APPENDIX H 655 ANCIENT EARLDOMS It is necessary that at the outset we should define clearly what was the status of the Earl from this time up to the beginning of the 14th century. History and Law are in sharp conflict on this point. The recent Earldom of Norfolk case (1906), possibly the most important concerning an earldom which has ever been before the House of Lords, produced some remarkable statements on the subject, with yet more remarkable consequences bearing directly on the first part of our enquiry, i.e. the competency of women to inherit earldoms. Modern historians are agreed that official earldoms did not long survive the beginning of Henry Ill's reign, even if they lingered till then. The Earl, except in the case of the palatinate earldoms, has little to do with the government of the county which gives him his title; even before the beginning of legal memory he has, we may say, nothing to do with the county, save to be girt with its sword and to receive a third of its pleas. (^) Again, In one of our most recent histories we read: The tradition of the Saxon earldom undoubtedly exercised by degrees a great influence on the royal practice in England, and by the middle of the 12th cent, earls existed in considerable numbers; but the lack of conclusive evidence for the existence of many under William probably reflects the fact of his few creations. But in the cases which we can certainly trace to William, it was not the old Saxon earldom which was revived. The new earldom, with the possible exception of one or two earls who, like the old Frankish margrave, or the later palatinate count, were given unusual powers to support unusual military responsibilities, was a title, not an office. It was not a government of provinces, but a mark of rank-C") and William was chary of creating even ordinary earls, and such as he did create soon became mere holders of empty titles of honour, while they found themselves ousted from all real power by the Norman vicecomites or sheriffs. (^) We will conclude our quotations on this point by one from Sir Francis Palmer: Whatever official character an earldom may have at one time possessed, it is clear that all trace of such official character disappears soon after the Conquest.^) In the Earldom of Norfolk case, the main question was the validity of the surrender of his Earldom of Norfolk by Roger Bigod to the King in 1302, and its regrant to Thomas of Brotherton in 13 12. In the course of the hearing, earls and earldoms, and the acts of the Sovereign in relation thereto, were exhaustively discussed. The modes of creation and rules of succession, the rights and privileges attaching to the dignity, and every- thing incident to it, were exhibited by documents for which the Public (') y/ History of English Law, ut supra, vol. i, p. 533. (•>) Political History of England, vol. ii, 1 905, by George Burton Adams, p. 56. («) William Sharp McKechnie, Magna Carta, 1905, p. 10. {•*) Sir Francis B. Palmer, Pierage Law in England, 1907, p. no.
