The King visited Lancaster earlier this month for a ceremony at Lancaster Castle that involved him being ceremonially presented with the keys to the castle, as part of his role as the Duke of Lancaster. As such, I thought it might be interesting to explore a little of the history of this land I call home, how it has been passed back and forth between various lords, kings, queens, and even different kingdoms over the centuries. Buckle in, it’s about to get nerdy…

The title of the Duke of Lancaster has been held by the monarch since the accession (or usurpation, depending on whether you’re a Yorkist or not) of Henry IV in 1399. But the history of the Duchy of Lancaster does not start there…

• Part of the Kingdom of Northumbria: <11th Century
• The Honour of Lancaster: c.1066 – 1265
• The Earldom of Lancaster: 1265 – 1351
• The Dukedom of Lancaster (not held by the crown): 1362 – 1399
• The Dukedom of Lancaster (part of the Crown Estates): 1399 – Present

Prior to 1066

Lancaster, as the name suggests, gained it’s name when it was a Roman settlement: Lancaster – the “caster” comes from castor/castrum, meaning fort/military settlement; Lan is probably a Celtic derivative of “Lune” for the river on which the city sits. So the name literally means “fort on the River Lune.” The Roman’s weren’t the first to settle here, and there is evidence of human activity in the area back to the Bronze Age.

Following the collapse of Roman rule in Britain at the beginning of the 5th century AD, and into the Anglo-Saxon period, the area that would become Lancashire was a pretty lawless and wild place. It was nominally part of the Kingdom of Northumbria and the Danelaw, but generally not mentioned all that much – even though the vikings clearly came this way, as attested by the discovery of the magnificent Silverdale Hoard in 2011, which contained more than two-hundred items of silver jewellery and coinage. One of the most interesting things about the coins discovered, is that one bears the name and image of a “King” that has not appeared on any other coinage or documentation, so his reign was clearly extremely short, and he didn’t have much of a chance to make an impression elsewhere. The Hoard is currently on display at Jorvik museum in York.

Most people who lived in the “Lancashire” area at this time would have lived in small hamlets, subsisting or living a fairly modest existence on the edge of the wilds.

1066 – 1265

Following the Norman Conquest of 1066, England was divided into more manageable parcels of land and distributed, predominately, to William the Conqueror’s Norman supporters. The general area that would become the Duchy of Lancaster was given to Roger the Poitevin, a powerful Norman Lord who owned lands in England and in Northern France. Whilst his lands didn’t explicitly contain what is now Lancaster (it is supposed that this was part of the Manor of Halton), he was gifted everything between the River Mersey and the River Ribble. After 1091 he began to style himself “1st Lord of Bowland” and in 1092 he added all the lands south of the River Lune to his already substantial holdings. Anything north of the River Lune was part of the highly contested area of Cumberland, the borderlands with the Kingdom of Scotland, and probably not worth the military effort it would have taken to hold them with much profitability. Roger later rebelled against the (third) son of William, Henry I, and forfeited his title, but the lands remained intact as a distinct entity.

Following Roger’s involvement in rebellion, Henry I passed the lands to his nephew, Stephen of Blois, who later became Stephen I. The lands were disputed during The Anarchy.

Side note: The Anarchy was a protracted Civil War in England between the forces of Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I, and his nephew Stephen of Blois/Stephen I. As such, it always irritates me when people refer to the civil war of the 17th Century as “The English Civil War” – WHICH ONE?! There have been many civil wars in English History, even if we leave out the inter-border raiding that went on between Mercia/Wessex/Northumbria/East Anglia etc. prior to 1066. Even if we limit “Civil War” to lengthy scraps that many people across society and the kingdom were caught up in (not just a Baron rebelling against the King or attacking another Baron), then there have still be at least three “Civil Wars” in England since 1066 – The Anarchy, The Wars of the Roses, and the Civil War of the 17th Century. I’m sure many historians other than myself would argue for the inclusion of other conflicts including those lead by Simon de Montfort, Roger Mortimer etc. etc. But yeah, long story short, we’ve had a lot more than one Civil War. /rant over.

