THE CLINTONS.—FEUDAL PERIOD.
ALWAYS in front but never in command,—is the sen- tence which best describes the fortunes of the House of Clinton. They have always been important, have furnished Admirals, anl Generals, and possible Ministers without end, yet have never risen absolutely to the top, and at this moment, though Dukes, would but for their pedigree scarcely stand in the front rank of English nobles. Even their pedigree has somehow escaped the popular notoriety which attaches, say, to that of the
Talbots, and one-half of our readers outside the Peerage will be surprised when we remind them that his Grace of Newcastle is the single Duke out of the Royal Family whose house was certainly en-
nobled by the early Plantagenets, or who can prove his male line to have been great before the Crusades. There is not a clearer pedi- gree in Europe, or one about which there has been more determined and scientific lying. Peerage-makers carry the Clintons up to who knows what Scandinavian hero, trusting to English reverence for Dukes and English ignorance of ancient English history. All the while their rise is fixed within a few years by the precise and express testimony of a trustworthy and contemporary historian—Ordericus Vitalis, who thus describes their position when their founder first emerged into sunshine:— " Henry I. reduced all his enemies to subjection, either by policy or force, and rewarded those who served him with riches and honours. Many there were of high condition whom he hurled from the summit of power for their presumption, and sentenced to the perpetual forfeiture of their patrimonial estates. On the contrary, there were others of low orijin (de ignobili stirpe) whom for their obsequious services he raised to the rank of nobles, lifting them, so to speak, from the dust, surrounding them with wealth, and exalting them above earls and distinguished lords of castles. Such men as GEOFFREY D14 CLINTON (Goisfredus de Clintona), Ralph Basset, Hugh de Bocholaud, Guillegrip, and Rainier de Bath (Buda), William Troissebot, Haimon de Falaise, Guigan Algazs, Robert de Bostare, and many others, are examples of what I have stated, who acquired wealth and built themselves mansions far beyond anything that their fathers possessed. These and many others of humble birth, whom it would be tedious to mention individually, were ennobled by the King, his royal authority raising them from a low estate to the summit of power, so that they became formidable even to the greatest nobles." Ordericus Vitalis, one perceives, did not foresee that to be mentioned by him at all would one day be a certificate of pedigree of which kings might be proud. This sous homo—man from the gutter— whose original name is hopelessly lost, is supposed by Dugdale to have taken his name from Clinton, a village in Oxfordshire, now called Glympton ; but that is avowedly only a clever guess. It is, at all events, certain that he rose to be Cham- berlain and Treasurer to the King, and paasibly Justice of Eng- land, and that he received immense grants from Henry, who, wearied to death with the conquerors,—who had a perverse notion that they had conquered England for others besides the sons of the Baitard—tried successfully to elevate new men as a counterpoise to their power—a policy which ceased only with the death of
William III. Geoffrey de Clinton had grants in Warwick..
shire, Oxford, Nottingham, Buckingham, and, probably, in other counties ; and, the largest being in Warwickshire the family for- tunes clustered around that centre, Kenilworth being chosen as his seat from his delight in its woods, and the large pleasant lake nestling among them. It is also probable that he thought his career would not bear the scrutiny of Heaven, for he founded near Kenilworth a monastery for Black Canons. This was the priory, afterwards abbey, of Kenilworth, and the date of its
foundation is about the year 1122. By the first charter, Geoffrey de Clinton gives to the Black Canons, for the re- demption of his sins, as also for the good estate of King Henry, whose consent he had thereto, and of his own wife and children and all his relatives and friends, all the lands and woods of Kenilworth (excepting what he had reserved for the making of his castle and park), and several manors and churches in the counties we have referred to and in Staffordshire, granting further unto them right of pasturage, viz., that wheresoever his own cattle and hogs. should be, whether within his park or without, there also might theirs have liberty to feed, and their tenants' hogs to have the same freedom in all other except his enclosed woods and park as his own tenants had. By another charter he makes them a grant. of a full tenth of whatsoever should be brought to his castle, viz., either to his cellar, kitchen, larder, granary, or " hallgarth ;" as. well as of all bought or given, either in hay, corn, hogs, muttons,. bacon, venison, cheese, fish, wine, honey, wax, tallow, pepper, and cumin, though they had been tithed elsewhere before, as of his own proper revenue, together with all his lambkins throughout. all his manors, as well those as should be killed to eat as of others that might die casually. He also gave to the said canons liberty to fish with boats and nets, one day in every week, namely, Thursday, in his pool in Kenilworth. His son arm grandson (Geoffrey and Henry de Clinton) and his daughter Leoscelina, were also donors and benefactors (including the greater part of Lea-. mington and the mill of Guy's Cliff) to this monastery. Illustrfous Hindoos do the same thing now. Whenever a rajah, or zemindar, or other large proprietor feels that his chance of hell is a distinctly appreciable quantity, he builds a temple and grants part of his. estate for ever to maintain Brahmins for the benefit of his soul and the glory of his memory. Geoffrey de Clinton continued high in favour with Henry I. till 1130, so high that his nephew, Roger, was able to buy the Bishopric of Coventry for 3,000 marks, and was ordained priest and consecrated Bishop at Canterbury on two successive days, 21st and 22nd December, 1129 ; but in that year he fell under a cloud. What he did no man will probably ever know, but Ordericus Vitals says he was arraigned for treason, and the fact is confirmed, though the date is altered by a few months, by Roger de Hoveden. The latter says he was "disgraced," but the eclipse was probably only temporary, for it never affected. the territorial position of the House, the eldest son of the founder— also a Geoffrey—being Chamberlain to Henry II. in 1165. With the grandson of this second Geoffrey, however, the elder branch came to an end, the stock ending in 1232 in heiresses.
