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, was another Norman follower and

favourite,

HUGH DE GRENTEMAISNELL.

On him William conferred almost unbounded favours: and amongst others, the restored Castle of Leicester, together with the office of Vicecomes of the County, and the title of Baron of Hinckley, as well as Castles and possessions in Groby, Whitwick, &c.

Hugh's third son, Ivo de Grentemaisnell, together with other powerful Barons, invited over, in 1101, Robert, the eldest son of the Conqueror, to dispute the possession of the English throne with his brother, Henry the First; and, by this act of rebellion, lost most of his estates, as well as his Castles in Leicestershire. They were given by Henry the First to

ROBERT BELLAMONTE,

EARL OF MELLENT

in his own right, and created Earl of Leicester by Henry. To him succeeded, in 1118, his second son,

ROBERT BOSSU,

SECOND EARL OF LEICESTER,

the great founder of several religious houses in the county, and, by his charity and other virtues, well deserving his distinctive appellation of "The Good Earl of Leicester." He died in 1168, and was succeeded by his son,

ROBERT BLANCHMAINS,

THIRD EARL OF LEICESTER,

who, with the Earl of Chester, in 1173, openly declared war against Henry II., in favour of young Henry: but, after repeated acts of rebellion, was pardoned. He married Petronilla, or Parnell, daughter of Hugh de Grentemaisnell; and hence his son, by whom he was succeeded in 1189, was called

ROBERT FITZ-PARNELL,

FOURTH EARL OF LEICESTER.

He died without issue (Nichols, Vol. I., p. 98.): so that his two sisters, Amicia and Margaret, became his co-heiresses.

AMICIA, married to Simon de Montfort, in right of his wife fifth Earl of Leicester (father to the great Earl of Leicester). He was slain at the battle of Toulouse, 1218.

MARGARET, married to Saër de Quincy; he was summoned to Parliament, in 1207, as Baron of Groby, and Earl of Winchester.

Saër de Quincy's son Roger (now become Earl of Winton and Leicester) married Helen, daughter of Alan, Earl of Galloway, and dying in 1264, left three daughters:

1. ELIZABETH, married Alexander Comyn, Earl of Buchan, in Scotland; created, in 1278, Baron Comyn, of England; by whom she had John and Alexander Comyn, successively Earls of Buchan.-(Alice, the daughter of the latter, married Henry, first Lord Beaumont.)

2. HELEN, or ELENA, married to Alan la Zouch, created, in 1297, Lord Zouch, of Ashby. 3. MARGARET, married to William de Ferrars, Earl of Ferrars and Derby; son of William Lord Ferrars, and Agnes, sister of Ranulph de Blondeville, Earl of Chester, whose second son, William, inherited from his mother the possessions of the Barony of Groby, which in two generations became vested in an only daughter, Elizabeth de Ferrars, married to Sir Edward Grey through whom the Barony of Groby has descended to the present Earl of Stamford.

In the Grants of portions of Charnwood made to the different Religious Houses, hereafter to be noticed, and in the descriptions of the various Parishes, will be found almost every name occurring in this genealogical statement; and much that would otherwise be ambiguous or obscure to the general reader will be explained by it.

Soon after the death of Ranulph de Blondeville (Nichols says, as early as 1239), the manor of Loughborough, with Beaumanor and its other members, passed to the Despensers. Nichols states, too, that "in 1278, Hugh le Despenser, created Earl of Winchester in 1322, held Charnwood Forest of the King, paying yearly a pair of gilt spurs." Burton says, the above manors only "were some time the inheritance of Hugh le Despenser the younger:" and, as William de Ferrariis, as Lord of the Manor of Groby, held, in 1279, "partem bosci de Charnwoode in quo est libera chacea,” and made grants of other parts,* it is evident that Hugh le Despenser did not possess the whole Forest. Further, as William de Ferrariis obtained Groby and his other possessions on Charnwood by marriage with one of the coheiresses of Roger de Quincy, and as Lord Zouch and the Earl of Buchan married the other two co-heiresses, and held, in right of their wives, considerable portions of the Forest, at the very time Nichols assigns the whole to le Despenser, it must be concluded that le Despenser only held, with Loughborough, &c., some privileges or office analagous to, or identified with, the Rangership.

