the rival Roses met on the field of Bosworth and he had beguiled both combatants with promises of sympathy, after the fate of the battle was decided he went over to the side of the victor, and completed his services by placing the battered crown of the vanquished Richard upon the brow of the triumphant Richmond, exclaiming-- Courageous Richmond, well hast thou acquit thee! Lo, here, this long-usurped royalty, From the dead temples of this bloody wretch Have I plucked off, to grace thy brows withal; Wear it, enjoy it, and make much of it. Thus Thomas Stanley earned for himself and his descendants the Earldom of Derby. Through his eldest son, George Lord Strange, who succeeded to the title, Thomas, Earl of Derby, was progenitor of a race of illustrious men, conspicuous among whom were James, the "Martyr Earl," distinguished for his attachment to the Royal cause during the Civil Wars, and the eminent statesman of more recent times, Edward Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th earl, who died in 1869--the father of the present holder of the title. The Stanleys of Alderley trace their descent from John, a younger brother of Thomas the first Earl, who became possessed of the manor of Alderley by his marriage with the heiress of Thomas Weever, lord of Weever and Alderley. When Duke William of Normandy parcelled out the land in the newly-conquered country among his faithful followers Alderley fell to the share of William Fitz Nigel, the builder and fortifier of Halton Castle, and was held by him as of his manor of Halton. In 1294 he granted Over Alderley to one Roger Throsle, who in turn gave it as a marriage portion to his daughter Margery when she became the wife of Edmund Downes. Subsequently it passed into the possession of the Ardernes, who held it for two or three generations. Peter de Arderne, the last male representative of this line, had an only surviving daughter, the heiress of all his lands; wishing in his life-time to secure a suitable match for her he, in the reign of Edward III., purchased from Sir John de Arderne, lord of Aldford and the paramount lord of Weever, the wardship and marriage of Richard, son and heir of Thomas de Weever, paying for the same 40 marks (£26 13s. 4d.), an investment he turned to profitable account by marrying his young ward to his daughter. In this way the estates of Weever and Alderley became united, and so they continued until the reign of Henry VI. In 1445 Thomas de Weever, the great-grandson of Richard de Weever and Margaret Arderne his wife, died, leaving an only daughter, Elizabeth, who thus became heiress of the lands in Weever and Alderley. Being under age at the time of her father's death she became a ward of the King, and he, as previously mentioned, gave the disposal of her in marriage to his favourite, Thomas, the first Lord Stanley, who made the most of his opportunity by marrying her to his third son, Thomas Stanley, thus securing for him and his descendants a very handsome