LORDS OF THE MANOR

SOME NOTABLE LORDS OF THE MANOR OF LOUGHBOROUGH:
Although it is often thought that the Manorial system was a Norman imposition on Britain, something very like it had been well established here since as far back as the 6th century. The Saxon forms of communal organisation were based on groupings of households. One hundred of these formed a district called (unsurprisingly!) a Hundred and several Hundreds were known as a Shire.

Far from imposing a new system, the Normans left the British system pretty much as they found it, consolidating and developing it along continental lines. In practice, the Normans converted the Saxon local unit into a Manor, under the control of a single Lord to whom the people owed service and from whom they could expect protection. The Lord of the Manor thus became in practical terms the ruler of his own small state. Legally, however, all land was in fact the property of the King and the manor Lords Royal Tenants. They were at liberty to sub-let to other tenants, as most did but at the end of the day, the King owned the lot!

THE EARLS OF CHESTER:
Immediately after the Norman Conquest of 1066, the Manor of LOUGHBOROUGH was given by the new King to his nephew, HUGH LUPUS (HUGH THE WOLF) OF AVRACHES, EARL OF CHESTER and nephew of WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. EARL HUGH was remarkable for three main characteristics - his huge wealth, his ferocity in battle - and his enormous weight! It was this last feature which gave rise to the name given to him by the rebellious Welsh: HUGH VRAS, or Hugh the Fat. The Welsh had good reason to dislike LUPUS as it was he and the Earl Of Salop who spearheaded the repeated subjugation of their forces in the reigns of WILLIAM I and WILLIAM II ("RUFUS").

It is very unlikely that the Earl ever set foot in LOUGHBOROUGH. He died in 1102 and was succeeded by his son, RICHARD, SECOND EARL OF CHESTER, who survived him by only eight years before drowning along with his wife, the daughter of Stephen of Blois.

The fifth Earl, HUGH CEVELIOC, fought against KING HENRY II in the rebellion of 1172-3, siding with the King's sons. He was taken prisoner in Britanny but was freed again in 1174 and restored to his lands and titles in 1177.

The sixth Earl was RANULPH DE BLONDEVILLE who achieved fame by commanding the forces of the young KING HENRY III during the Barons' Wars. On May 20th, 1217, the day after he retook the throne, HENRY III commanded DE BLONDEVILLE to destroy MOUNTSORREL CASTLE, which he described "a nest of the Devil and a den of robbers and thieves".

When RANULPH died childless, the Earldom of Chester was annexed by the Crown and the estates divided. The Lordship of LOUGHBOROUGH then passed to the DESPENSER family.

THE DESPENSERS
First of the family to hold the title was HUGH DESPENSER, who was probably already the "Lord in Residence" under the Earls of Chester. HUGH was clearly very much in royal favour, as records show that when he fell ill in 1237, the King sent him one of his own physicians with orders to remain with him until HUGH had recovered. Unfortunately, despite such favour, HUGH died in 1238.

His son was also called HUGH and resembled his father in his rapid rise in the established order. On the nomination of the Barons, he was appointed JUSTICIAR OF ENGLAND in 1260 but was removed from office by the King the next year. However, the Barons refused to accept this treatment of their nominee and re-appointed him in 1263. For good measure, they also made him Constable of the Tower of London. HUGH returned these favours from the Barons by fighting for them against the increasingly unpopular government of KING HENRY III. He fought in the Battle of Lewes in 1264 and was killed with his friend SIMON DE MONTFORT in 1265 at the Battle of Evesham. All the family estates were seized by the Crown because of HUGH's treason, with the exception of the Manors of Hugglescote, Freeby and LOUGHBOROUGH. These were granted to his widow for her lifetime "out of the love the King bare her father".

On her death in 1281, the estates were restored to her son, also called HUGH and her grandson, yet again called HUGH! These were the infamous favourites of KING EDWARD II - "the Older and Younger Despensers". In 1232, the King had granted them the Estates at BEAUMANOR and HUGH the father usually lived there when in the County. The DESPENSERS also owned a portion of CHARNWOOD FOREST where their family had established LOUGHBOROUGH DEER PARK in 1229. (The OUTWOODS is all that survives of this park today).

