Chapter 7

The arrival of the Normans

The political set-up in the north of England around the time of the Norman invasion was fluctuating and involved. Serious historians give irreconcilable accounts and dates and we must be content here with a general idea of what was happening, recognising that there may be some inaccuracies.

The agreement between Cnut and Malcolm was apparently not honoured and we hear of William I arranging a peace with Malcolm on condition that he did homage for Cumberland, an arrangement possibly designed to give the Normans time to settle the more southerly parts of England.

Gospatric, nephew of Duncan once king of Scotland, was responsible for Cumberland and in 1067 he either bought from William the Conqueror the Earldom of Northumberland or William appointed him to it This made him an influential and powerful figure in the north. In about 1069 the Scots invaded Cumberland and held it by force. Gospatric attacked them from the east and the Normans then arrived to end the struggle for supremacy.

Gospatric was deprived of the Earldom of Northumberland, including Cumberland, and fled to Scotland, where Malcolm created him Earl of Dunbar. Malcolm III agreed to act as viceroy and feudal tenant of Cumberland for the King of England and arranged to do this through Dolfin, son of Gospatric, whom he appointed vice-regent of the land of Carlisle, and through his brother Waldeof (also known as Waltheof or Waldeve), who became vice-regent of Allerdale. This is one of a number of instances in the centuries following the Norman invasion when a person deposed in disgrace was replaced by another member of the same family.

The situation apparently continued very unsettled for the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle relates that

• “King WiIliam marched north to Carlisle with a large army and re-established the fortress and built the castle and drove out Dolfin who had previously ruled the land there and garrisoned the castle with his men and afterwards returned to the south and sent thither many English peasants with wives and stock to dwell there and till the ground.” [1]

This would be William II (Rufus) and the date probably 1092. He thus annexed the area south of the Solway and received homage from Malcolm IlI.

Because of its unsettled nature and the Scottish domination of much of the area Cumber land, was not included in William l’s 1086 survey of his lands, the Domesday Book.

Not only did the Normans settle people from the south in this region, but they placed its control in the hands of powerful barons. At the beginning of the twelfth century Henry I gave to Ranulf (Ranulph) de Meschines, one of the Norman adventurers who had come over with William I, the Earldom of Carleol or Carlisle, probably comprising the whole of Cumberland. (There were at least six variations on ‘Meschines’ and he was also known as de Briquessart or de Brichsard.) Ranulf married the daughter of Yvo Talboise, who had the Barony of Kendal (from the Lune to Windermere), so this land also came to him. His possessions were very extensive. The Denton Manuscript states

• “King William the Conqueror, about the latter end of his reign, gave the counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland to Ranulph, or Randolph de Meschines, sister’s son to Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, and left him men and munition to defend the country from all hostility … Randolph de Meschines being quietly possessed of every part of Cumberland, presently surveyed the whole country, and gave all the frontiers bordering on Scotland, on Northumberland, and along the sea-coasts, to his friends and followers, retaining still to himself the middle part, between the east and west mountains, a goodly great forest full of woods, red and fallow deer, wild swine, and all manner of wild beasts, called the forests of Englewood, … Randolph, gave to his brother WiIliam Meschines, the great barony of Caupland or Kopeland (from the Norse kaupaland, meaning bought land), which lies between the rivers Dudden, Darwent and the sea, and so much of the same as lies between the rivers Cockar and Darwent. The said William granted over to one Waldeof, the son of Gospatrick, Earl of Dunbar in Scotland, together with the five towns about Cockar, that is to say, Brigham, Eaglesfield, Dean with Branthwaite, Crayksothen, and Clifton, with the hamlets thereof, Little Clifton and Stainburn. This Waldeofwas Lord of Allerdale-beneath-Darwent.” [2]

The above version of events is that Ranulf divided Cumberland into baronies, usually given as eleven, keeping Inglewood and possibly other areas for himself. [3] Another version is that Henry I formed the baronies and gave William de Meschines Gilsland, which he found difficult to hold and subsequently exchanged for Copeland. [4]. In either case William gave Waldeof the ‘five towns’ which thus for the first time appear in the Honour of Cockermouth and become a manor of Cockermouth.

It appears that William de Meschines held the Barony of Coupland ‘enfeoffed’ by the king, the caput baroniae being Egremont which eventually led to the barony being known as that of Egremont rather than Copeland. Allerdale, the barony below or north of the Derwent, was held by Waldeof enfeoffed by Ranulf, the caput baroniae being at Papcastie. Waldeof did not merge his new manor of Cockermouth in his barony of Allerdale because it was held by a distinct title and was dependant on Copeland, as is shown by the fact that when Waldeof granted to the Church of the Holy Mother of God and St. Bega, at Stainburn, a parcel (a part) of the five towns the gift was confirmed by William de Meschines of Copeland.

In 1120 or soon after, Ranulfs nephew, the Earl of Chester, was drowned and Ranulf succeeded him. The Earldom of Chester was second only to the Crown in importance and a more attractive barony than Cumberland. Ranulf surrendered his northern possessions to the Crown. Some think that it was now that Henry divided the country into baronies, others that he hesitated to appoint a new overlord, as the great earls were becoming difficult to control, and that the two counties of Westrnaireland and Carliol or Cumberland (from the Solway to the Duddon plus Alston) were formed, with sheriffs directly responsible to the king.

Ranulf asked Henry if his immediate feoffees in the lands he was vacating might become tenants in capite of the Crown. The Sheriff’s return shows that this was done. Waldeof continued to hold the Barony of Allerdale and the Honour of Cockermouth (the five towns), now responsible through the Sheriff to the king as superior lord. The Waver to Wampool area was later separated as the Barony of Wigton, granted to Odard de Logis, but as he had no heir it came back into the Barony of Allerdale.

We now have the following arrangement. William de Meschines as Baron of Copeland, with his residence at Egremont. His title later became Baron of Egremont and his lands which stretched from the southern boundary of the five towns to the Duddon, were referred to as Allerdale-above Derwent. The five towns, now known as the Honour of Cockermouth, and Allerdale-below-Derwent were Waldeof s, with his caput first at Papcastle and then at Cockermouth.

The Saxons had divided society into the ealdremen (governors, hence our ‘aldermen’) next in importance to the king; the thanes, with a property qualification of about 600 acres; the churls (or ceoris, freemen) and villeins (labourers in the service of a particular person, but not strictly slaves), who were under the protection of the thanes and for whom they had to do service. The land was divided into Boc-Iand, which carried a title to it recorded in a deed, and FoIe-land, the land of the folk, either portioned out for a term or held in common. The former, the freehold land, had certain charges for defence, repair of forts and bridges, etc.

The Normans took over this feudal system and strengthened it, retaining many of the Saxon laws and customs. (They probably also took over the Saxon land units as a basis for their baronies.) In 1215 King John invested the grantee of Cockermouth manor with all liberties and free customs, and through the sheriff undertook to maintain and defend his men, things, lands and possessions.

The early inhabitants of Cockermouth were very much under the hand of the castle. The lord of the manor had the power of life and death and the right to a gallows. He also had the right to confiscate for himself the goods and chattels of felons; to assize of bread, and to deodants, that is living and dead things that caused the death of a person.

The chief tenants of the lord repeated much of the structure at a lower level, keeping demesne land to cultivate themselves and letting the rest in return for military service, which they had to provide for their overlord. This was true feudalism.