The Rise of the House of Lancaster

Timeline:

William I 1066-1087
William II 1087-1100
Henry I 1100-1135
Stephen 1135-1154
Henry II 1154-1189
Richard I 1189-1199
John 1199-1216
Henry III 1216-1272
Edward I 1272-1307
Edward II 1307-1327
Edward III 1327-1377
Richard II 1377-1399
Henry IV 1399-1413
Henry V 1413-1422
Henry VI 1422-1461

After his conquest of England in 1066, Wiiliam I divided up his newly gained land among his supporters.
Roger de Poictou received 398 established Saxon manors, and his estates included almost all of Lancashire.
Ivo de Taillebois received the barony of Kendal which included all of Westmorland to the north of Lancashire.

The estates of Poictou did not include the great fee of Clitheroe, which was held by the de Lacy family, and included Blackburn, Whalley and (of course) Little Mitton.

The governorship of the castle at Lancaster was generally undertaken by other than the nominal grantee:
for example, under Roger de Poictou, the castle was governed by his brother, Robert de Belehem, who was earl of Arundel and Shrewsbury in his own right.
Similarly, Ranulph de Blundeville, whose own fee include Lancashire south of the Ribble, governed the castle from 17 John (1216) to 9 Henry III (1225).
In the following account we are concerned only with those who held the fee.

Roger de Poictou rebelled twice against William, and after the second defection (resolved at the battle of Tewkesbury in 1106) he was deprived of all his estates.
In Lancashire, his estates were spilt, those south of the river Ribble going to Ranulf de Briscasard, 3rd Earl of Chester, those north of the Ribble going to Ethelred, the son of Ivo de Taillebois, and second Baron of Kendal.

The honor of Lancaster then descended under the barony of Kendal for 4 generations (Ethelred, Ketel, Gilbert to William).
In 1153 (18 Steven) William, the 5th Earl of Kendal took the name of Lancaster by permission on Henry II (1154-1189) and married Gundred, the widow of the Earl of Warwick.
they had two sons, the elder of whom became William II of Lancaster, and in 1212.

*****|||| Theobald Walter/Butler needs to come in here in the time of Richard I ( 1189-99) see notes Bk.I p. 110 ||||*****

There is some confusion in the time of Richard (1189-99).
The part of Lancashire north of the Ribble comprised the hundreds of Lonsdale in the north and Amunderness in the south.
Althought the whole of this region had been awarded toi the Barony of Kendal, at some stage the hundred of Amunderness had reverted to the crown and was treated separately until it was re-united under Edmund Crouchback (see below).

*****|||| see separate account of Amounderness here ||||*****

"William de Lancaster gave to Bernard Fitz Ruffi two carucates of land in Halkath and Cattral, which Richard, son of Suen de Carlton, and Beatrix f. Rob. Catterall, and Michael Ethlekstone, held in knight's service in 13 John."
(Baines IV 492.)

On the death of William, the honor of Lancaster passed to his youger brother, Gilbert, whose son, Warin, married Helewise the daughter of Stuteville, lord of Knaresborough.
Warin, who was Steward of the king, was granted custody of Lancaster castle by Henry II.
Warin and Helewise produced a daughter, also call Helewise after her mother, who married Gilbert Fitz Reinfred in 1199 (1 John).

In 1205 (6 John) this Gilbert obtained possession of the honor of Lancaster.

Gilbert was succeeded by his son William, but not without some trouble.
Gilbert took the part of the barons who forced king John to sign the Magna Charta at Runnymede in 12..
As a result Gilbert lost favour with the king.
Matters came to a head when John laid siege to Rochester, and found hidden there William the son of Gilbert.
Gilbert saved his son (and probably himself) by supplying hostages to the king as a guarantee for good behaviour in the future, and by surrendering two of his castles (Merhull and Kirkeby) to the king.
As a result, Gilbert obtaine his pardon which was ratified by Henry III in the first year of his reign (1216).

William succeeded to the honor of Lancaster, restored to the king's favour, and was also High Sheriff of Lancashire from 18 Henry III (1241) until his death in 30 Henry III (1246).
In 25 Henry III (1241) William got full custody of the honor of Lancaster, but died in 1246 without issue.

On the death of William there is a break in the succession, susceptible of the simple explanation that his mother outlived his father and re-married, but evidence is lacking.
The manors of Lancaster and Kendal were separated again.
It is recorded that Peter le Brus, son of Peter by Helewise de Lancaster (mother of William) obtained the manor and castle of Kendal, but in the same year the castle and honor of Lancaster went to Edmund Crouchback, a younger son of Henry III.
Henry added to the Lancaster estates by restoring the southern portion of Lancashire (south of the Ribble) to the honor of Lancaster.

The part of Lancashire between the rivers Ribble and Mersey had been granted to Ranulf, 3rd. earl of Chester after the defection of Roger de Poictou, and confirmed to Ranulf's son, William de Blois, by king Steven.
Ranulf's other son, Hugh de Kevelioc succeeded to the Chester estates in 1156, and passed them to his son, Ranulph de Blundeville in 1229.
This Ranulph died in 1232 leaving four daughters, and the southern part of Lancashire was restored to Lancaster and added to the portion of Edmund Crouchback, the second son of Henry III, who became earl of Lancaster in 1267.

