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THE CASTLE OF ARUNDEL,

Sussex,

PRINCIPAL SEAT OF HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF NORFOLK, R. G.

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THE Castle of Arundel enjoys a twofold celebrity, in its great antiquity

sessor.

and in its peculiar privilege of conferring the title of Earl on its posThe former reverts to a period much anterior to the conquest; the latter was hereditary in the eleventh century, and confirmed by Act of Parliament in the sixth year of the reign of Henry the Sixth. But its chief and enduring interest is derived from the long list of warriors and statesmen whose names are identified with the place; and whose deeds, during the lapse of eight centuries, have shed lustre on the national history.

The earliest recorded notice of Arundel occurs in the will of the Great

Alfred*, in which he bequeaths it, along with other lordships, to his brother's son Athelm. It is described in that document+ as a manor, but without any specific distinction in its privileges from those of Aldingbourn, Compton, and Beeding, with which it is associated; and to Godwin and his son Harold, who were successively earls of Sussext, it passed, in all probability, in the same form. It was not till the overthrow of the Saxon dynasty ||, however, that Arundel assumes a prominent station in history as a native fortress of strength and importance§. Among the train of warlike barons who attended the Norman in his successful expedition to our coast, was Roger de Monte 1066 Gomerico, or Montgomery, nearly related to the Conqueror by blood, and 1070. possessing extensive territories in Normandy¶. At the battle of Hastings, which placed the British crown on the head of William, Montgomery led the

centre division of the army**, and contributed to the victory. In return for this important service, and to bind him more firmly to his interests, the Conqueror four years afterwards bestowed upon him the two comtés, or earldoms, of Shrewsbury and Arundel††. Of the six rapes‡‡ into which Sussex is divided, two, comprising Chichester and Arundel, and calculated to contain eighty-four knights' fees §§ and a half, were set apart to form the honour of Arundel. Of this and his other princely territories, Montgomery retained possession during a period of twenty years; and the ample revenues which they produced enabled him to support that dignity, splendour, and host of retainers which bespoke the rank of one of the great vassals of the crown. a man, according to Orderic¶¶, of exemplary prudence and moderation; a great lover of equity, and of discreet and modest persons. When he

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LARCHER.

* Asser de Elfred. rebus. gestis, fol. 23.; Athelmo ver fratris mei filio, &c.-Appendix to this vol. p. 331.

+ Ibid.-Camden, 308. 230. See the original in Append. to this volume, p. 331.

Ingulph. folio 510.-Hardyng, p. 229-Simeon Dunelmensis, 184.-Hovedon, fol. 254.

|| Caraccioli, p. 5.-Dallaway.-Archit. in England.-Forty-nine Castles are enumerated in Domesday Book, that of Arundel only, as existing in the reigns of Edward the Confessor, p. 269. The Castle of Arundel dates perhaps its true origin from that monarch, King Alfred.-p. 316.

§ Camden, 229-30. Fama vero tota est ex Castro, quod Saxonico imperio flouit. See Append. p. 331.

¶ Wilhelm. Gemitens, f. 686. Ingentes possessiones habuit in diversis regionibus Normanniæ.

He was

**Dugd. Bar. 1. 26.-Camden, p. 86. "Normanni." Primam Normannorum aciem ducebant Rogerus Montegomericus et Guil. Fitzosberne.

++ Ord. Vitalis De Gul. primo. Excerp. p. 208-254. A Wilhelmo rege Anglorum Comitatus Arundelliæ, et Salopesberiæ dono accepit.

Ao. Dni. 1071. Rogerus de Montegomerici, Comes Arundel, fuit pacificè seizit', &c. Inprimis de Castro Arundell, forest' Warren' hundr' et aliis libert' spec. tant' ad Honorem Castri, &c. Tierney, 1. 14.

Dallaway's Rape of Arundel.-Hist of Sussex §§ Estimated at 57.460 acres. Hist. of Arundel. p. 21.

Honour, in this sense, means a superior Seignory to which other lordships and manors owe suit and service, and which itself holds only of the Sovereign.-Feudal Syst.

¶¶ Orderic, 522.-Excerpt. p. 254.-App. 332.

CASTLE.]

MONTGOMERY-ALBINI-HENRY-MATILDA.

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perceived his end approaching, the attachment which he had always felt for a religious life induced him to solicit admission to the Abbey of Shrewsbury, which he had founded; and there, three days after he had assumed the monastic habit*, he expired in the month of July, 1094. Of his family, consisting of five sons and four daughters, an account will be found in the Appendix. On the death of Roger Montgomery, his English possessions descended by will to Hugh, his younger son, whose life, like that of his brother Robert, was spent in wars of retaliation and aggression; seconding the enterprises of the turbulent nobles of his period; alternately opposing, and punished by, the (king. When an attempt was made upon the island of Anglesea by the king of Norway+, Hugh made all haste to give him a warm reception; but although the enemy was put to flight, one of his arrows taking effect upon the Earl of Arundel ‡, entered at the eye, and passing through the brain, struck him dead from his horse. He was buried in Shrewsbury. From Hugh the earldom passed to his elder brother Robert, Comte of Belesme, in La Perche, on payment of a fine to the king of three thousand pounds-an immense sum at that period. But on the revolt of the latter, when his possessions were forfeited to King Henry the First, the honour and castle of Arundel were resumed as property of the Crown.