Another branch of the same stock had, however, in the interim, attained baronial rank. Besides Roger, the simoniacal Bishop of Coventry, the founder had a nephew named Osbert, said to have been an elder brother of that very prompt prelate. This person is the lineal ancestor of the gentleman who is now governing the Colonies, and he received from his cousin Geoffrey a grant of the lordship of Coleshill in Warwickshire, and was, therefore, styled " of Coleshill" in the Rolls of Henry II., just seven hundred and two years ago. The new baron enriched himself still farther by marrying Margaret, the daughter of William de Hatton, who brought as her marriage portion the manor of Aming- ton, in Warwickshire. Their son, Osbert de Clinton, Lord of Colehill and Amington, was a keen supporter of the Barons who tore Magna Charts from John Lackland, had his estates seized by the King, and remained in overt rebellion until that monarch's death, when he made his peace with Henry III. and had his lands restored to him. He died in 1222, and his son Thomas, third Baron Clinton (by tenure), was one of the Justices of Assize for the county of Warwick,* and in the thirty-eighth year of Henry ILL had a charter of free warren in the lordship of Coleshill. Ile married Mazera, heiress of James de Bisege, of Badsley in the same county.. This manor was left by Thomas de Clinton to his fifth son, James, on payment of one penny annually to his father's heirs, and from him it passed eventually through an heiress into other families. Besides this James, Thomas de Clinton's other sons were Thomas, his heir, who succeeded him at Amington ; Sir John (whose male line expired in 1353), succeeded him at Coleshill, and was one of the barons who fought with Simon de Montfort against the Crown, but was afterwards restored to power ; Osbert, lord of the manor of Austrey, in Warwickshire (who, dying without issue, the lord- ship went to his eldest brother, Thomas) ; and William, rector of the church of Austrey.
Thomas de Clinton (fourth Baron Clinton by tenure) married a
* There is no fact in feudal history so strange is the loss of the power of "high and low " justice by the English Batons. Their compeers bad it in Fiance to 1660,and is Scotland to 1715; but the English Peers never used it on questions of life and death after the death of Stephen. The Plantageuets could not abuts it, and as It was not the interest either of Church or Commune, the Kings won. Bracebridge of Kingsbury, and was succeeded by his son by her, John de Clinton, fifth Baron Clinton by tenure. He resided at Amington, as his father had done. He was a distinguished soldier and attendant of King Edward I. in his wars, particularly in Scot- land. On February 6, 1299, he was first summoned to Parliament as Baron Clinton of Maxstoke, he having married Ida, eldest of the sisters and coheirs of Sir William de Odangseles, Lord of Maxstoke Castle and other possessions in Warwickshire. John de Clinton was high in power with King Edward, who called him, as a special honour, " his beloved Esquire," and by his letters patent at Glasgow, April 2, 1301, granted to him lands in Scotland of the value of 401. per annum, part of the possessions of Malcolm Drummond (ancestor of the Perth family), then in arms against Edward. Edward II. continued his favour to Clinton, for in 1308 he had the custody of the castle and honour of Walling- ford. He died in or before the sixth year of this reign, leaving two sons, minors, of whom the younger, William de Clinton, rose to high distinction. In the third year of Edward III. William made a great match, marrying Julian, the heiress of Sir Thomas de Leybourne, a great Keutish heiress, and widow of John, Lord Hastings, of Bergavenny. This, says Sir William Dugdale, was a great step in his advancement. He appears, however, to have risen to a con- siderable position, at least as regards wealth, previously, since after his accession Edward III., in a deed, recites that the said William de Clinton had performed great services to him and his mother, Queen Isabel, when beyond the seas, for which they had promised him lands of the value of 2001. per annum, in confidence of which he had enlarged his family et se posuit ad Vexillum. So he now grants to the said William the castle, manor, and hundred of Halerton, in the counties of Chester and Lancaster. He accom- panied the King the same year in an expedition to Scotland, and in the fourth year of the reign—the year after his Kentish marriage —he was constituted Governor of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports. In 1333 he was appointed Admiral of the Seas, and attending the King again into Scotland fought in the battle of Haider'. He still continued to rise in the King's favour, and on March 16, 1337, he was created by a royal charter Earl of Hunt- ingdon. Among other martial exploits the Earl was at the sea battle with the Spaniards off Winchelsea, but he died August 25, 1324, without issue, and upon an inquisition his nephew, Sir John de Clinton, Knight, was found to be his heir, and to be then of the age of twenty-eight years.
