Honour of Richmond
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The Honour of Richmond was created by Alain Le Roux, son of Eudes, Count of Penthièvre, grandson of Geoffrey I, Duke of Brittany [1].
According to the Honoris Registrum de Richmond: "I, William, surnamed the Bastard, do give and grant to thee, Alan, my nephew, Earl of Bretagne, and thy heirs for ever, all the towns and lands which lately belonged to Earl Edwin, in Yorkshire, with the knights' fees, churches, and other privileges and customs, in as free and honourable a manner as the same Edwin held them. Given at the siege before York."[2][dubious ]
The capital district was originally based in Catraeth, Rheged as the home of King Urien of Gore. British history describes Peter Thompson, who supposedly discovered the tomb of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table under Richmond Castle's crypt. He is said to have found a horn and a poltergeist resulted when lifting Excalibur.[3] When Richmondshire was founded, it revived the ancient British presence of Cumbria. The importance of Brittany, Wales and their colonial connections with the Honour of Richmond in English history is most often not taught in public education. Although territorially English, Richmond is wholly of the Cambro-Breton, rather than Anglo-Norman experience.
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[edit] A Breton colony in Britain
After the Conquest of 1066, Breton Richmond in the Province of York was an important mediaeval hub, of comparable scope to Norman London in the Province of Canterbury. Breton people moved to the honour in a very large migration, after having expelled its locals to the Scottish Marches. The honour originally composed of 440 manors, with over 1,000 soldiers in retinue and comprising about 20% of England owned when the Domesday Book was compiled. Richmondshire and initially Cornwall, became the residence of the ruling houses of Brittany, while such men as Ralph the Staller, Ralph de Guader and the House of Rohan's Baron Zouche were their subordinates in East Anglia. Onomastics reveal that choice Breton birth names in the honour were Alured, Gurwant, Guihomar, Harscoet, Herve, Hoel, Roald and Rualent. The East Anglian surname Brett is from Brittany.[4] Conan IV, Duke of Brittany married Margaret of Huntingdon and consolidated Breton hegemony in the North. John I of England forcibly removed his nephew, Arthur I, Duke of Brittany from the throne of England, after which point, Normandy was seized by Philip II of France and the First Barons' War resulted in England, with Richmond leading the parliamentary forces against John, while Montfort would be held by future dukes of Brittany. Bryan Fitz Alan, Lord Fitz Alan of Bedal was grandson of Northumberland's sheriff, dubbed Guardian and Keeper of Scotland (while working side by side with John of Brittany), by Edward I of England, master of two Yorkshire castles and four Lowland castles during the First Scottish War of Independence. With difficulties arising from the Breton War of Succession, Breton Dukes were placed in such precarious positions as to render them impotent to cater for the needs of Richmond. This required temporary stand-ins for the stewardship of such a vast estate, which normally carried with it the title of earl and accompanying herald. Richmond was the home of John Wycliffe and several Lollard knights, along with supporters of the "Spanish" House of Lancaster. Richmond was also partially Yorkist, significantly affected by the Welsh revolt of Owain Glyndŵr and the de la Poles.
Richmond eventually became a possession de facto of the Tudor dynasty (descended from the earlier line of "earls"), although real estate belonging de jure to the Breton dukes, who eventually could no longer maintain their rightful claim. Henry VII of England was born in modern-day Wales and willed the Richmond honour by Francis II, Duke of Brittany, who thought it pertinent to return England and Wales to native Britons and secure independence for Richmond from Charles VIII of France, which he could not do in his own primary fief of Brittany. The King then built Richmond Palace in Surrey as a grand replacement for the Savoy Palace, which was formerly used by Richmond's stewards. Tudor also replaced the lion on the Royal Arms, with the White Greyhound of Richmond. Henry VIII of England consolidated Richmondshire proper into the Royal Domain upon the elevation of Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset. Richmond was the focal point of the Pilgrimage of Grace and the reason why the Diocese of Chester was most notorious for recusancy, while other areas of the honour (e.g. Welsh Oliver Cromwell in East Anglia), were influenced by native Myles Coverdale. Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, brother-in-law of Lady Jane Grey was himself descended from a Breton knight in the male line and was made lord of Bedale by Elizabeth I of England. The Welsh Marches were then appended to Richmond, which was involved in the Plymouth Council for New England and the economy shifted from textiles in Boston to coal in Newcastle. Richmond simultaneously became connected to Lennox, which was the location of the ancient British capital of the Kingdom of Strathclyde. After the initial reactionary approach by Guy Fawkes, Richmonders such as George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore (founder of Maryland and Avalonia), were mostly Catholic royalists in the English Civil War, but more interested in the Spanish Match and Breton politics of the period. Covenanters installed themselves in Richmondshire as foreign occupiers, before trying to reinstate the Stuarts. After triumphing in the Battle of Culloden, a pele tower was raised in the Borough of Richmond and the dukes became part of Clan Gordon.
[edit] Features
- Earl of Richmond
- Duke of Richmond
- Archdeaconry of Richmond
- Richmond Fee and Shilling
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
Morris, David. The Honour of Richmond: A history of the Lords, Earls & Dukes of Richmond Sessions of York (ISBN 1 85072 240 4)
