lyo CHESTER was annexed to the Crown " lest so fair {^prieclard) a dominion should be divided {inter colos faminarum) among women." Writ for Inq. p. m. dat. 25 May 1242. (*) His widow w., before 5 Dec. 1237, Robert de Quincy (yst. s. of Saher, Earl of Winchester), who d. s.p.m., Aug. 1257. She d. 1253, before 24 Oct. Her Inq. p. m. 10 Nov. 1253. IX. 1254 Edward, stykd " Longshanks,"() s. and h. ap. ot to Henry III, by Eleanor, da. and coh. of Raymond (Beren- 1264 ger). Count of Provence, was b. at Westminster, and 17 June 1239, and was l>ap. 4 days later by Eudes, the 1265 Pope's legate. (") On 14 Feb. 1253/4 he was cr. EARL to OF CHESTER, and " received seisin of the Earldom 1272. of Chester by [the hands of] the Lord Bartholomew de Peche"('^) on 26 Mar. 1254. When, however, he and the King, his father, were taken prisoners at the battle of Lewes, 14 May 1264, by the rebellious Barons under Simon (de Montfort), Earl of Leicester, the King " had no other means to make his peace, but by delivering the said Earldom of Chester into Earl Simon's hands, by letters patent, dat. 24 Dec. (1264) 49 Hen. Ill, at Woodstock," but, some 8 months after- wards, on the death, 4 Aug. 1265, and attainder of the said Earl Simon, " came the Earldom of Chester back again to young Edward." He took the Cross, 24 June 1268, becoming a Crusader May 1271. He m. (while Earl of Chester), at Burgos, in Spain, 1254, Eleanor, da. of Fernando III, King OF Castile, by his 2nd wife, Jeanne, da. and h. of Simon, Count of Ponthieu. She, who was his ist wife, was living when her husband, on 20 Nov. 1272, succeeded to the throne as Edward I (j)ost conquestum), when all his honours merged in the Crown. X. 1264 Simon (de Montfort), Earl of Leicester, having to taken Edward, Earl of Chester (and the King, his father) 1265. prisoner, as above stated, extorted, under colour of an exchange for the Earldom of Leicester, a grant of the Earldom of Chester^ and obtained two patents from the King, 24 Dec. 1264 and 20 Mar. 1265, in confirmation thereof, becoming thereby Earl thereof, but the verdict went against him, though his coheirs admitted his right to be earl, while claiming equal rights with him in the lands. (See J. H. Round's Peerage and Pedigree, vol. i, pp. 128-132). V.G. (*) This is one of the earliest inquisitions in existence. V.G. C") "From the tallness of his stature." [Sandford, p. 127). As to his supposed name of Plantagenet, see vol. i, p. 183, note "c." i^) The name Edward was " given him in memory of the glorious King and Confessor St. Edward, whose corps lieth magnificently deposited in the Abbey of St. Peter, in the city of Westminster [the birth place of this Prince], whom King Henry III ever honoured as his titular Saint." {Sandford, p. 127). {^) See Annales Cestriemes, as referred to, ante, p. 167, note " b."