The younger brother who thus enriched his brother's son had far outstripped in his fortunes that brother Sir John de Clinton, second LOrd Clinton (by writ), who, however, was summoned to Parliament as a Peer, served creditably in Guienne, spent funds of his own on his King's service, married the daughter of Sir W. Corbett, of Chadsley-Corbett in Worcestershire, and left by her the lad Sir John de Clinton (third Lord Clinton) who inherited the uncle's possessions in addition to his own. He was a soldier of mark, fought at Poictiers with the Black Prince, went to France in the great expedition organized by Edward III., in the thirty-third year of his reign—an expedition which killed off nobles like privates--andten years afterwards, the French King breaking the treaty, he and Thomas Beauchamp Earl of Warwick earned the price- less honour of mention by Froissart, who says, " they took many strong towns and gained great honour by their conduct and valour." On 30th May, 1371, he was directed by the King to repair to his manor of Folkestone, in Kent—a place not yet forgotten by tourists to repel an expected invasion of the French. The same order was repeated six years afterwards; and in 1380 England, tired of expecting invasions, began one. Landing in France with Thomas of Woodstock, the King's uncle, Lord Clinton devastated the country from Calais to Brittany, and, says Froissart, "the Lord Clinton rode with his banner displayed, and performed certain feats of arms at Nantes with Sir Galoys Denney." In the sixth year of Richard II. he was again campaigning in France and the Low Countries, and was at the taking of Gravelines, Bruges, Nieuport, and Dunkirk. Two years afterwards he was at New- castle-on-Tyne, on his raid against the Scots, who had taken Berwick, but abandoned it on the approach of the English troops. The man altogether was one of the efficient sort whom able kings love, never quite at the top, but always ready for severe work, and unapt to make blunders. He fought for England well, and pros- pered accordingly. He married, first, Idonea, eldest daughter of Geoffrey, Lord Saye (by the daughter of Guy Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick), co-heir to her brother William, Lord Saye, and cousin and heir of William de Saye, Baron of Sele, and on the death of her brother and his children without issue, Idonea, Lady Clinton, became eventually the eldest co-heir of the noble family of Saye. On the death of this first wife, Lord Clinton made a match without the consent of the King with another heiress, Elizabeth, daughter and at length heir of William de la Plaunch, of Havers- ham, Bucks ; and in the twentieth year of Richard If., on the at- tainder and banishment of Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, Lord Clinton had the castle of Warwick with all the manners and lands belonging thereto committed to his custody. He died on the 8th of September, 1399, during the session of the celebrated Parliament which dethroned Richard and raised Henry Boling- broke to the throne, leaving by his first wife three sons, and a daughter married to Lord Berkeley. His second son was Sir Thomas de Clinton, whose seat was at Amington. He served in the Spanish and Portuguese wars with John of Gaunt ; but the date of his death is uncertain. He left only a daughter. from whom are descended the Burdetts of modern political notoriety. The elder son, Sir William de Clinton, also died in his father's life-time, but not till he had married a sister of Ralph Neville, first Earl of West- morelaud, and begotten a son, William, who succeeded his grand- father as fourth Lord Clinton. This Baron was a soldier, and was en- gaged with credit in all the expeditions of Henry IV., Henry V., and the early years of Henry Vl. In the fifth year of the last-named King, he was called on to provide 25 men-at-arms and 78 archers, and four years afterwards to provide one knight, 38 men-at-arms, and 300 archers for the French wars. In the sixth year of Henry IV., 1404, he did homage for and had livery of his proportion of the inheritance of his grandmother 'clones, as heir to William de Saye, and in the third of Henry V. he bore the title of Lord Saye ; but he seems to have had no legal right to it, as it was in abeyance between himself and the other co.heirs of Geoffrey de Saye, his great-grandfather. In November, 1448, Lord Clinton's son and successor executed a curious deed, by which he assigned all his right to the title of Saye to his cousin, James Fienes, or Fynes (second son of Sir William Fienes, the son of a younger sister of Idonea de Clinton), who had been summoned to Parliament in 1447 as Lord Saye and Sele ; Lord James in return releasing to Lord Clinton by another deed all right to all advowsons, knights' fees, wardships, rents, &c., incident to the barony of Saye before the execution of the preceding deed. The whole transaction is a very anomalous one, and seems to provoke the heralds and genealogists sadly. This James Fienes is Shakespeare's Lord Saye, executed by Jack Cade's mob in 1450.
