A History of Nottinghamshire

Preface

. Though the popular Midland Shire, whose county town has a world-wide fame for its textile fabrics, is perhaps better known to-day in the busy world of commerce than in any other sphere, it must not be supposed that it is deficient in the elements of literary interest or historic dignity. On the contrary, its life-story is one of the most absorbing that can possibly be presented. Since the Norman Conqueror set foot upon Nottingham shire soil, leaving here in undisturbed possession a larger number of King's Thegns than had been permitted to remain in most localities, the county has been the home of powerful people, and the scene of many memorable and stirring events which have had an important influence on the country's welfare. Within the stout gray walls of Newark Castle, the ruined remains of which still bid defiance to Time's destroying hand, King John ended his troublous and unworthy days ; from the equally strong fortress which dominated the county town, Richard III. sallied forth to the fatal field of Bosworth ; on the broad acres of Stoke the troops of Henry VII. struck down the adherents of Lambert Simnel Preface.

VI until their blood flowed through 'the red gutter' in a crimson stream to the Trent ; on Standard Hill, hard by that Castle of Nottingham which is now a Palace of Art for the Midlands, Charles I. raised the standard of war ; and a few miles away, hopelessly defeated and disheartened after an arduous struggle, the ill-fated monarch gave him self up to the Scotch Commissioners, whose forces were vainly striving to compel Newark to yield. In the great church-building eras — alike in the days of Norman, Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular architecture — the sound of the hammer and the chisel was familiar in the county, and there uprose a noble series of town and village churches to bring to the people the con solations of religion and to remind successive generations of struggling humanity of their highest hopes and destinies.

At a very early period in the history of the English Church there was built the glorious Minster of Southwell, now raised to the dignity of the cathedral of the diocese, and by degrees the county became adorned with the great parish churches of St. Mary, Nottingham, and St. Mary Magdalene, Newark, the priory churches of Worksop and Blyth, and many another noble monument of Christian piety and faith. ' The coming of the friars ' gave an additional impetus to the erection of stately buildings. The Benedictines, one of the largest and wealthiest of the monastic orders, built for themselves houses at Blyth and Wallingwells ; the Cluniacs erected their great house at Lenton ; the Carthusians settled at Beauvale ; the Cistercians at Rufford ; the Austin Canons founded noble houses at Thurgarton, Shelford, Newstead, Worksop, Newark, and Preface.

VII Felley ; the Præmonstratensians were located at Welbeck and Broadholme ; while the Gilbertines, whose founder, Gilbert of Sempringham, lived and laboured in a Lincoln shire village a few miles away, made a home amid the green fields of Mattersey. While the county thus became possessed of an abundant share of abbeys and churches, and formidable castles, it grew rich also in the large houses of powerful and prominent families. The Everinghams, stalwart warriors in their day, had a home at Laxton or Lexington, where also resided a distinguished family taking their surname from the place ; the Molyneuxs had a mansion at Hawton, and subsequently at Kneveton ; while the Markhams were located at Cotham, the Whalleys at Screveton, the Cantilupe family at Greasley Castle, the Bysets at East Bridgeford, the Lowdhams at Lowdham, the Heriz family at Gonalston, the Goushills at Hoveringham, the Sacheverells at Barton and Radcliffe-on-Soar, the Babingtons at Kingston and Chilwell, the Binghams at Bingham, the Rempstones at Rempstone, the Hutchinsons at Owthorpe, the Stanhopes at Rampton and Shelford, the Tibetots and Scropes at Langar, the Cranmers at Aslockton, the Joyces and Stapletons at Burton Joyce, the Strelleys at Strelley, the Cuckneys at Cuckney, the Lovetots and Furnivals at Worksop, the Deincourts at Granby, the D'Eivills at Egmanton, the Bartons and subsequently the Lords Bellasis at Holme near Newark, the Holies family at Haughton, the Wastneys at Headon, the Hercys at Grove, the Cressys at Oldcotes, and the Fentons at Fenton.

