Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 3.djvu/71

Steward of the Household to Edward IV and Richard III, 1471-85; present at the Coronation of Richard III( a ) j E.G., 1483; Constable of England for life, 16 Dec. 1-183, with the fee of £100 a year, granted by Richard III, whose cause, he betrayed most skilfully at the battle of Bosworth, 22 Aug. 1485, where he is said to have set that King's crown on the head of the victorious Henry VII. (b) lly him he was accord- ingly cr. 27 Oct. 14$5,(°) EARL OF DERBY, ( d ) and made one of the Commissioners for the oftice of Lord High Steward at his own and his consort's Coronation. He was godfather (1-186) to l'rince Arthur, the King's eldest sou. Ou 21 June 1195, he received a visit lasting nearly a month, from the King and Queeu, at Knowsley and at Lathom. He m. firstly, Eleanor, sister of Richard, Eahl of Warwick (the celebrated King-Maker), da. of Richard (Nkvill), Earl of Salisbury, by Alice da. and li. of Thomas (Montacutk), Eahl ok Salisbury. She was bur, (as Lady Stanley), at St. James', Garliekhithe, London. He m. secondly, about 14S2, Margaret, Dow. Countess of Richmond (mother to King Henry VII), then widow(°) of Sir Henry Stafford (who (1. HS1), da. and h. of John (Beaufort), Duke of Somerset, by Margaret, da. of Sir Johu ((Bkmjchamp) Loud Beauciump de Bletsoe. He d. 29 July 1501, at Lathom, and was bur. with his ancestors at Burscough Priory, co. Lancaster. Will dat. 28 July and pr, 9 Nov. 1501. His widow who was b. 1111 at Bletsoc was the well known founder of Christ's and St. John's Colleges, Cambridge. (Sec fuller account of her sub " RICHMOND.") She d. 29 June 1509 (three mouths after the death of King Henry VII, her son) in her 69th year and was bur. in Westm. Abbey. Will, as " Countess of Richmond and Derby," pr. 17 Oct. 1512, at Lambeth. [Geoiige Stanley styled (after 1-185) Loud Stanley, but who in 1482 became Lord Strange, s. and b. ap., b. about 1160, K.B. 18 April 1475. Having m. Joane, only da. and h. of John (Le Strange), Lord Strange de Knockin, by singular crest. The matter is made more obscure by the fact that the family o£ Lathom, as well as the family of Stanley, bear this strange crest. (") See a list of the 45 Peers present at the coronation, 0 July 14S3, of Ric. Ill, p. 8, note "b." sub "Dacbb." (fc) His br. Sir William Stanley, K.G., who took an equal part as himself in the battle of Bosworth was executed 16 Feb. 1491/5, for the Perkin Warbeck plot. See an interesting note as to him in Walpole's " Historic Doubts," quoted in " Collins" iii, p. 57. ( c ) Shrewsbury, Derby and Huntingdon are called " the Catskin Earls." They are the only Earldoms now remaining prior to those of the 17th century, save such as (like Arundel, Rutland, Wiltshire, ke.) are merged in higher titles, and save also the anomalous Earldom of Devon (1553-1556), resuscitated in 1831. See as to the term " Catskin," sub " Huntingdon." ( d ) There can bo no doubt that he was made Earl of the county of Derby, and the fact seems never to have been questioned till of late years. Mr. Courthope (in a MS. note to this title) states that having inspected the Charter Roll of 1 Hen. VII he finds that " altho' there are no words in the charter stating that he wan made Earl of the county of Derby, there in the usual clause directing the payment of £20 per annum by the Sheriff of Derby and Notts, out of the profits of those counties." It is, however, a curious coincidence that the estates of the family were chiefly in the hundred of West Derby, co. Lancaster, while they appear to have had no laud and no connection with the county of Derby. It appears, however, to have been the custom, till the IStU century, ou the grant of an Earldom or any higher dignity, to take the name of some county, city or principal town, if jassiblc one connected with the grantee, but if none such were available otherwise. In this way it would seem the title of Bristol was in 1698 conferred on Digby and again in 1703 on Hervey ; that of Buckingham in 1702 on Sheffield and again in 1736 on Hobart ; that of Cardigan in 1661 on Brudenell ; of Carmarthen in 1689 on Osborne ; of Carnarvon iu 1628 ou Dormer, in 1714 on Brydges, and in 1793 on Herbert ; that of Cliichcstcr in 1614 on Leigh and in 1675 on Fitzroy ; that of Derby in 1485 on Stanley; of Devon in 1618 on Cavendish (a family that had estates in almost every part of England but the West) ; that of Dorset iu 1603 on Sackville ; of Dover in 1627 on Carey ; in 1685 [as a Barony] on Jermyn and in 1708 on Douglas, and so ou thro' E, F, and the other letters of the alphabet. Most of these families had apparently little, or no connec- tion with the place (from which the title was taken) or even with any family that previously held such title. (°) The remarks of Vincent on "Brooke" (who had denied this match with Stafford) are worth reading for their extreme pungency.