1178 ecclesiastical parishes and districts wholly or in part. It is divided between the dioceses of York. Ripon and Wakefield, with small parts in those of Manchester, Southwell, Durham and Lincoln. York is the seat of the northern archdiocese.
History.—The kingdom of Deira (q.v.), which was afterwards to include the whole of the modern Yorkshire, is first known to us in the 6th century, an Anglian tribe having seized the promontory at the mouth of the Humber, named by the invaders Holderness, followed by the gradual subjugation of the whole district now known as the East Riding. The wolds between Weighton and Flamborough Head were then mere sheep-walks, and the earliest settlements were chiefly confined to the rich valley of the lower Derwent, but the district around Weighton became the Deiran sacred ground, and Goodmanham is said to mark the site of a temple. The area computed in the modern West Riding constituted the British kingdom of Elmet, and at this date presented a desolate and unbroken tract of moorland in the N., in the central parts about Leeds stretched a forest region where the last wolf seen in Yorkshire is said to have been slain by John of Gaunt, while in the S. the forest and fen of Hatfield Chase presented a barrier to invasion broken only by the line of Watling Street, which crossed the Don at Doncaster, the Aire at Castleford and the Wharfe at Tadcaster. The N. continuation of the road from York through Catterick to the Tees opened the way to the fertile plain in the heart of the modern North Riding, the S.E. of which offered an unbroken forest area, later known as the forest of Galtres, which in the middle ages stretched from York N. to Easingwold and Craike and E. to Castle Howard, and as late as the 16th century lay a waste and unfrequented region abounding only in deer. Ella, the first king of Deira, extended his territory N. to the Wear, and his son Edwin completed the conquest of the district which was to become Yorkshire by the subjugation of Elmet, prompted thereto by vengeance on its king, Cerdic, for the murder of his uncle Hereric. Traces of the “burhs” by which Edwin secured his conquests are perhaps visible in the group of earthworks at Barwick and on the site of Cambodunum, but the district long remained scantily populated, and as late as the 17th century deer were said to be as plentiful in Hatfield Chase as “sheep upon a hill,” for Prince Henry in 1609 was asserted to have killed 500 in one day's hunting. The defeat of Edwin at Hatfield in 633 was followed by a succession of struggles between Mercia and Northumbria for the supremacy over Deira, during which the boundaries underwent constant changes. After the Danish conquest of Deira, Guthrum in 875 portioned the district among his followers, under whose lordship the English population were for the most part allowed to retain their lands. Cleveland came under Scandinavian influence, and the division into tithings probably originated about this date, the boundaries being arranged to meet at York, which, as the administrative and commercial centre of the district, rapidly increased in importance, and it has been estimated that in A.D. 1000 it had a population of over 30,000. At the battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 Harold Hardrada, who had seized York, and Earl Tosti were both defeated and slain by Harold of England. The merciless harrying with which the Conqueror punished resistance to his claims is proved by the reiterated entries of waste land in the Domesday Survey, and for many years all the towns between York and Durham lay uninhabited. In 1138 the forces of David of Scotland were defeated near Northallerton in the Battle of the Standard. In the barons' wars of the reign of Henry II. Thirsk and Malgeard Castles, which had been garrisoned against the king by Roger de Mowbray, were captured and demolished. In the harrying of the northern counties by the forces of Robert Bruce in 1318, Northallerton, Boroughbridge, Scarborough and Skipton were reduced to ashes. In 1322, at the battle of Boroughbridge, the rebel barons were defeated by the forces of Edward II. In 1399 Richard II. was murdered in Pontefract Castle. In 1405 Archbishop Scrope and Thomas Mowbray joined in the insurrection against Henry IV., and led the citizens of York to Skipton Moor, where, after a defeat by the earl of Westmorland, the leaders were beheaded under the walls of York. In 1408 the rebel forces of the earl of Northumberland were defeated by Sir Thomas Rokesby, high sheriff of Yorkshire, at Bramham Moor near Tadcaster. In 1453 a skirmish between the Percies and the Nevilles at Stamford Bridge was the opening event in the struggle between the houses of York and Lancaster, in 1460 the duke of York was defeated and slain at Wakefield, in 1461 the Lancastrians were defeated at Towton. The suppression of the monasteries roused deep resentment in Yorkshire, and the inhabitants flocked to join the Pilgrimage of Grace, Skipton Castle being the only place immediately N. of the Humber which remained loyal to the king. On the outbreak of the Civil War of the 17th century, opinion was divided in Yorkshire, the chief parliamentary families being the Fairfaxes and the Hothams, while the Puritan clothing-towns of the West Riding also sided with the parliament. Sir William Savile captured Leeds and Wakefield for the king in 1642, and in 1643 Newcastle, having defeated the Fairfaxes at Adwalton Moor, held all Yorkshire except Hull, which the Hothams, moved by jealousy of the Fairfaxes, had already designed to give up. In 1644, however, the Fairfaxes secured the East and West Ridings, while Cromwell's victory at Marston Moor was followed by the capture of York, and in the next year of Pontefract and Scarborough.