The DESPENSERS' favouring of the King - and their undoubted arrogance - incurred the fierce hatred of the other Barons who set about plundering the DESPENSER estates and burning their houses. Fifty-four manors in fifteen counties were pillaged in this way but there are no details of what happened to LOUGHBOROUGH and BEAUMANOR. Presumably they suffered along with the rest. Ignoring demands from the Barons for the DESPENSERS to be banished, KING EDWARD II created HUGH the elder EARL OF WINCHESTER in 1322. HUGH the younger supported the King against Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer. Hardly surprising since, as is now generally acknowledged, he and the young King were almost certainly lovers.

When the King fled to Wales in 1326, the Elder DESPENSER was sent to defend Winchester. However he was eventually forced to surrender to the Barons and was sentenced to be drawn on a hurdle to a place of execution and hanged. The younger DESPENSER was captured just a month later and hanged on a fifty foot high gibbet while KING EDWARD II himself was murdered in Berkely Castle.

THE BEAUMONTS:
The new King - EDWARD III - seized the DESPENSER family estates for the Crown, including the Manor of LOUGHBOROUGH, or "Lughteburg" as it was then known. In 1327 he gave it to one of his mother, QUEEN ISABELLA's, greatest supporters - HENRY, LORD BEAUMONT. The BEAUMONTS had come to England in the reign of KING EDWARD I, who made HENRY Constable of Roxburgh Castle and King of the Isle of Man.

Shortly after the fall of the DESPENSERS, however, BEAUMONT was implicated in a conspiracy against QUEEN ISABELLA and banished from the country. LOUGHBOROUGH was then entrusted to the charge of JOHN DE INSULA. But in 1330 BEAUMONT's estates, including LOUGHBOROUGH, were returned "because he (the King) deems HENRY to be guiltless of the trespasses and excesses for which the King had caused them to be taken into his hand".

BEAUMONT now decided to lease out the Manors of LOUGHBOROUGH and WHITWICK for twelve years to REYNER PETRINI and the merchants of the Society of the Peruchi of Florence, a transaction later confirmed by royal charter. At this time BEAUMONT himself was living at Whitwick but moved to the DESPENSERS' old home at BEAUMANOR in 1332. For many years afterwards, this estate was known as "Beaumond Park". HENRY soon found himself in danger again when he was captured at Dundarg Castle while taking part in the invasion of Scotland. His release was only secured on the payment of a large ransom by the King.

HENRY died in 1340 and was succeeded by his son, John. John survived his father by only two years and the Manor passed to a second HENRY. He died in 1370 and was suceeded by JOHN BEAUMONT who continued the family tradition of warfare and loyalty to the Crown. He fought in one of the Papal Wars and in John of Gaunt's expedition to recover the kingdom of Castile. He was appointed Admiral of the Northern Fleet and Warden of the Border Marches in 1389 and, two years later, helped negotiate the marriage of KING RICHARD II to ISABELLA OF FRANCE. All clear indications that the time he actually spent in LOUGHBOROUGH was minimal at best!

HENRY BEAUMONT succeeded JOHN in 1397 and was himself succeeded by another JOHN in 1415. He became High Constable of England and was created the first VISCOUNT BEAUMONT by KING HENRY VI, giving him "place in the Parliament house next after the Earls and next before the Barons".

The BEAUMONTS took the side of the Lancastrians in the Wars of the Roses, the second Viscount falling at the Battle of Northampton in 1460. His son, WILLIAM, was taken prisoner at the Battle of Towton a year later and all his lands, including LOUGHBOROUGH and 99 other Manors, were forfeited to the Crown. The town's Lordship was about to move on again.

HASTINGS vs GREY:
SIR WILLIAM HASTINGS had been knighted on the field of the same Battle of Towton where WILLIAM BEAUMONT had been arrested. He was a great favourite of KING EDWARD IV, to whom he was Chamberlain and who later created him BARON HASTINGS. In 1464 he was granted a large part of the BEAUMONT estates, including LOUGHBOROUGH, "in consideration of his signal adventures in sundry battles against KING HENRY VI and his party".

But WILLIAM's period of favour was short lived. On the death of KING EDWARD IV in 1483, he was swiftly arrested and beheaded by the new King, RICHARD III. Once more, LOUGHBOROUGH was taken back by the Crown. It was not until 1485 and the succession of yet another King - HENRY VII - that BEAUMONT was able to petition for the return of his lands. The petition was granted but this time it was ill health that interevened when, two years later, BEAUMONT seems to have lost his reason, being declared "not of sadness nor discretion neither" unable "to rule and keep himself nor his said livelihood". His estates and, in 1495, he himself were entrusted to the care of the EARL OF OXFORD in which state he died in 1507. His widow went on to Marry the EARL OF OXFORD and held LOUGHBOROUGH as part of her dower until she herself died in 1537.