On the attainder of the younger Despenser, in 1337, his possessions were conferred by Edward the Third on Henry, first Lord Beaumont. How these parts passed from the Beaumonts to Sir William Hastings, in the time of Edward the Fourth-to Thomas, Lord Grey, in 1527-to the Crown, by the attainder of the Duke of Suffolk-and to William Herrick, Esq., by purchase, in 1595, will be seen under the head of Beaumanor.

GROBY and its members, extending over a very large portion of the centre of the Forest, continued in the family of the Lords Ferrars till it passed, by marriage, to the Greys: from

See his Grant to Charley Priory, in a subsequent page.

which marriage, the present possessor, the Earl of Stamford and Warrington, lineally

descends.

WHITWICK, with its members, embracing nearly all the Western part, passed, by marriage, from Comyn, Earl of Buchan, to the first Lord Beaumont: and, on the attainder of William, Viscount Beaumont, was conferred by Edward the Fourth (1465) on Sir William, afterwards Lord Hastings. On its reverting to the Crown, in 1613, James the First granted it to Sir Henry Hastings, and the manor is now in the possession of the Marquis of Hastings. BELTON, the owner of which manor is one of the six Lords of the Forest, belonged to Gracedieu Nunnery at the Dissolution, when it was granted to Humphrey Foster, who sold it to John Beaumont: on whose forfeiture Edward the Sixth gave it to Francis, Earl of Huntingdon, whose son Henry, in 1567, sold it to Sir Francis Beaumont, from whom it passed to the Eyres, and, by purchase, in 1793, to Edward Dawson, Esq.

If, to the parts of the Forest here accounted for, be added those granted by several of the descendants of Lupus and Grentemeisnel to the different Religious Foundations, the partition of nearly the whole of Charnwood will be explained.

GARENDON, founded by Robert Bossu in 1133, though others date its foundation in 1169, and granted to the Cistercians, was, with its site and demesnes, conferred, at the Dissolution, on Thomas Manners, Earl of Rutland, from whom it came, with Sheepshed, by purchase, to Sir Ambrose Phillipps, in whose descendant it is still vested.

ULVERSCROFT AND CHARLEY PRIORIES, the former founded by Robert Bossu, the latter by Robert Blanchmains, engrossed considerable tracts of the Forest. These, too, were granted, at the Dissolution, to the Earl of Rutland, who sold them to Sir Andrew Judd, from whom they passed, by marriage or purchase, through various hands to the present possessors-Charley, to William Bosworth, Esq., and Ulverscroft, to the Rev. A. L. Emerson.

ALDERMAN'S HAW, another portion of the Forest granted to a Religious House by William de Belmeis, was conferred, at the Dissolution, on Thomas Farnham, Esq.

The fine before alluded to, as throwing further light on the history of the Forest, is here given at length.

Copy of a Fine levied between Hugh d'Albini, Earl of Arundel, and Roger de Quincy, Earl of Winton, about the right of Hunting, &c., in certain parts of the Forest.—1240.

"This is the finall agreement made in the King's Court, at Leicester, in Hilary Terme, in the four and twentieth year of the reigne of King Henry, son of King John, before the King's Justices itinerant then and there present, between Hugh de Albiniaco, Earl of Arundel, plaintiff, and Roger de Quincy, Earl of Winton, upon a complaint of the said Earl of Arundel: That the said Earl of Winton denied him free ingress and regress into a wood called LE CHALENG, to take his estover in; and that he interrupted his hunting in the said wood; which privilege Ranulph, formerly Earl of Chester, enjoyed, as belonging to the manor of Barowe, and whereof a plea was summoned between them in the said Court, viz.: