Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 4.djvu/696

674 APPENDIX H The succession of women to earldoms was discussed at great length in the Earldom of Norfolk case, and Lord Robert Cecil informed the Committee that, as far as his researches went, no earldom had ever been held by a woman, though he admitted that there were " instances where people have been described as Countesses. . . ."(^) It is surprising to find that Coke, to whom Peerage counsel are indebted for most of the Peerage law which they expound, is here forsaken by one of his most faithful disciples. Coke, after his famous comments on the Chester case, to which we shall refer shortly, continues thus: But if an earle that hath this dignity to him and his heires dieth, having issue one daughter, the dignity shall descend to the daughter; for there is no uncertainty, but onely one daughter, and the dignity shall descend unto her and her posterity, as well as any other inheritance. And this appeareth by many precedents, and by a late judgement given in Sampson Leonardos case, who married with Margaret the only sister and heire of Gregory Fines lord Dacre of the South, and in the case of William lord Ros.{^) By the words " this dignity " the author indicates generally the dignity of earl; he cannot be supposed to be limiting his remarks to the Earldom of Chester. We are able to support Coke's statement by evidence, but the little consideration shown in mediaeval times for the exacting demands of a later age makes it difficult to produce many unchallengeable examples of women who were, in the language of to-day, " Countesses in their own right." The fact that women were married in very early youth reduces to a minimum the chances of finding an only and unmarried daughter succeeding to an earldom; and when she was married it was customary to describe her simply as the wife of her husband. Although the chart pedigrees here given show numerous cases of earldoms passing through heiresses, we cannot say in all instances how far the only daughter, or any daughter, or only sister, as the case may be, actually held the earldom which she conveyed to her husband. The fact constantly lost sight of by those who engage in peerage cases is that all that really mattered in the 1 2th and 1 3th centuries was the inheritance of the lands, and that the idea of personal " dignity " was almost unknown. If the estates of the earldom were lost, the name of Earl was lost; witness the cases of Hugh "Pauper," Earl of Bedford,("=) and Robert de Ferrers, Earl of Derby.('*) The husband of an heiress who brought him a great territorial fief had to perform the services which the King demanded of its holder; he stood in the same relation to the King as did his father-in-law, and (*) Speeches, p. 142. (•>) Coke upon Littleton, ib^a (edit. Hargrave and Butler, 1794). It is characteristic of Coke that he should quote as authorities two cases that have nothing to do with the descent of earldoms, and occurred centuries after the period to which his observations relate. {<■) See p. 666. (d) See Chart V.