I seem to have a gap here from 1232 when Ranulph dies to 1245 when Edmund took over.

With Crouchback started the direct royal line of Lancaster in 1245.
(Crouchback was apparently a nickname, arose from the image of the cross Edmund always wore on his back.)  Edmund was the fourth (but second surviving) son of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence. He married Blanche of Artois (the dowager countess of Champagne and grand-daughter of Louis VIII of France) in 1275 and started the royal house of Lancaster.

Edmund Crouchback died in 1296 leaving two sons, Henry, the youger, and Thomas (the elder, but still a minor).

Thomas, the eldest son of Edmund,was a minor when Edmund died in 1296.  He received the earldom of Lancaster in 1298.  his cousin Edward II became king in 1307.  he marrid Alice, daughter and heiress of Henry lacy, Earl of Lincoln and gained the earldom of Derby.

Henry (ca. 1281-1345), the second son of Edmund, and brother of Thomas, in 1326 joined with queen Isabella and her lover, Roger Mortimer and captured Edward II at Neath Abbey and imprisoned him at Kenilworth. He was re-instated as earl of Lancaster, quarreled with Mortimer, and in 1330, with the approval of Edward III, overthrew Mortimer.

As earl of Lancaster, aided Edward I in 1298 (26 Edward I) on his invasion of Scotland, but from 5 Edward II (1312) joined with a conspiracy against the king which later became a rebellion.  The rebellion was defeated and Thomas was attainted and executed in 15 Edward II (1319), and the Lancaster family forfeited most of its estates as a result.  His step-sister Jeanne was queen of Navarre, the wife of Philip IV.

It was in the time of Thomas that Alan de Catterall married Lora Pontchardon (1 Edward II, 1307) and the family acquired the manor of Little Mitton near Whalley which was to become their primary seat of residence.

The earldom of Lancaster next passed to Thomas's brother, Henry (who had been guardian to the young king Edward III), who helped Edward to defeat Queen Isabella's (his mother's) lover, Roger Mortimer, who had been the power in the land) and who, in the first year of Edward III (1327), managed to get an act of Parliament passed reversing the attainder of his brother Thomas, and recovering the lands which had been forfeited.
(The grounds for the reversal was that Thomas had not been tried by his peers as was required by the Magna Charta.)
It is in this reversal document that Lawrence Catterall is named as holding the manor of Plumpton, near Preston.

Henry's son, anther Henry (ca. 1300-1361) suceeded to the earldoms of Lancaster and Leicester in 1345 on the death of his father.  In March 1351 he was created the first duke of Lancaster and became one of the original Knights of the Order of the garter

Henry was to build the highest glories of the house of Lancaster.  He fought long in France, and gained such a reputation that it was said that French cities refused to fight and opened their gates on hearing that Henry of Lancaster was in front of them.
He has also been called the Marlborough and Wellington of his age, and is reputed to have defeated 56 French cities in the king's campaign in France.

His rewards included being made Earl of Derby in 2 Edward III, 1337, and he was one of the original Knights of the Garter, the order created by Edward III. He died in 1361, leaving no male heir.

By deed dated 2 January 1360, he founded the Hermitage at Whalley with instructions for prayers for his soul after his death.
Just in time, for he died on the 24th. March of the same year.

Isold de Heton, probably the widow of John de Catterall of Heton, was appointed recluse at the Hermitage in 1437-8 (Henry VI) and by her behaviour, and the breaking of her vows, has been held responsible for its closure in 1440-2 by Henry VI.

In 40 Edward III (1367) Alan de Catterall, grandson of the Alan who acquired the manor of Little Mitton, married Isabella Halton and acquired the manor of Halton West in upper Ribblesdale near Rathmell and Giggleswick.

Henry left two daughters, Maud who married Ralph, lord Strafford, and Blanch who continued the royal associations of the House of Lancaster by marrying John of Gaunt (Ghent), the 4th. son of Edward III.  Henry had been one of the original knights of the Order of the Garter established by Edward III, and John of Gaunt became another knight of the garter in very early childhood upon the death of Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent, one of the original knights.  Philippa, the eldest daughter of Blanche and John of Gaunt, married king João I of Portugal in 1387, and James Catterall accompanied her to become her majordomo (Mordomo-mór.)

Provisionally I identify James, a younger brother of John, with the James Catterall (Cotterell, Cottrell) who accompanied Philippa of Lancaster to Portugal.  James had served first with Edmund, younger brother of John of Gaunt, when as earl of Cambridge he took an army to the south west of France and Portugal in 1381. Edmund was later to become duke of York.  Transferring his alliegance from Edmund to John of Gaunt, James returned to Portugal in 1386 and remained with queen Phillipa as her majordomo.  On the death of Philippa, he moved with her son Henry the Navigator to the castle at Tomar in 1418 when Henry became made Master of the Order of Christ, and became the adminstrator (Monteiro-Mór) of the Order.  He had married Anne de Ufford who had accompanied Philippa to Portugal, and they founded the noble Cotrim family of Portugal.  James finally retired to Souto da Ereira where he lived his last days.

The time of John of Gaunt was the greatest glory of the house of Lancaster, but with the death of John of Gaunt, it's fame declined.

Which leads us into the Wars of the Roses and the disputes between the Houses of Lancaster and York for the British crown.