WARWICiL 55 John du Plb8818,(*) or db Plessbtib, seoond husband to the above Margaret, ahe being bia aeoond wife.(^) He waa a PoiteTin by birth; waa hnighUd before 1227 ; waa in the bonaebuM of Hen. HI. ; Conatable of Deviaea Oaatle, 1234, and again, 1250 ; Sheriff of Ozfordahire. 1239-40 ; accompanied the King to Poitou, 1242-43, who granted him (be being an eapecial favourite) the diapoeal in marriage of thia Coiiutera, whom, aooordingly, be himaelf at. before Sep. 1248. He waa, 24 June 1244, made Conatable of the Tower of London, but doee not appear to have been admitted {jurt Hxorti) aa BARL OF WARWICK, till April 1245,(*) and, according to Dugdale, waa *' loath, aa it aeema, to uae that attribute till he had made audi an agreement with the next heir, that in oaae be overlived the aaid Margery, hia Counteaa, and had no iaane by her, he ahonld not lay it aaide again," for in a fine levied in Hilary term, 1246/7, between him and William Mauduit and Alice, hia wife (heir presumptive of the Karldom), the landa of Warwick were aettled on him for life, and, moreover, the Baid William and Alice "do, aa much aa in them liea, confer the aarae Earldom upon him for lifei" Between Feb. 1246/7 and Aug. 1247, he waa apparently inveated therewith, and in Aug. 1247, he ia called j?arl of IFarwidk in a royal licence, and had a grant of hia wtfe*a landa for life, 18 Oct 1250. He took the Croaa in 1252 ; waa Cajit in the army in Gaaconv and Poitou, 1252-54, being treacheronaly thrown into pnaon there, 1254-65 ; Warden of . . Northumberland, and Conatable of Newcaatle, 1257-59 ; P.O. (el. by Pari.) 1258;' Sheriff of CO. Leiceater, 1261, taking part with the King in the troublea %then bep^nning to ariae from the Barona. The Eari(e) ci. 26 Feb. 1262/8, and iB||^icr. at ' % % Miasenden priory, Bucks, leaving iaaue by a former wife,(^) but none by uHpeireai . of Warwick. ^T- VIIL 1263. S. Sir William Mauduit, first oouein and heii^**) to Margaret, Counteaa of Warwick abovenamed, being only a. and h. of William Maudoit,(«) of Hanalope, Bucka (d. April 1257), by Alice (living 1246, but d. before 1263), aiater (by the half(') blood) to Bari Henry, the father of the aaid C^) " Du Pleaaia, not de Pleaaeta, which ia an ignorant rendering of de Pleaaetia. The name of du Pleaaia ia common to very many faroiliea in France, but the peraon above mentioned waa, probably, yr. br, of Pettfr, Seigneur du Pleaaia in 1240, and, perhapa, aon of William, living 1201 and 1213, anceatora of the great family of du Pleaaia-llichelieu. Thia Pleaaia ia in Poitou, on the river Creuae, and waa held of the Biahopric of Poitiera. See Du Cheane, Maiaon du Pleaaia de Richelieu ; Anaelme, iv, 361—877, baa copied him." ^Ex inform, G. W. Wataon]. Lower [Pair. BriL] aaya that " the word aeema to be generic and to mean a amall park." O Hia firat wife waa Chriatian (m. beforo 1234), da. and h. of Hugh de Sandford, of Hooknorton, Oxon, by whom he left a a. and h., Hugh du Pleaaia, or de Pleaaetia, 26 years old at the time of hia death, who waa father of Hugh, aum. aa a Baron in 1299. (®) He unqueationably held the Earldom till hia death, and, inaamnch as the landa thereof were aettled on him for life, that faot aeema to favour the territorial nature of a peerage dignity at that period. Thia aubject is fully and very ably treated hj L. O. Pike, in hia *< ConttU, HiaUjry of ike Hotm of Lordi." (<>) See p. 54, note '* a." (•) See ped of Mauduit^ in Baker'a " Northampiomkirt," vol ii, p. 129, and "Her. and Oen,f** vol. vii, p. 386. (0 Thia ancoeaaion of the half blood seems at variance with the old law. There were deaoendanta of the great aunt (of the whole blood) of the Counteaa Margaret, viz., Agiiea, wife of Geoffrey Clinton, among which one have thought would have GMn found the heir. Such, at leaat, waa the decision as to the office of Great Chamberlain, which, in 1625. pasaed to the oouain (by the father's sister) of the whole blood of Henty (de Vere), Earl of Oxford, rather than to his sisters of the half blood, the daughtera of hia aaid father. See vol. iii, p. 46, note " d," and p. 873, note " o *' ; vol iv, p. 105, notea "e* and <« f,*' and vol. vi, p. 171, note " f.** The doctrine of half blood, which, till 1 Jan. 1834, applied to the inheritance of lands, waa, when " the idea of Barony by tenure faded away," held to be not applicable to an Honour, and in the time of Charlea L the judgea were uuanimoualT of opinion that "there cannot be tkpoeteuiofroiris in point uf Honour," the reason asaignod being that no entry, aa on land, can be made on the
