Egremont Miscellanea - 4
THE EARLY HISTORY of the BARONY of EGREMONT
Egremont started life as the Administrative centre for the ancient district of Copeland in Cumberland when the first Baron of Egremont chose it as the best place to build his castle on the banks of the River Ehen, that would form a defensive position for his newly granted land holding. This happened early in the 12th century when William II / Henry I started to take serious steps to protect the northern border region from incursions from the inhabitants of the Scottish kingdoms as well as from across the Irish sea. Henry I set up five new Baronies along the border so that the holders could be responsible for protecting this region from the raiders. One of these Baronies was Copeland, otherwise known as Allerdale above Derwent, and which consisted all of the land lying between the River Derwent in the north to the River Duddon in the South.
The name of the town is said to come from the towns Norman origins and was developed from a place named Aigremont, a French town that is found near Poissy in Normandy. This name could be described as the Motte on the river Egre - where Motte is a fortified mound and Egre was the Norman name for the River Ehen.
It was only natural that a town would develop in the shadow of the Castle as it would provide both work as well as protection from any marauders. No one should believe that the various Barons of Egremont actually lived at Castle for any extended periods as they all seemed to hold extensive properties in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. It is possible that minor branches of the Barons family could have been in residence from time to time. The actual administration of Copeland would be left in hands of the Lords Steward & his two Bailiffs. What is beyond doubt is that the Barons would have used the Castle during the summer months as a residence to allow hunting in the huge Forest of Copeland (120,000 acres) for both themselves and their friends.
It is generally accepted that the fourth Baron, Richard de Lucy who died in 1213, was responsible for the layout of the expanding town of Egremont including allocating land for the burgage plots for the citizens of Egremont. The Burgess had certain duties to perform for the Lord for the priveledge of holding this land which included ploughing the lords land one day each year, providing soldiers in times of war, manning & defending the castle. It was also a the duty of each Burgess to build one house on his plot within 12 months of taking possession. There were other plots on the outskirts of the town at Brisco & Ullcoats that, under a second charter, were only to be used for agricultural purposes.
The Barony of Egremont & the castle continued in the de Lucy & de Moulton families until a junior member of the fourth Barons family, Anthony de Lucy, whose family was in residence at Cockermouth, rendered service to King Edward II in 1323 by capturing the then Earl of Carlisle at his castle who was then transferred to the Tower of London. The Earl was considered to be an enemy of the King. For this action the King transferred his support to Anthony's branch of the Moulton / Lucy family and hence the centre of control shifted from Egremont to Cockermouth. So upon the death of Thomas de Moulton, the seventh Baron, Anthony de Lucy became the eighth Baron of Egremont although much of the Egremont land as well as the Castle transferred to the three grand-daughters of Thomas.
The move to control Copeland from Cockermouth was a disaster for the Castle and from that time onwards Egremont Castle went into decline, such that the Percy survey of 1579 described it - "almost ruinated and decayed save some parts of the old walls yet standing, and one chamber now used as the courthouse is in like ruin and decay."
From this time the Castle was only used for Manorial events such as the various Manor Courts. As you would expect Egremont would have been an important market town for the residents of the surrounding area and a Royal Charter was granted by Henry III in 1267 to Thomas de Moulton. This allowed a weekly market on Wednesdays and a three day fair on three days centred on the Nativity of the blessed Mary (7, 8 & 9th September). This fair is carried on today in the form of the annual Egremont Crab fair and the fair appears to have taken that name in about 1775.
Undoubtedly one reason for the positioning of the castle was the local availability of iron ore and, of course, charcoal from the forest. This activity was carried out at Langhorn on Clintz brow along with quarries providing both limestone and sandstone. The high grade haematite ore was mined by open cast techniques and produce small quantities of high grade iron from small forges in quantities sufficient for the castle and the surrounding area. These small scale operations continued from at least Norman times and for the next 500 years.
FOLKLORE AND LEGEND
Originating with Caesar Caine and others
1. A story connected with Egremont Castle is the legend of the 'Horn of Egremont', which was incorporated by William Wordsworth into one of his local poems.
Wordsworth:
" ......... which none could sound,
No one upon the living ground,
Save he who came as rightful heir,
To Egremont's domain and castle fair."
According to local folklore a Horn was hung at the Castle gates during the feudal times. The blast of the horn proclaimed to one and all the advent of the rightful heir had taken possession of the Barony of Egremont along with all its lands.
Sir Eustace de Lucy had to claim "all Egremonts domains and castle fair" by sounding the horn a second time to reclaim his rights from the grasp of his treacherous brother. Sir Eustace along with his brother Hubert had journed to Palestine to join in the Holy Wars of that region. Eustace said to his brother that if he should fall in battle then he must return to Egremont, blow the horn, and claim control of his possessions, so that Egremont would still have a Lucy as its Lord."