While these families (mostly unfamiliar names here now), and many more of equal dignity, had dwellings in the Preface. VIII county, there were others intimately associated with it in whom and whose life-work deep interest would be felt. As at Lambley, within the sacred walls of the ancient church, lay the remains of the Cromwell kindred — the Cromwells who derive a name which will live for ever in English history from a little Nottinghamshire village — could the county do otherwise than watch with pleasure the proud position attained by Lord Treasurer Cromwell, himself the owner of many of its broad acres ? Then there were the Bassets, the great lords who have left the impress of their name on one of our villages, and the Bardolphs, who will ever remain linked by name to the county through the village of Stoke Bardolph on the banks of the silvery Trent — the Bardolphs, who once occupied a prominent place in the front ranks of English nobility, as all readers of Shakespeare's ' Henry IV.' will well remember.

The Nottinghamshire of these early days, with its abbeys, fortresses, county seats, and powerful families, was pre-eminently an interesting and prominent county, and it possessed an almost unrivalled source of attraction to sport-loving kings in its noble Forest of Sherwood, then in the heyday of its glory, well stocked with deer and sur rounded by the halo of tradition and romance attending the exploits of Robin Hood and his merry men. As time rolled on in its resistless course the changes and transformations with which every locality is familiar fol lowed in its train. Old families died out — sufficient in number and in merit to deserve a chapter to themselves did space permit — and the mansions which had known them for generations crumbled and fell. ' Over the site the green grass grows,' and in some cases — Preface.

IX ' Mighty trees rise high and fair, As if it had aye been woodland there.' But the continuity of our history has been well preserved in the noble and ancient families which still remain, in the many stately and lovely homes which have since arisen, and by those who, taking up their abode here from other scenes, have worthily and manfully upheld the best and fairest traditions of the county. To ecclesiastical architecture many beautiful additions have been made within the last two centuries, and happily continue to be made ; while the mansions of the county have never been more numerous or substantial than now. Those who take an interest in ' the stately homes of England,' will find in the great houses of ' the Dukeries ' and other seats of the nobility and gentry, and most of all in wondrous Welbeck, palatial abodes that can vie in beauty and magnificence with any in the land.

Nor must the ' worthies ' of the county since the close of the Middle Ages, and a century after, remain unnoticed, seeing that they include an unusually long list of dis tinguished names. The county of Byron, Kirke White, and ' Festus ;' of Cranmer, Secker and Warburton ; of Gervase Markham, Francis Willoughby and Erasmus Dar win ; of Fenton, Ireton, Hutchinson, Howe and Warren ; of Bonington, Hilton, Dawson and Sandby ; of Elder Brewster, the leader of the Pilgrim Fathers, and a host of others too numerous to recount here, must ever be a county of special and peculiar interest, alike to readers in the old world and the new. With so many attractive features to present, it must be a matter of surprise to lovers of topography that com- Preface. X paratively little has been hitherto written respecting the stirring story of this historic shire.

But what our local literature lacks in quantity it may well be said to make up for in quality. The ' Antiquities of Notts,' published by Dr. Thoroton in 1677, in one thick volume folio, copiously illustrated, is a monument of industry that for more than two centuries has constituted the standard authority, and is likely to hold the leading place for many years to come. It does not deal to any extent with historical events and personages — which is somewhat un fortunate, seeing that the writer lived through the troublous period of the Caroline Civil War, and could have told us a great deal from personal knowledge — but it is replete with precise particulars of the devolution of property, and of the ancient county families whose memories are per petuated 'in storied urn' and 'animated bust' in our village churches.

Throsby, in a three-volume edition in 1797, amplified the genealogical details in Thoroton's book, and a more copious account of historical movements was given in Dickinson's histories of Newark and Southwell, in Deering's and Blackner's histories of the county town, and in Bailey's 'Annals of Notts/ published in 1853. Since that time separate portions of the county have been more elaborately dealt with, notably Nottingham in the volumes of ' Borough Records,' ably edited by my friend Mr. W. H. Stevenson ; Blyth, by the Rev. John Raine ; Worksop and the Dukery by Mr. Robert White ; Lenton, by my friend Mr. John T. Godfrey, who has also published an excellent account of the churches of the Hundred of Rushcliffe ; and the ancient historic town of Newark-on- Trent by myself. In these works a mass of information, Preface.

