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The Rulers of the Isle of Man
It would be too great a diversion here to delve deeply into the history of the Isle of Man, and the role played in it by the Stanley family. Nevertheless, a brief encapsulation of it is necessary in order to appreciate and assess the claims made by Howe. A reputable history of the island may be found in An Abstract of the Laws, Customs and Ordinances of the Isle of Man, J. Parr, Manx Society vol. 12, Douglas, 1866 ("MS12"). It is avalable online through google books. I have used it as the basis for the following paragraphs. Man was anciently an independent kingdom. After centuries of rule by Viking chieftains suzerainty was ceded to the Scots in 1266. Subsequent claims were made by the English Crown. The King of England was effectively the feudal overlord of Man by 1290 and the English monarchs made several dispositions of it thereafter. In effect, the local rulers of Man (who were usually not themselves resident on the island) were usually hereditary tenants of the English King, and were drawn from among his retainers, albeit favouring those with an interest in the island. We see this instanced in various ways: when a grant lapsed (for instance, at the death of a life tenant, or upon forfeiture), Man reverted to the English Crown [MS12, pp 26, 29], and the English monarch was not infrequently called upon to adjudicate over the lordship of Man and its incidents [MS12, p 35]. On 9 August 1333 King Edward III granted the Isle of Man absolutely to William de Montacute, 1st Earl of Salisbury [MS12, p 22]; his son succeeded him in 1344, and many years afterwards sold the island and its lordship to William le Scrope [MS12, pp 22-23; ODNB, biographies of the 1st and 2nd Earls of Salisbury by W.M. Ormrod and J.L. Leland respectively]. Scrope obtained the Isle of Man in 1392 or 1393 but found himself on the wrong side of the revolution of 1399, when Richard II was replaced by his cousin Henry IV. The new king had Scrope executed, and his property forfeited to the English Crown, who took back the Isle of Man, citing the doctrine of conquest [MS12, p 22 et seq; ODNB biography of William Scrope by Brigette Vale]. Then, on 19 October 1399, a further grant was made to Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, pursuant to which the island was "to be held for ever of us and our heirs by service", thus emphasising Henry IV's continuing suzerainty [MS12, p 23]. But Percy too fell into disfavour, having sided with the King’s enemies, and consequently the Isle of Man was given to the Stanley family [MS12, pp 23-27]. The Stanleys The progress of the Stanleys’ possession can be traced in the Calendar of Patent Rolls, online here: </a>http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/patentrolls 11 June 1405: Protection given to Sir William Stanley and others, going on the King’s service to take the Isle of Man into the King’s hands. 6 April 1406: Grant to John Stanley, knight, and his heirs and assigns, in lieu of a grant to him for life, surrendered to be cancelled, of the island, castle, peel and lordship [sic] of Man and all islands and lordships pertaining to the island, not exceeding the value of £400 yearly, to hold with royal rights, royalties, franchises, liberties, etc, by service of rendering to the King two falcons immediately after doing homage and to the King’s heirs two falcons on the days of their coronations as fully as William le Scrope, knight, or any other lord [sic] of the island held the same. John Stanley’s first grant - which was made shortly before 4 October 1405 [MS12, p 27] - was for life only. He surrendered this grant to the King in 1406 and it was cancelled, replaced by the above grant of 6 April 1406 [MS12, pp 28-29]. This is of considerable importance when we come to consider Howe’s claims, because he states that the basis of his claim is the "letters patent of 1405 [to] Sir John Stanley [and] his heirs" [e.g. London Gazette advertisement of 16 January 2007]. It would appear that no claim could currently be based on the 1405 grant, since it was for John Stanley's life only, not to his heirs, and it was surrendered and cancelled in 1406. Howe has asserted that the reliability of MS12 as a source for the second grant is questionable, noting it contains a heading that refers to the date of the grant as "1306". This would appear to be a typographical error, since the date of the second grant is confirmed by primary sources as 6 April 1406 [e.g. Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry IV, vol 3, p 201, HMSO, London, 1907]. By virtue of the 1406 grant, the Isle of Man remained in the possession of the Stanley family for nearly two hundred years, descending in the direct male line until the death of Ferdinando, 5th Earl of Derby in 1594 [ODNB, biography of Ferdinando Stanley by D. Kathman]. At this point a problem arose: Ferdinando had no son. He left three daughters and a brother, who advanced competing claims to the island. Queen Elizabeth I, the feudal overlord of Man, was left to adjudicate. During this process, it was said that the original grant of the Isle of Man to the Stanleys had been invalid, as Lord Northumberland’s prior grant of 1399 had not actually been cancelled or forfeited. Eventually, to resolve this legal muddle, Ferdinando’s daughters gave up their claim in exchange for a financial settlement, further grants were made and an act of the English Parliament was passed, "assuring and establishing the Isle of Man in the name and blood of William, Earl of Derby" [MS12, pp 35 et seq; the act is detailed on p 61]. This act of 1610 was the authority from which the later Stanleys derived their rights to Man. The Lordship passed to the 7th through 10th Earls of Derby, and then to the 2nd Duke of Atholl as heir-general of the Stanleys. His daughter Charlotte and her husband the 3rd Duke of Atholl succeeded in 1764, and the following year they sold the lordship back to the British Crown; further rights were re-acquired by the Crown in 1806, and the residue by 1829. The relevant parliamentary Acts associated with these transfers are: (a) 1765: the ‘Revesting Act’, 5 Geo III c. 26 (b) 1806: 45 Geo III c. 113 and c. 123 (c) the residue: pursuant to 6 Geo IV c. 34 (1825) The current Lord of the Isle of Man is HM Queen Elizabeth II: http://www.gov.im/cso/crown/office_gov.xml 'King of Man’ vs ‘Lord of Man’ From early times it appears that the rulers of the Isle of Man used the title ‘Lord of Man’. Various examples of this may be seen in the collection of historic Manx documents published by the Manx Society between 1860 and 1862 and which may be found here: http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/manxsoc/msvol04/index.htm In 1399 and again in 1405 the Earl of Northumberland and Sir John Stanley received respective grants of the "dominium de Man", that is, the ‘lordship of Man’.
It seems that the rulers were variously called ‘King’, or ‘Lord’ when the same proprietorship was the subject. When Thomas Stanley settled for ‘Lord of Man’ in 1504 it appears that he was not changing the title, but regularising it. Howe claims that the style of King was abandoned in 1504. This is contradicted by research published in 1999, showing that its use continued for at least a further 150 years: "The Lord of Man wielded quasi-regal powers, being in effect 'de jure' king of Man. The regal title was, apparently, not used outside the island after its annexation by England in c.1333, but the Stanleys continued to be styled 'Rex Manniae et Insularum' [King of Man and the Isles] in the island's court records until at least the later seventeenth century. Outside the island, perhaps understandably, the Stanleys were content to be styled Lords of Man" [J.R. Dickinson and J.A. Sharpe, 'Courts, Crime and Litigation in the Isle of Man, 1580-1700', Historical Research vol 72, 1999, pp 140-59, quoting from p 142] Furthermore, even if the Stanleys or their heirs did discontinue its use at some point, it appears that it is not uncommon for rulers to change their title, without affecting their rule or creating a new, separate or detached title. An appropriate example may be furnished by the ancient Welsh kingdoms: after they fell under the rule of the English Crown, they became principalities and lordships. In the same way, the Napoleonic wars brought changes to the titles of a dozen European realms, including Baden, Bavaria, Hesse and Saxony; in 1806 the Holy Roman Emperor dropped that title and changed his style in his ancestral Austria from Archduke to Emperor without ceasing to reign. The Prince of Romania became King in 1881, and the same alteration occurred in Bulgaria in 1908 and in Montenegro in 1910. The tributary kings who were subject to the Thai monarch downgraded to princes during the 19th century. And as recently as 2002 the Sheikh of Bahrain became a King. Feudal duties: the Manx falcon Howe claims to have inherited the rights of the Stanley family as Kings of Man, on the basis of the original letters patent. These letters patent state that the island was to be held by feudal service, specifically by delivering two falcons to the English Crown at various times. This was confirmed in 1610 [MS12, p 69]. The Stanleys and their heirs in possession of Man continued to comply with this requirement until the reign of William IV, by which time the lordship had come back to the British sovereign. According to the original grant, failure to do so or to swear homage to the English crown would constitute a breach of service and thus an invalidation of the grant. It is unclear whether Howe or any of his alleged ancestors have complied with this requirement. |
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