Greed persuaded Hubert to hire a gang of cut-throats to capture and then drown his brother in the river Jordan. The gang claimed their reward assuring Hubert that his brother was dead and claimed their reward. As the months & years passed the silence appeared to confirm the worst.
To his castle Hubert sped;
Nothing has he now to dread;
But silent and by stealth he came,
And at an hour which none could name.
but Hubert dared not sound the horn.
O that I could have seen my brother die!
It was a pang that vexed him then,
And oft returned, again, and yet again.
Years passed whilst Huberts life was spent feasting and in revelry, by which it is said, he sought to drown his remorse.
During one such banquet the assembled throng heard a blast of the horn echoing through the castle. Hubert was dumbstruck as everyone present knew that only Sir Eustace could have blown that horn and he must have returned to reclaim his rights. It is said that Hubert fled the County and having wandered the country for many years he finally plucked up courage and returned to Egremont to seek his brothers forgiveness. He then retired to a Monastery [Calder Abbey?] and lived a life of penance for the wicked things that he had done.
NR :A good story but I can find no trace of a Eustace or a Hubert de Lucy connected
with Egremont Castle
2. There is a traditional story of a Lady of the Lucy family, on an evening walk near the castle, being devoured by a wolf. The place is distinguished by a cairn of stone, and by the name of Woful Bank," now known as Wodow Bank, but this is supposed to be no more than an emblematic allusion to the bloody conflicts here during the invasion of the Danes. "The present name of Egremont," says Houseman, "seems derived from its ancient possessors, the Normans, and being changed by a trifling corruption of their language, carries the same meaning, and implies the Mount of Sorrow." The town and ruins of the castle display from many points on the river Ehen and adjacent lands, some pleasing assemblages of the picturesque, and the road from hence to the lake of Ennerdale is easy, and beautifully diversified with the bold and chaste features of nature.
3. On the wedding-day of Margaret, the third daughter of Thomas de Multon, Lord of Egremont Castle, a chase was organised in Copeland Deer Forest. The newly-married pair became separated from the hunting party, and were attacked by wild boars. They had been thrown to the ground and were in imminent danger of death when a hunter, named de Tours, came upon the scene, and effected their rescue. In gratitude for this service, so courageously rendered, Thomas de Multon rewarded the brave hunter with a hide of land (about 120 acres) and also a coat of arms. This incident was the origin of the name "Swineside" (Swine's Hide), an appellation still borne by the ancient homestead, near Ennerdale, which was in the occupation of the Towerson ("Tours-son") family until quite recent years. The story forms the subject of a very ancient and rare poem, which I regret is too lengthy to be reproduced here.
The Towerson coat of arms
A grant of arms, too, give I thee, a couchant stag the crest shall be,
The motto this " Gallant and true." For gallant deed true arm did do.
A blood red shield, with ermined band, shall mark that deed throughout the land;
And not alone the fess ermine But three boars' heads shall there be seen,
That thy descendants of Swineshyde may, generations hence, with pride point
to the arms De Multon gave
NR: the three daughters were:- Joan b:1304, Elizabeth b:1306 and Margaret b:1310
4. William Fitz-Duncan [& Alice de Meschien] had three daughters and a son, the latter, also a William, being heir to vast estates in Yorkshire and in Scotland, in addition to the Egremont Barony - quite a princedom. The object of these great hopes, because of his early and tragic death, he has become known as 'The Boy of Egremont.'
He was in Wharfedale Woods, Yorkshire, accompanied by a greyhound, and attempted to leap the river Wharfe at a point known to-day as "The Strid", where the Wharfe rushes through a narrow passage in the limestone. The hound hung back in the leash, and the boy was thrown into the boiling stream and drowned.
It is said that his mother founded, in his memory, Bolton Abbey, on the banks of the Wharfe. But Bolton Abbey was established years before this event. Doubtless the sorrowing mother bestowed on the Abbey greater adornments and benefactions. Wordsworth has also preserved this story in the poetic form of six verses under the title of - " The Force of Prayer, or, The Founding of Bolton Priory."
5. We have no account of when Egremont Castle ceased to be a residence, the common legend that it was destroyed by Oliver Cromwell being a baseless anachronism, in as much as the place was in a ruinous condition nearly a century before Cromwell's time. In a survey of the estates of the Earl of Northumberland, in the days of Queen Elizabeth, we read, " The castle of Egremont is now all most ruinated and decayed, save that some part of the old stonework, and walls thereof, are yet standing, and one chamber therein, now used for the Court-house, in like ruin and decay."
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BIOGRAPHIES
William Egremont,D.D. is supposed to have been a native of this town. He wrote many learned works, and was suffragan under the Bishop of Lincoln. He died in 1390. Here Suffragan means an assistant or subsidiary Bishop.
For further reading see these local history books:
Discovering Egremont - by E.A.Read 1992 Titus Wilson, Kendal
1000 years of Egremont - by E.A.Read 1999 Titus Wilson, Kendal
The Egremont Heritage - by Egremont Town Council
Nev.Ramsden December 2013