XI inaccessible to Thoroton, Throsby, Dickinson or Bailey, has been carefully garnered, and the lives of the worthies of the county have been dealt with in a portly quarto . but the villages of Notts, with one or two exceptions referred to in the course of this book, have remained well nigh untouched, and I believe I may venture to say, without fear of contradiction, that no one — at least in this eventful century of our annals — has gone from one end of the county to the other in search of material, as it has been my pleasurable duty to do in the last three or four years. There is this much further to be said, that the times are infinitely more favourable for the writing of local history than they have ever been before. The Calendars of State Papers, the Reports of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, the volumes in the Rolls series, and the learned works of modern historians and biographers, have made accessible abundant details which heretofore were hidden.

Of these modern sources I have gladly availed myself, and I have also drawn largely from the stores of information contained in a series of illustrated articles 'About Notts,' which, at the instigation of Mr. Jesse R. Forman, M.A., I contributed in 1888-9-90 to the popular newspaper which he so ably directs — the Notts Guardian. I have to thank Mr. Godfrey for some useful notes on church architecture, and Mr. J. Whitaker, J. P., F.Z.S., for his reliable list of our feathered fauna. Mr. A. T. Metcalfe, F.G.S., has kindly contributed a valuable chapter on the geology of the county ; and I am much indebted to Mr. R. A. Rolfe, of Ferndale, Lawn Crescent, Kew Gardens, for his interesting article on Nottingham shire Flora. Preface. XII With these acknowledgments gratefully tendered, and with a feeling that many others are justly due for courtesies received, I bring these introductory remarks to a close, and offer the volume for public acceptation.

At best it can, in such a compass, be but a summary of county history — it does not claim to be more — but I trust it may be found to touch so far upon the salient points in its life story as to do justice to my native shire — a shire on whose soil national movements of deepest significance have been enacted, and from whose honoured homes heroic men have gone forth (and will continue to go forth) to influence the deliberations of the senate, share in the triumphs of the camp, and enrich the ever-growing treasures of literature and art. C. B. Newark, September, 1891. CONTENTS

Chapter I. Page

Nottingham in Early Times — The Danish Invasion — William the Conqueror — The Castle and the Peverels — Visits of Henry II. and Richard I. — White Friars and Gray Friars — Intrigues of Queen Isabella — Parliaments at Nottingham — Richard III. at the Castle — The Royal Army in the Meadows — James I. at Thurland Hall — The Civil War — Raising the Standard — Rivalry of the Nottingham and Newark Garrisons — Reduction of the Castle — The Restoration — Nottingham and the Revolution of 1688 — The Castle destroyed by Fire — Its Subsequent Restoration - - - - 1-22

Chapter II

Villages around Nottingham — Wollaton and its Worthies — The Park and Hall — Adventures of Sir Hugh Willoughby — Lenton and its Priory — Arnold and Bestwood — An Easter Sepulchre — Royal Visitors at Bestwood — The Dukes of St. Albans — Calverton — The Story of the Stocking-frame — Woodborough and the Jebbs — Lambley and the Cromwells .-...-. 23-32

Chapter III

Clifton and its Famous Grove — The Cliftons of Clifton — Notable Warriors — Wilford and its Associations — An Eminent Parson — The Adventurous Career of Captain Deane — Henry Kirke White — Holme Pierrepont and its Owners — The Poet Oldham - - - 33-38

Chapter IV

Attenborough as it is — Birthplace of General Ireton — Alderman Sir John Ireton, Lord Mayor of London — Kingston and the Babingtons — A Remarkable Memorial — An Eminent Judge — Anthony Babington, the Conspirator — Modern Kingston and the late Lord Belper — Bradmore and its Owners — Bunny and Ralph, Lord Cromwell — Sir Thomas Parkyns and his Book on Wrestling — His Effigy as a Wrestler — Notice of Lord Rancliffe ..... 39-46