During The Anarchy, the area was even part of the Kingdom of Scotland for a brief period in the late 1130s, after deep raids by King David of Scotland got as far as Clitheroe, but eventually the lands passed to Stephen’s son William, in the 1150s. Following the death of William and his widow, it passed back to the English crown, before being awarded by Richard the Lionheart to his brother Prince John in 1189 (the year of Richard’s accession). As John later became King, the honour itself was subsumed by the crown, but retained its own separate identity.

1265 – 1351

Lancashire was regifted out of (direct) royal hands in 1267 when Henry III created the Earldom of Lancaster (a step above the Barony it had been before) and gave it to his son Edmund Crouchback, following the defeat of the previous owner of the some of lands (but not the title) Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. It had only been in 1266 that the actual “honour, county, town, and castle of Lancaster” were added to the lands previously forfeited, formalising the outline of the Earldom, before being given to Crouchback. This is where it might get a bit complicated because, as I understand it, some of the lands in what we now call Lancashire and Greater Manchester (historical county of Lancashire) belonged to Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster, whilst other parcels in the area – including Rochdale, Bury, Halton, Clitheroe, and Penwortham were held by the Earl of Lincoln, Henry de Lacy. *Deep breath* Edmund’s son, Thomas, married Alice, the daughter of the Earl of Lincoln, so following that Earl’s death in 1311, all of the previously mentioned lands passed to Thomas, who was by now 2nd Earl of Lancaster. Basically, there was plenty of politicking going on, along with some convenient marrying, to ensure the lands ended up being consolidated into a nice group. Lovely.

Thomas, however, wasn’t that great at holding onto his lands (or his head), and following his involvement in the Baron’s Rebellion (see what I mean about there being civil unrest all over the place?) against King Edward II, he was executed and his lands were forfeit. For a brief interlude the Earldom lay vacant, before a petition in 1327 restored the Earldom of Lancaster to Thomas’ younger brother Henry. In the following unrest against Roger Mortimer, Earl Henry chose the right side, and helped his pal Edward III oust the pretender, allowing the King to cast off his regency and start his majority rule. Ed was probably pretty happy with him, so Henry was secure in his Earldom. So far, so complicated.

Following Henry’s death in 1345 (he spent the last fifteen years of his life blind and infirm, poor guy), the Earldom passed to his son… another Henry (they weren’t overly imaginative when it came to naming people, great for people with bad memories, terrible for historians). This Henry, however, was one of Edward III’s closest friends and allies, even offering to hostage himself in the Low Countries as a surety against Edward’s substantial debts. Henry ended up paying his ransom himself, before leading part of the three-pronged attack into France in the mid-1340s. He was a commander in the Battle of Auberoche, which led to him taking prisoners that he was able to ransom for more than £50,000, a phenomenal sum of money in the 1340s, and probably more than making up for the earlier money he had to pay to ransom himself in the Low Countries.

Following this triumph, the rewards began rolling in, Henry was made a founding knight of the Order of the Garter, and he was created Duke of Lancaster. There had only been one other Dukedom before Lancaster, that of Cornwall, and as such was a fairly novel part of the structure of the kingdom. This differentiation from an Earldom meant that the Dukedom enjoyed an administration separate to the crown (called a palatine), so was able to… pretty much… run itself under the Duke.

1361 – 1399

Henry died in 1361 after the re-emergence of the Black Death, which had been ravaging Europe in waves since the initial outbreak in the mid-1340s. The titles were left vacant for more than a year following Henry’s death without male issue. In 1362, after the death of his eldest daughter (Maud), also without a male heir, the lands passed to his second daughter, Blanche (but not the title, as that could only be inherited by a male), who by this time was married to the third son of Edward III, John of Gaunt. Her father’s titles, including the Dukedom of Lancaster, were bestowed by royal charter to John and heirs male of his body in perpetuity.

It was because of this that the title passed to Henry Bolingbroke, son of John of Gaunt, who in 1399, after overthrowing his cousin Richard II, became Henry IV, thus subsuming the Dukedom of Lancaster into part of the Royal Estate.