1920 EARLDOM OF CHESTER 53 that on the 26th ' Dominus Comes recepit saysinam de comitatu Cestrie ' at his hands.^ The same spring, the queen, in the absence of the king abroad, commanded homage and fealty to be done,^ and again the Annates are authority that on 17 July 1256 ' Dominus Edwardus Comes ' paid his first visit to Chester, and there took the homage and fealty of the nobles of Cheshire and the men of North Wales. ^ No formal creation of this royal heir as earl of Chester has been recorded. The royal continuity of title to the earldom was broken, though not for long, by the tenure, as earl, of Simon de Montfort. The following are but the bare facts and evidences of the incident. After the royal downfall at Lewes Prince Edward, with the king's consent, was forced to grant the county, castle, and honour to Simon,* and Henry de Montfort took the homage and fealty of the men of Cheshire on behalf of his father on 4 January 1264/5.^ The agreement of 8 March 1264/5 between the king, Prince Edward, and the earl provided for the transfer to the latter of the castle, city, and county of Chester with all appurtenances, in exchange for lands elsewhere in England,^ and a formal grant which included the county, castle, and honour of Chester and the castle and honour of the Peak (all which, according to the document, the prince had restored to the king) was issued on 20 March 1264/5.' Simon was killed on 4 August 1265, all his honours were forfeited, and the council of magnates held his lands at the king's disposal.^ Chester was surrendered to the prince by Lucas de Taney, Simon's justiciar, on 13 August,^ and we find the prince on 27 August confirming for himself and his heirs of Cheshire the charter of liberties by Ranulph de Blundeville to his ' barons ^^ We have foimd no signs of a re-grant to him, so the grant to Simon must have been treated as annulled by his felony and the gift to the prince thus revived. R. Stewart-Brown. » Annales Cest. pp. 68, 128. ' Cal. of Pat. Rolls, 8 April and 29 May 1254.
- Annales Cest. p. 72.
- Cal. of Pat. Rolls, 24 December 1264. This recites the grant, but is merely an order
to the tenants to be intendent to the new earl.
- Annales Cest., p. 90. • Foedera (1816), i. 453. 94.
' Cals. of Charter and Pat. Rolls and Foedera, i. 454.
- Cal. of Charter Rolls, 1265, passim. * Annales Cest., p. 94.
" Ormerod, loc. cit., i. 55, and references ante, n. 2, p. 32. It does not seem to have been noticed by any writers on Cheshire that the prince had formally recognized the privileges of the palatinate at an earlier date. On 4 November 1258 he issued letters patent to his justiciar commanding him to allow the religiosi, ' barons ', knights, and others of the county the liberties and customs enjoyed in the time of Earl Ranulph. These letters were inspected and confirmed by Edward, as king, at York on 1 3 June 1300, the day after his inspex. there of the charters of the citizens of Chester {Cal. of Charter Rolls, 12 June 1300), and only a short time after his inspex. (Cal. of Pat. Rdls, 30 March 1300) of Ranulph's charter of c. 1216 and the prince's confirmation thereof of 27 August 1265. The inspex. of 13 June 1300 is not on the Charter or the Patent Roll. We take the documents from Abbrev. Plac. p. 307, where they were put forward by the