Chapter V

Colwick — The Colwick Family — The Byrons and the Musters— Memorials in the Church — Lord Byron's ' Mary ' — The Reform Riots — Gedling and its Curiosities — Stoke and the Bardolphs — Burton Joyce — Lowdham — The Bysets and their Exploits — The Home of an Archbishop — Singular Land Tenure ----- 47-58 Contents. XIV

Chapter VI. Page

The Vale of Belvoir— Tithby and Wiverton — The Chaworth Family — Royal Visitors — A Loyal Garrison — Lord Byron and Mary Chaworth — The Death of Mrs. Musters — Owthorpe — A Famous Regicide — Langar and Admiral Lord Howe — The Tibetots and Scropes — Willoughby-on-the-Wolds, a Roman Halting-place — An Eminent Judge robbed on the Highway — Monuments in the Church — A Young Cavalier slain at Willoughby ----- 59-7°

Chapter VII

' All the World and Bingham ' — A Quaint Phrase — The Bingham Family — Admiral Sir Thomas Rempstone — Extraordinary Find — Eminent Clerics — Viscount Sherbrooke — East Bridgeford — A Roman Station — The Home of a Regicide — Religious House at Shelford — The Siege of the Manor-house — The Earls of Chesterfield - - - 71-79

Chapter VIII

Aslockton and Archbishop Cranmer — Whatton Church — A Cranmer Memorial — The Village Cross — Parish Registers — Early Days of the Prelate — Leland's Itinerary — Cranmer's Mound and Walk — The Molyneux — Screveton — Kirketon Hall and the Whalleys — A Mysterious Jesuit — Edward Whalley and Oliver Cromwell — The Guardian of the King — Whalley signs the Death-warrant — He is one of Cromwell's Peers — Flies to America and dies — Car Colston — Thoroton, the Nottinghamshire Historian - - - 80-87

Chapter IX

Down the Trent Valley — Thurgarton Priory — A House of the Augustinians — The Cooper Family — A Sharp Skirmish — Hoveringham and the Goushills — Memorial to a Remarkable Lady — Stoke and its Battlefield — The Imposture of Lambert Simnel — Local Relics and Traditions ....... 8S-97

Chapter X

Southwell : its Church and Palace — The Minster founded — Visits of Archbishops — Sudden Death of Archbishop Gerard — Singular Story of Thurstan — Geoffrey Plantagenet — Strange Scene at the Minster — King John's Visits — Notices of Cardinal Wolsey — Charles I. at the Saracen's Head — Byronian Reminiscences ... 98-110

Chapter XI

The Key of the North'— An Old Town's Story— The Castle Built by Bishop Alexander — Death of King John — The Coming of the Friars — The Friary and the Chantry House — A Fine Parish Church — The Civil War Period — Loyalty of the Old Borough — Modern Events ----.-.. ___-_2o

Chapter XII

Brough, a Roman Station — Danethorpe Hills — Holme and Lord Bellasis — Cromwell and the Cromwells — Muskham — Norwell — North and South Collingham — Fledborough and its Owners — Woodcotes — The Gretna Green of the Midlands — Dr. Arnold's Connection with Fledborough — Sutton-on-Trent — Grassthorpe and the Furnivals — Memorials of the Cartwright Family at Marnham - - 121-127 Contents. XV

Chapter XIII. Page

The Manor-house at Hawton — Memorials of the Molyneux Family— The Easter Sepulchre— Judge Molyneux at Thorpe — Old Hall at Cotham — The Markham F'amily — Sibthorpe and its College — Staunton and its Story — Attack on Staunton Hall — Elston and the Darwins -------- 128-136