1098

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By Henry they were settled in dower upon his second queen, Adeliza, daughter of Godfrey, Duke of Lorraine, who on the death of the king con

veyed them by a second marriage to William de Albini, lord of Buckenham in Norfolk, of whose descendants we shall make more deliberate mention hereafter. When the Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry the First, and mother of Henry the Second, landed in England in 1139, to assert her claims against the usurper Stephen, she was received, as will hereafter be noticed, at Arundel, and lodged with her retinue in the castle-an event which served greatly to advance and establish the fortunes of Albini. For the news of her landing having alarmed the Usurper, he drew his forces immediately under the walls, and laid close siege to the castle. Albini, however, not only preserved his royal guest from violence, but, by good generalship or caution, secured for her a safe-conduct to Bristol, from which she took shipping and returned to the Continent.

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* Order. Vitalis, 708. monachile scema devotus suscepit, etc.-v. also Dugd. Bar. i, 28.

Polyd. Virgil. f. 173.-Hovedon, f. 268.-Speed, 445.-Grafton, i. 177.-Tierney, i. 158.-Append.

+ Girald. Cambrens. Itinerar. p. 194.-Dugd. Bar. to this Volume, p. 332.

VOL I.

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On the accession of her son, Henry the Second, this and other faithful services were not forgotten by the sovereign, who, to testify the sense in which he viewed Albini's devotion to his cause, confirmed to him and to his heirs for ever the honour and castle of Arundel*, He died in 1176, and William, his son and successor, in 1196.

William de Albíní, the third in regular descent who enjoyed the earldom of Arundel, is well known in history as one of the barons who signed the Magna Charta, and otherwise evinced himself one of the most talented and enterprising men of his day. Having died on his way home through Italy in 1221, he was succeeded by his son William, the fourth earl, who dying early, without issue, was succeeded by his brother, Hugh de Albini, the last of the race. Hugh died in 1243, leaving four sisters, or their representatives, as his co-heirs, amongst whom, under a special commission from the Crown, his manorial estates were divided. Of these four sisters, the second, Isabel, had married Fitzalan of Oswaldestre; and to her son John Fitzalan, as nephew to the late Earl Hugh, the castle of Arundel and all its appurtenances descended by inheritance. This was the beginning of a new line of Earls-the Fitzalans of Arundel, six of whom in succession held that distinguished rank in the state. The Fitzalan Family, like those of Montgomery and Albini, was of Norman origin, and descended from Alan, the son of Fleald, who attended the Conqueror at the battle of Hastings, and received, amongst other spoils of the vanquished, the castle of Madoc-ap-Meredith in Wales, with the lordship of Oswaldestre in Salop. His wife was a daughter of Warren-theBald, sheriff of Shropshire, and consequently grand-niece of Roger Montgomery. By her he had two sons; William, who, adopting his patronymic, was called Fitz-Alan; and Walter, who, pursuing his fortunes in Scotland and being appointed by King David grand-steward of the kingdom, became the progenitor of the royal family of Stuartt. William Fitzalan, the elder brother, married Ellen, daughter of William Peverel, and niece of Robert, Earl of Gloucester, and with her obtained a large accession of property in Bretagne. He defended Shrewsbury against Stephen, fought with the Empress Matilda at Winchester, and at the accession of Henry the Second was appointed sheriff of Shropshire. At his death he left an only son, William, whose marriage with Isabel,

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daughter and heiress of Ingelram-de-Say, added the extensive lordship of Clun to the patrimonial possessions of the family; when the titles of Clun and Oswaldestre were first united, and continue in the Howard family to the present day. After the death of William, the first lord of these honours, his son and successor survived him only five years, and leaving no issue, the property devolved on his brother, John Fitzalan, who, in concert with the Barons, opposed the tyrannical measures of the king, and was appointed by Henry the Third one of the Lords Marchers in Wales. At his death he was succeeded by his only son, the subject of this notice, and first of his family who was Earl of Arundel.

On two occasions, however, the family honours and property were alienated by attainder, and given in the first instance to Edmund, Earl of Kent; and in the latter to Holland, Duke of Exeter. This took place in the persons of Edmund the third, and Richard the fifth earl; but in both cases their sons were restored to that station and inheritance which their own political offences had forfeited.

1415.

the sixth

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Thomas, the sixth earl of the Fitzalan line, dying without issue, left three sisters as his co-heirs. But his grandfather, Richard, in order to prevent the further division of the honour, had entailed it first upon his Countess for the term of her natural life; and then on the heirs male of his own body, by the said Countess Alianor, with remainders over. In pursuance of this arrangement, therefore, the castle and estates of Arundel passed, on the demise of Earl Thomas, to his second-cousin, John Fitzalan, Lord Maltravers, from whom it again descended through a succession of seven earls of the united families of Fitzalan and Maltravers-many of them highly distinguished, and terminated in Henry, the twenty-second Earl of Arundel.

Henry's only son, a youth of splendid accomplishments, had died at Brussels; and of his two daughters, Joan, the elder, was married to Lord Lumley; and Mary to Thomas Howard, fourth Duke of Norfolk. But the latter, having died after giving birth to a son, Philip Howard; and the other, Lady Lumley, having been married twenty years without issue; a fine was levied in 1570, by which the earl, ten years previous to his death, entailed the castle and honour of Arundel, with a numerous list of parks, forests, lands, estates, &c., upon Lord Lumley and Joan, his wife, for the term of their separate lives, remainder to the lawful heirs of the said Joan, remainder to Philip, son of Mary, Duchess of Norfolk, and his heirs.*

1581.

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Philip, first of the Ducal House of Howard invested with the title of Earl of Arundel, continued in the enjoyment of his honours only during the short period of eight years, when, as will hereafter appear, he was attainted in 1589, and his estates forfeited to the crown.

Fifteen years later, however,

• Men Howard Family-Descent of the Earldom, in Tierney's Hist. and Antiq. of Arundel, vol. i.

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