TheHonour of Lancaster was amedieval Englishhonour (a large feudal lordship containing several different fiefs), located primarily in the north-west of England. It began as the fief granted byWilliam the Conqueror toRoger the Poitevin after the Norman conquest in 1066. This included the lands between theRiver Ribble and theRiver Mersey, as well as the district ofAmounderness, north of the Ribble.[1]
After Roger lost his English lands the honour was given to various members of the royal family and eventually came into the hands ofEdmund Crouchback, who was a son ofKing Henry III. It remained the possession of his heirs until one of them, Henry Bolingbroke, became king of England asHenry IV. Since then the honour has been a possession of the ruling monarch.
Domesday Book, made in 1086, does not say that Roger heldLancaster itself yet, which is listed as part of themanor ofHalton. One entry does imply he had a castle somewhere which has been argued to be eitherClitheroe orPenwortham. It is thought that he began buildingLancaster Castle afterwards.[1] The lands in the north-west of England formed a largely autonomous palatinate, but they were linked to other land holdings as far away asSuffolk, collectively known as the Honour of Lancaster.[2] Roger lost his lands in 1102 when he sided withRobert of Bellême againstHenry I and was subsequently exiled, but the Honour remained intact as a distinct collection of estates.[3]
Henry I gave the Honour to one of his nephews,Stephen of Blois, who later became king after Henry's death.[3] Control of the northern parts of the Honour was disputed during the civil war known asthe Anarchy.[4]Henry II took the Honour, before it passed to Stephen's son,William, in the late 1150s.[5] William's widow held the Honour for a period, before it passed back to the Crown in 1164.[6] In 1189Richard I granted the Honour toPrince John, when the estates were listed as providing a revenue of £200 a year.[6]
By the end of the 12th century, aCounty of Lancaster was increasingly being referred to in thePipe rolls.[6] It later became common to describe parts of the honour as within or without theLyme, to substitute the county border.[7]
Since 1194 the honour had been held by the crown, but in 1267 it was given to Edmund Crouchback, founder of theHouse of Lancaster, the son of Henry III, when he was created the 1stEarl of Lancaster, subsequently becoming part of theDuchy of Lancaster.[8]
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