4jO Constzltutional History. [chap.
MarqHeeees. margrave of Jülich earl of Cambridge ; Sigismund, the brother
of Anne of Bohemia, queen of Richard II, was margrave of
Brandenburg. Richard made Robert de Vere marquess of
Dublin1, and, undeterred by the fate of the first who bore
the title, he, in 1397, created John Beaufort marquess of
Dorset. Havingin 1399 shared the degradation of the dukes
created by Richard on the same occasion, John Beaufort, in
1402, declined to be restored to his marquessate on the
ground that it was a strange title, unfamiliar and unwelcome
to English ears2; it was however revived in favour of his
son Edmund, who was made marquess of Dorset in 1443 ;
William de la Pole was made marquess of Suffolk in 1444;
Edward IV made John Neville marquess of Montague, and
gave the marquessate of Dorset to his stepson. The title
was not legally and formally given, as it might have been,
to the lords marchers or to the earl of March ; and the
fact that, within a century of its introduction into England, it
was used in so unmeaning a designation as the marquess of
Montague, shows that it had lost all traces of its original appli-
Investiture cation. The marquesses were invested with the golden circlet
money. and the girding of the sword, and from the year 1470 by the
gift of the cap of maintenance. The creation money was
thirty-five pounds3.
τιlo earɪs. The ancient dignity of the earl has in former chapters been
traced throughout its history. In very few instances was the
title annexed to a simple town or castle, except in the case of
the earldom of Arundel, which probably represents an earldom
of the county of Sussex, of which the earl of Arundel received
Theirterri- the third penny : the earl of Warenne in the same way was
Sigaation. properly earl of Surrey, although he took his title from his
Norman lordship ; and the earls of Pembroke, of the house of
1 See the charter of creation, Kot. Parl. iii. 210; Lords’ Fifth Report,
p. 78 ; and the investiture t per gladii cincturam et circuli aurei suo capiti
impositionem,’ ib. p∙ 77 > John Beaufort was made marquees of Dorset
i per cincturam gladii’ simply, ib. p. 117 ; Edmund Beaufort in 1443 has
the circlet, ib. p. 241 ; and the marquess of Suffolk likewise, p. 251.
Montague and Dorset have the cap and sword, ib. pp. 378, 403
2 Rot. Earl. iii. 488.
3 Ibid. v. 308.
XX.] Earls and Visccmnts. 451
Clare, are frequently called earls of Striguil ; otherwise the
title throughout medieval history belongs to a county or the
county town, although it involved no local authority. The
earldom of March, which was the only exception to this rule,
was endowed with a pension from the issues of the counties of
Stafford and Salop, the latter of which was a march or border
county. The earl’s creation money, twenty pounds, was a Creation
substitute for the third penny of the county, of which little is У
heard after the thirteenth century; and the retention of this
payment probably suggested the bestowal of creation money
on those who were raised to the newer ranks of peerage ɪ.
The earl was created either by charter, or by patent, or by Foim of
formal act in parliament, and was invested as of old by the investiture,
girding of the sword2. The cap and coronet were late ad-
ditions.
The rank of viscount was a novelty in the fifteenth century ; The
the first English peer who bore the title being the viscount of
Beaumont, John, a lineal descendant of that Henry of Beau-
mont who took so prominent a part in the history of Edward II3.
It was given him probably, as was the French viscounty which
he likewise held, as the representative of the ancient viscounts
of Beaumont in Maine, with the intention of securing to him
a precedence over the older barons ; the lord Bourchier, the
next created viscount, was likewise earl of Eu in Normandy ;
John Talbot was made viscount de ITsle in x451, and the lord
Berkeley was created viscount in 1481. The title has little or
no meaning in English history, and in its Latin form was and
is still used as the designation of the sheriffs of town or
county.
The dignity and title of baron did not during the latter
1 See grants of the third penny in the Lords’ Fifth Report, pp. 1-17 ;
letters patent for the earldom of Carlisle, p. 18; the charter for the
earldom of Winchester, p. 18; of March, p. 21; Huntingdon, p. 29;
Northampton, p. 30 ; the last two, by assent of parliament ; see above,
vol. ii. § 296. The third penny is mentioned in the grant of the Devon-
shire earldom to Hugh Courtenay in 1336, Lords’ Fifth Report, p. 27 ;
the creation money hy Madox, Bar. Angl. p. 141 ; Rot. Parl. v. 3c8.
2 See for instance the charter of creation of Michael de la Pole, earl of
Suffolk, Lords’ Fifth Report, p. 69.
3 Ibid. p. 235; Madox, Baronia, p. 143.
ɑg 2