Chapter XIV

Tuxford and its Neighbours — Curious Sculpture in the Church — The Rebel Stone — The Markhams of Markham — -Memorials in the Church — A Famous Village — Mrs. Markham's ' History of England ' —Bevercotes and its Early Owners — Haughton and the Holies Family — A Once Famous Mansion — The Chapel Ruins — Markham Clinton and its Mausoleum ..... 137-146

Chapter XV

Averham and Kelham — Robert de Lexington and the Jews — Sir William Dugdale and the Family of Sutton — Lord Lexington and Charles I. —Kelham Hall — A Destructive Fire — Upton and Hockerton — Thoroton's Connection with Hockerton — Winkburn Park and Hall — -An Ancient Church — The Countess of Rutland at Winkburn — A Peninsular Hero — Bilsthorpe — A Controversy with a King — Modern Memorials in Bilsthorpe Church — The Ancient Owners of Eakring — Visitation of the Plague— Heroism of the Rector - - 147-156

Chapter XVI

Queen Eleanor and Harby — Founding a Chantry— Broadholme and its Nunnery — Rampton in Saxon Times — The Babingtons and Eyres — Remains of the Ancient Mansion — ' The Whole Duty of Man ' — Heroes of Modern Times — Laneham and the Archbishops of York — A Duel — Sturton — The White Lady — Colonel Thornhaugh — Fenton the Mariner ------- 157-168

Chapter XVII

Retford and its Records — Battle on the Banks of the Idle — Royal Grants and Favours — The Parish Church — Tower and Steeple blown down — An Army at Wheatley — Curious Election Story— Mattersey and its Monks — Wiseton and its Distinguished Visitors — Ranskill and its Danish Ancestry — Clayworth and its Clergy - - - 169-178

Chapter XVIII

Scrooby — The Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers — An Absorbing Story — Elder Brewster and his Residence — The Archiepiscopal Palace — Blyth — Its Monastery and Church — Bishop Saunderson — An Ancient Tournament-Ground — Hodsock Priory — Finningley and the Frobishers — A Hero of the Armada- .... 179-189

Chapter XIX

Worksop and ' The Dukeries ' — The Lovetots — Foundation of Worksop Priory — The Furnivals and Talbots — Dissolution of the Monastery — Mary Queen of Scots at the Manor — Sherwood Forest — Clumber House and the Dukes of Newcastle — Thoresby, Seat of Earl Manvers — Welbeck Abbey and the Dukes of Portland — Birkland and Bilhagh — Edwinstowe, Ollerton — Cockglode — Rufford Abbey — Clipstone Palace — Shireoaks — Gateford — Osberton — Serlby Hall - - 190-216 Contents. XVI

Chapter XX. Tage

Mansfield and its Environs— Newstead and the Byrons— Annesley — Felley— Hucknall Torkard— Papplewick— Blidworth - - 217-231

Chapter XXI

The Erewash Valley— Trowell and the Hackers— The Early Possessors of Cossall— Shaw, the Life Guardsman— The Family of Strelley— Stapleford — An Ancient Cross — William Peverel — The Teverys and Palmes— A Gallant Admiral—' A Petrified Enigma '—Beauvale— A Carthusian Monastery— The Cantilupes— Greasley Castle— The Prior of Beauvale hanged ....... 232-244

Chapter XXII. Geology Of Nottinghamshire

Natural Features dependent on Soils— Coal-Measures : their Extent under the County — The Magnesian Limestone and Creswell ' Bone-Caverns ' — The New Red Sandstone, and the ' Forest Lands ' of Notts — Hemlock Stone — The Keuper Marls and Gypsum — The Lias — Ancient Course of the Trent to Lincoln and the Wash — Museums - 245-251

Chapter XXIII. Art And Architecture

Tlie Treasures in the Stately Homes of Nottinghamshire — List of Country Seats — Ecclesiastical Buildings — Southwell Minster — Its Chapter- House — Newark Parish Church — The Church at Blyth — Worksop Priory Church — Parochial Churches .... 252-264