On the redistribution of estates after the Norman Conquest, Alan of Brittany, founder of Richmond Castle, received a vast fief which became the honour of Richmond; Ilbert de Laci was rewarded with lands which afterwards constituted the honour of Pontefract. Earl Harold's estate at Coningsburgh passed to William de Warenne, earl of Surrey, together with Sandal Castle, which on the expiration of the Warenne line in the 14th century was bestowed on Edmund Langley, duke of York. Other great Domesday landholders were William de Percy, founder of the abbey of Whitby; Robert de Bruce, ancestor of the royal line of Scotland, the head of whose fief in Cleveland was transferred in the 12th century from Danby Castle to Skelton; Roger de Bush owned a large tract in S. Yorkshire, of which Tickhill was the head; the archbishop of York enjoyed the great lordship of Sherburn, and Howdenshire was a liberty of the bishop of Durham. Among the great lordships of the middle ages for which Yorkshire was distinguished were: Topcliffe, the honour of the Percies; Thirsk, of the Mowbrays; Tanfield, of the Marmions; Skipton, of the Cliffords; Middleham, of the Fitz-Hughes and Nevilles; Helmsley, of the de Roos; Masham and Bolton, of the Scropes; Sheffield, of the Furnivalls and Talbots; Wakefield, of the duke of York. The Fairfaxes were settled in Yorkshire in the 13th century, and in the 16th century Denton became their chief seat.
The shire court for Yorkshire was held at York, but extensive privileges were enjoyed by the great landholders. In the 13th century Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln, claimed to hold the sheriff's tourn at Bradford and Leeds, his bailiff administered the wapentake of Stainclif in his court at Bacskalf and Slaidburn; and his steward judged cases of felony in his court at Almondbury. The archbishop of York held the sheriff's tourn at Otley, and had his own coroners at York, Hull, Beverley and Ripon. Eudo la Zouche held the sheriff's tourn at Bingley, and Thomas de Furnivall in Hallamshire. The bailiffs of Tickhill Castle also held tourns in place of the sheriff. The bishop of Durham had a court at Hoveden, and the king's bailiffs were excluded from executing their office in his estates of Howdenshire and Allertonshire. The abbot of St Mary's York had his own coroners in the wapentake of Ryedale, and the abbot of Bella Landa in Sutton. The prior of Bradenstoke held a court in his manor of Wales. The archbishop of York, Robert de Ros, and the abbot of St Mary's York judged felonies at their courts in Holderness. The liberty of Ripon (q.v.), city of Ripon, still constitutes a franchise of the archbishops of York.
In the 13th century the diocese of York included in this county the archdeaconry of York, comprising the deaneries of York, Pontefract, Doncaster and Craven; the archdeaconry of Cleveland, comprising the deaneries of Bulmer, Cleveland