In 1527, KING HENRY VIII had decided that, on the death of HENRY BEAUMONT's widow, the Manor of LOUGHBOROUGH would pass to THOMAS GREY, MARQUIS OF DORSET. However, GREY died in 1530, seven years before the Countess and the estate eventually passed to GREY's widow but the family did not have it for long. In 1554 HENRY, DUKE OF SUFFOLK, father of the ill-fated LADY JANE GREY was executed for his part in the Wyatt Rebelion against QUEEN MARY I. In time honoured royal fashion, the Queen gave the GREY estates to one of her most loyal followers, SIR EDWARD HASTINGS, son of the first Earl of Huntingdon. LOUGHBOROUGH had moved on again.

THE HASTINGS FAMILY:
The HASTINGS family descended from ROBERT DE HASTINGS, the principal magistrate of the town of Hastings and Steward to KING WILLIAM I. SIR EDWARD the second Earl, who now held the Manor of LOUGHBOROUGH was Lord Chamberlain of the Household of QUEEN MARY I. She had made him a Knight of the Garter and in 1558 created him BARON LOUGHBOROUGH "in consideration of his great fidelity, valour and other virtues". He was the first Lord of the Manor to actually live in LOUGHBOROUGH, at the MANOR HOUSE opposite the parish church in SPARROW HILL. He died in 1572 when, his estates - yet again - reverted to the Crown. His support for her Catholic predecessor had not made him very popular with the new, Protestant QUEEN ELIZABETH I but she at least waited until his death before seizing his property - and she kept it in the family. In 1575, she granted the estates to HENRY, third Earl of Huntingdon who was as zealous a Puritan as his late uncle had been a Catholic. The Queen showered honours on him, creating him President of the North and Master of the Queen's Hart Hounds and also apponting him one of the Peers who sat in judgement on MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS in 1586.

On his death in 1595, the estates were inherited by GEORGE, FOURTH EARL OF HUNTINGDON who was already a resident of the LOUGHBOROUGH MANOR HOUSE. He had been elected Member of Parliament for Leicestershire in 1586 and shortly after coming into his inheritance he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire and Rutland. Part of his responsibilities was to raise local forces to fight in the Queen's Wars and to supress rebellion. His high position continued under KING JAMES I, who confirmed him as Lord Lieutenant and appointed him "Chief Forester of Leicester Forest" and "Steward and Receiver of the Conty of Leicester".

MOIRAS, DENNINGS, CRADOCKS - AND US!
GEORGE died in 1604, after which the Manor of LOUGHBOROUGH continued to pass down the male line of the family until the death of FRANCIS, the tenth Earl of Huntingdon in 1789. The estates were now inherited by his sister, ELIZABETH, who was married to the Irish Peer JOHN RAWDON, EARL OF MOIRA. On her death in 1808, the estates passed to her son FRANCIS RAWDON, EARL OF MOIRA. He was a professional soldier who became Governor General and Commander in Chief of India, as a reward for which he was created VISCOUNT LOUDON and the MARQUIS OF HASTINGS, thus continuing the HASTINGS connection with LOUGHBOROUGH.

When his mother died, MOIRA gained an Act of Parliament allowing him to exchange his estates in England - including LOUGHBOROUGH - for parts of estates in Scotland which belonged to his wife, the COUNTES OF LOUDON. The result of this was a that his holdings in LOUGHBOROUGH were put up for sale by auction at the BULL'S HEAD INN. This first sale takes four days, during which time 252 lots are sold, including 29 public houses, agricultural land and buildings in almost every street in the town.

The Manorial Rights themselves were sold of in 1818 to THOMAS DENNING, a merchant tailor from London who settled in LOUGHBOROUGH due to his fondness for hunting. He died in 1845, leaving the Manorial Rights to a friend of his: THOMAS CRADOCK, a solicitor with offices in Sparrow Hill. He was descended from the old Leicestershire CRADOCKE family who were living in LOUGHBOROUGH from the time of HENRY VII. He lived at QUORN COURT on that village's High Street, a former hunting lodge and now luxury flats. On his death in 1863, the Manorial Rights passed to his solicitor son, JOHN DAVYS CRADOCK. His decision, in 1880, to sell the rights to the LOCAL BOARD brought to an end over a thousand years of the MANOR OF LOUGHBOROUGH and effectively made every resident Lord over themselves!