Chapter XXIV. Legend, Tradition, And Anecdote

Robin Hood and his Band — Ballads of the Period — The Gothamites — The King and the Miller of Mansfield — Ancient Instruments of Torture — The Plough Bullocks—' Riding the Stang '—The Fair Maid of Clifton — St. Catherine's Well at Newark — Nan Scott's Chamber at Holme — Dick Turpin and his Accomplice — The Poets of the Newark Sieges — Hercules Clay and his Dream ----- 265-280

Chapter XXV. Dialect And Folklore

Provincial Words : their Origin and Use — Examples from Great Writers — Superstitions and Proverbial Sayings — Eccentric Epitaphs - 281-290

Chapter XXVI. Flora And Fauna

The Nottinghamshire Flora — County Floras — Dr. Deering's ' Catalogus Stirpium ' — Mr. Ordoyno's ' Flora Nottinghamiensis ' — Dr. Howitt's 'Nottinghamshire Flora' — The Nottingham Catchfly — Its History and Peculiarities — The Meadow Crocus — Fauna of the County — List of Notts Birds ---.... 291-301 Index ........ 302.3o6

Chapter I

Nottingham in Early Times— The Danish Invasion — William the Conqueror— The Castle and the Peverels — Visits of Henry II. and Richard I. — White Friars and Gray Friars — Intrigues of Queen Isabella — Parliaments at Nottingham — Richard III. at the Castle — The Royal Army in the Meadows — James I. at Thurland Hall — The Civil War— Raising the Standard — Rivalry of the Nottingham and Newark Garrisons — Reduction of the Castle — The Restoration — Nottingham and the Revolution of 1688 — The Castle destroyed by Fire — Its Subsequent Restoration. Almost in the heart of the Midlands, on a commanding site, ' a city set on a hill, which cannot be hid,' stands the great town of Nottingham, one of the most important of those busy centres of industry which give to England her commercial pre-eminence, and distribute their famous products over all quarters of the globe.

As we stand on the castle rock in front of Nottingham Art Museum, which is so great an ornament to the borough, there lies before us a broad and fertile vale through which the silvery Trent winds his sinuous course, now murmuring beneath the wooded hills of Clifton, or gliding quietly through the green meadows of Wilford, or rushing with swifter force under the wide arches of the Trent Bridge until it is lost to view in Colwick fields. As the eye wanders over this fine stretch of landscape, and then turns suddenly in the direction of the town, it witnesses in its progress a trans formation scene as comprehensive and complete as any which the ingenuity of the scenic artist has ever put upon the stage. Instead of the calm repose of country life, we have before us the busy streets of a thickly-populated borough, with its masses of red-brick houses, tall chimneys, great factories and warehouses of many windows, and rising above all, with the fingers of its pinnacles pointing heavenward, the square tower of the old parish church, with all its hallowed memories and its gray, weather beaten walls linking irrevocably the present with the past.

Very busy and earnest does Nottingham always look in its weekday attire, and, in truth, it is an enterprising and a spirited town, which has pushed its way rapidly to the forefront, won a great name for its staple products of hosiery and lace, and shown all the evidences of healthy and vigorous life. Its modern history is a record of commercial achievement very creditable to itself, and stimulating to its less fortunate neighbours. Let us see what there is to say of its chequered and historic past. As the name of Nottingham is a puzzle to the etymo logist, so its earliest history is enveloped in the mists of antiquity. Mr. W. H. Stevenson has presented all the facts that research can bring to light in a scholarly article on ' The Early History of Nottingham,' republished as a pamphlet a few years ago.

No satisfactory evidence exists to indicate that the town had a British origin, or to show that it was ever a Roman station. But the site was far too attractive to be long ignored in the gradual formation of settled communities. Taylor, the water-poet, writing in 1639, speaks of the people of Nottingham ' playing the coney,' a quaint phrase describing in old-time language how they dug out of the soft Bunter sandstone vaults, holes, and caves as primitive dwellings and habitations, and there can be no doubt that at a comparatively early period it was selected as a suitable place for habitation. So far as reliable history goes, we have our first glimpse of Nottingham in the time of the Danish invasion. In 869, as the Winchester Chronicle testifies, these hardy warriors occupied the town, and were besieged by Alfred and Æthelred.

