APPENDIX D 605 The Constable {Constabularius) was essentially a military' officer, com- manding the garrison in the castle or the army in the field. As with the office of Steward, there were more than one Constable in early days, but eventually the office is found held by the Bohuns, Earls of Hereford, heirs, through a female, of Walter de Gloucester, who is st}'led " Constable " under Henry I, and whose son Miles was created Earl ot Hereford in 1 141. On the death of the last Bohun earl in ij,"]"!/}, his daughters and coheirs, married (i) Thomas " of Woodstock," Duke of Gloucester, and (2) Henry, Earl of Derby, afterwards Henry IV. Thomas, as will be seen under " Gloucester," exercised the office, and eventually, on the death of Henry VI, the last descendant of the younger daughter, the representation of the Bohuns became wholly vested in the Staffords, Dukes of Buckingham, as heirs of Thomas " of Woodstock," and his wife, the elder sister. Henry Stafford, then Duke, was appointed Constable by Richard III in 1483, and his son Edward claimed the office under Henry VIII, not, however, as heir in blood, but as holder of two out of the three manors in virtue of which it was (wrongly) believed to be held in grand serjeant)^ The hearing and result of this claim have been fully discussed by the writer in his Peerage and Pedigree and in The Kings Serjeants. It increased the King's jealousy of the Duke, whose dramatic downfall and death ended the Staffords' claim. Thenceforth the office, like that of the Steward, has only been conferred by the Crown pro hac vice, as at the Coronation. In Scotland, however, the hereditary office of Lord High Constable is still held by the Hays, Earls of Errol, to whom it was granted by Robert I. They claim, and enjoy on certain occasions, a specially high precedence in respect of it, and they figure at Coronations in the procession bearing their " baton " of office. The Marshal, in spite of the high position enjoyed by the Earls Marshal who now hold the office, appears to have been originally an officer subordinate to the Constable, although, so long as a Constable existed, they sat and acted together in that military court of arms and honours which was afterwards known as the Earl Marshal's Court. The Constable was always named Jirs: in documents naming them jointly, and this precedence is still marked by the Constable ranking on the right at Coronations, and the Earl Marshal on the left. The true history of the Marshalship of England has been traced by the writer in his work The Commune of London and other studies. Unlike the Steward or the Constable, the Chief Marshal [rnagister tnarescallus) emerges as early as the reign of Henry I, when a John son of Gilbert established his claim to the office. From it he took the name Marshal, which was also that of his descendants. The most famous was William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, in right of his wife, as well as Marshal of England. On the extinction of his male issue, the King gave the marshal's rod to the eldest co-heir of the line, who brought the office to the Bigods, Earls of Norfolk. Under the surrender of the reversion of the office by the last earl it passed to the Crown at his death (1306), but was given by Edward II to his younger (half) brother, Thomas "of Brotherton," Earl of
