British freewomen : $b Their historical privilegeStopes, C. C. (Charlotte Carmichael)
History
British freewomen : $b Their historical privilege
Stopes, C. C. (Charlotte Carmichael)
Women -- Great Britain; Women -- History
The office of Marshal and title of Earl of Norfolk were afterwards given
“in tail general” to Thomas Brotherton, son of Edward I. and brother of
Edward II. His daughter, Margaret, inherited the office with the title
and arms, as she appears as “Margaret Countess Marshal” in the
Parliament Roll of 1 Richard II. (Rot. Parl., 713.)
In the petition of John, Earl Marshal, for precedence over Earl Warwick,
he says that “Thomas of Brotherton was son of Edward I., and bore the
Royal arms. Of him came Margaret, of whom came Elizabeth, of whom came
Thomas, of whom came John, now Erle Mareschal, and so apperteneth ye
said place in yis Riall court to this Lord Earl Mareschal by cause of
the blode and armes Riall with ye said possession” (Rot Parl., iii.
Henry VI.). The office afterwards fell to the Mowbrays. Anne Mowbray,
heiress, married the young Duke of York, second son of Edward IV., at
the age of four years. She carried the office of Marshal to him, but he
died in the Tower with his brother, Edward V., and his uncle seized the
title.
“Adeline de Broc held possession of her Guildford estates by the service
of being =Marshal in the King’s court.= (Temp. Henry II.; Blount’s
Tenures.”) “It was adjudged in B.R., Car I., that the Office of Marshal
of that Court well descended to a _feme_, and that she might exercise it
by deputy if she pleased.” (Callis, 250.)
=High Constable.=—Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, held
the manors of Harlefield, Newnam, and Whytenhurst, County Gloucester, by
the service of High Constable. He left two daughters, but the elder,
Eleanor, succeeded to the office, which she conveyed to her husband,
Thomas of Woodstock, who exercised it for her; the younger sister, Mary,
marrying Henry Plantagenet of Bolingbroke, afterwards Henry IV.
=High Steward.=—Henry, Earl of Leicester, through the Barony of Hinckley
held the office of High Steward of England. He died, leaving two
daughters, the elder of whom, having married abroad, left the dignity
free to her sister, who married John of Gaunt, fourth son of Edward III.
Through her right he exercised the office of Steward, which their son,
Henry IV., carried back to the Crown.
=High Chamberlain.=—Justice Ashurst, from the King’s Bench in 1788,
notes that women have served the office of High Chamberlain (Rex _v._
Stubbs). I have not yet found the name of the lady that he refers to;
but we all know that the Baroness Willoughby d’Eresby held the Office
down to our own times, though she allowed her son to exercise it as her
deputy. “Catherine, sole daughter and heir to the last Lord Willoughby
d’Eresby, became 4th wife to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. She
afterwards married Thomas Bertie, and her son was Peregrine, Lord
Willoughby d’Eresby, who married Mary, daughter of the Earl of Oxford,
whose son Robert (1 Jac. I.) inherited the title and Office of High
Chamberlain.” (Dugdale.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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