William, fourth Lord Clinton, died July 30th, 1432, having married a widow, Lady Fitzwavyn, and left by her, as his heir, John, fifth Lord Clinton, then twenty-two years of age. He was also a soldier in the French wars, particularly under Richard, Duke of York, Regent in that country. Less lucky than his ancestors, however, he was taken prisoner in the nineteenth year of Henry VI., and continued in durance for more than six years, and was then obliged to give 6,000 marks for his ransom. The fine might have injured his fortunes, but he was a man with courage for other things than battle. To raise the money he took -to the occupation of a merchant, obtaining in the twenty-sixth year of Henry VI. special licence to employ his agents for the buying of 600 sacks of wool in England, and to transport them from London or Southampton into Lombardy, as also six hundred woollen cloths, and to transport them to any foreign country, "paying for every sack and cloth to the King as any other denizen used to do." Per- haps his distressed circumstances urged him to give up his supposed right to the title of Saye, which he did on his return to England in the following year. In the sixteenth year of this reign he had exchanged his castle and manor of Maxstoke with Humpluroy, Earl of Stafford, for tho manors of Whiston and Woodford, in Northamptonshire. In 1459, Lord Clinton, induced probably by_ his old connection with Richard of York, took up arms against the House of Lancaster, and was attainted in the Parliament held at Coventry in that year, but in 1461, on the triumph of York, he was restored to his lands and honours, and was joined with the Earl pf Kent, Lord Faulconbridge, and Sir John Howard, in a commission for the safe keeping of the setts ; and the four knights, landing in Brittany with 10,000 men, won the town of Conquet and the Isle of Rhee. He died on September 24, 1464, leaving an only son by a daughter of Richard Fynes, Lord Deere of Hurstmonceaux. This son, John, sixth Lord Clinton, has no history, and, to be brief, the same may be said of the seventh and eighth lords, though they seem an to have been men of some mark, to have married well, and to have steadily added to the family property. Generations of brave and skilful soldiership had brought them lands, and that credit in the eyes of heiresses which in those days was as valuable as royal favour, and the ninth lord, Edward, was possessed while still in his cradle of possessions which rivalled those of the greater barons. He succeeded to the manors of Bole Hall, Shuatoke, Pakington, Amington Parva and Magna, Pericroft and Austre in Warwick- shire, and, in the county of Kent, to the manors of Folkestone- Clinton, Iluntyngton, alias Hunton, Bermsted, Golstane, alias Goddestanton, Lees, alias Elmes, alias Selmes, Polre, alias Pol- drex, and lands in Poldrex called Eastdown and Rushin Marsh, also lands in Wingham and Woodenesburgh, Ashe-jurta-Sand- wich, and lands in the parish of St. Clements, Sandwich. The family had battled their way slowly though surely up, and though they had never commanded in battle or become King's favourites, the "good service" of four hundred years had borne them at last into the position which was imme- diately to be recognized by the Crown. The baby heir of the favourite whose birth Ordericus Vitalis had stigmatized was the recognized equal in rank and possessions of the few nobles who had survived the great feudal strife, the Wars of the Roses, in which the Barons, having failed after magnificent efforts to root themselves as Continental magnates, made amends to themselves and England by thinning the Order out. •
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