A treaty of peace was temporarily con cluded, but in the spring of 874 they returned in ever increasing numbers, conquered Mercia, and occupied the five boroughs of Nottingham, Lincoln, Stamford, Derby, and Leicester. Here they remained until Edward the Elder, assisted by his sister, Æthelflaed, drove them away, Edward's capture of Nottingham in 919 being, in the words of Mr. Freeman, 'the crown of his conquests in Central England.' Edward built a fortress on the southern bank of the Trent in 921, and connected it with the town by a bridge, where his successor, Æthelstan, established a mint, and coins of his, bearing the Notting ham mark, have been found. Then came the struggle at Hastings. Nottingham men were not prominent on that eventful day ; the Earl of Mercia was absent, and it was probably because of these abstentions that the Norman Conqueror confirmed so many Thanes in the possession of their lands in this county.

William in due time reached Nottingham, and, as was his custom, immediately began to consolidate his power by the erection of a castle, which William of Newburgh described as being so strong by nature and art as to be able to defy any force but that of hunger. The control of this stronghold was entrusted to William Peverel, a military follower, who built himself a castle of his own on the craggy heights of Castleton, which caused his descendants to be known as ' Peverels of the Peak.' After the anarchy of Stephen's reign, Henry II. insisted upon all the great castles being surrendered into his hands, 1 — and the Peverel of the time declining to yield, the King set out to enforce his commands. Peverel secretly retreated in the garb of a monk, and the King took possession in 1 155. Under his auspicious rule the town made rapid strides.

A royal charter was granted to the burgesses, the Palmers of Nottingham established a hospital for poor men, which Pope Lucius III. protected and assisted by a Bull, and the commercial bodies began to form themselves into guilds, which gradually drew into their own hands the government of the town. The castle, round which the interest of the warriors of successive ages naturally centred, from its commanding position and unusual strength, remained in the hands of the reigning monarch during the vigorous career of Henry II.,* and was also controlled by Richard I. until the absence of that King on the Crusades, when it was seized by Earl John, who also possessed himself of the Castle of Tickhill. When Richard returned in 1193, amid the rejoicings of his people, most of the strongholds that had yielded to the solicitations of the King's unscrupulous and ambitious brother returned to their allegiance, but Nottingham, always partial to John, held out with unex pected vigour.

When an army, led by Lord David, brother of the King of Scotland, approached in the royal interest, it refused to submit, and it was not until the King led the siege in person, in March, 1 194, that it yielded to superior force. After the victory, the King, taking advantage of his proximity to the ' merrie' forest of Sherwood, indulged himself in the royal pursuit of hunting, which no doubt formed a pleasant contrast to the stern work of reducing his unruly subjects. * It was taken by the rebels during the revolt of the Baronage in 1 174, but when Henry returned from his foreign campaign in 1175 the outbreak was quelled, and so stern were the measures employed that no armed revolt of the feudal Baronage was ever again possible in England. Vide Mrs. Green's ' Henry II.,' p. 185. But the enjoyments of the forest had to give place to matters of State.

On Wednesday, March 30, his Majesty held a council, which sat for three days, and sum moned John to surrender. The Prince boldly defied his royal brother, and after forty days, sentence was pro nounced against him, declaring his lands confiscate and himself a traitor. These were strong measures, but, like most great-hearted men, King Richard was not callous to all appeals for mercy. John sought forgiveness, obtained it, had Nottingham Castle restored to him, and resided there in a state of comfort and splendour he hardly deserved. Upon John's accession to the throne he visited Notting ham in 1 199, and again in 1202. Henry III. held his Court at Nottingham, and granted a short charter in 1229, supplementing it with another in 1255, and a third in 1272, which showed the abiding interest his Majesty took in the affairs of the thriving Midland town.