A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE It was about this time that John de Somery, lord of Dudley Castle, took upon himself so great an authority in Staffordshire that no man could ' have law or reason by means thereof,' and he domineered there more than a king, so that no man could abide in those parts unless he well bribed John de Somery for protection or helped him in building Dudley Castle, and the said John beset men's houses in that county to murder them, and extorted large sums of money from men. 110 This John was the last of the male line of Somery ; his sister Margaret married John de Sutton, and brought Dudley into that family. In 1312, when the barons beheaded the hated Piers Gaveston on Black- low Hill, several Staffordshire tenants were on their side. Edward was greatly enraged at his favourite's death, but was unable to exact any punish- ment on his executioners, for his army deserted him, and pardons were granted to all those implicated, among whom were U1 : William Trussell, Ralph de Grendon, Roger de Somerville, Nicholas de Audele, John de Swynnerton, Thomas de Ardene, Robert de Wolseley, Edmund son of Edmund Trussell, John d'Oddyngesels, Hugh de Meignell, Philip Hastang, Roger de Swynner- ton, Nicholas de Longford. The disastrous battle of Bannockburn was fought in 1314, a contest in which the number of the English troops has been much exaggerated, but we know that Staffordshire and Salop provided no less than 3,000 footmen equipped to proceed against the Scots. 112 Besides the foot-soldiers, the sheriffs of Salop and Staffordshire were ordered to furnish twenty carts with four horses, and send them to Berwick on Tweed, while twenty-nine of the chief men of the county, including the Bishop of Lichfield, followed the king to the unfortunate campaign, the chief absentee being Thomas of Lancaster, who, through his father Edmund Crouchback, now held the Ferrers estates in the county. 113 After Bannockburn, Edward was hard pressed for men, and at the Parliament at Lincoln, in which Lancaster was made president of the royal council, the lords and knights promised him a foot soldier from every rural township, 114 and the sheriffs were ordered to certify the towns or vills in each hundred. In answer to this the sheriff of Staffordshire returned the names of twenty-eight towns in Offlow Hundred, thirty in Cuttlestone Hun- dred, twenty-one in Totmonslow Hundred, forty-four in Pirehill Hundred, and twenty-five in Seisdon Hundred, a total of I48. 116 However, these men were never employed ; Lancaster refused to join the army, and the summonses were countermanded. The commissioners appointed to make this levy were William Trussell, John Giffard of Chillington, and William Trumwyn, the last-named being also the Parliamentary representative with Robert de Tok at Lincoln when the levy was ordered. 116 In 1315 the condition of England was miserable in the extreme, dearth and pestilence were added to the misfortune of an unsuccessful war, and to 110 Dugdale, Warwickshire (ed. 1656), 538. 111 Coll. (Salt Arch. Soc.), viii, 31 ; Cal. of Pat. 1313-17, p. 21 et seq. '" Coll. (Salt Arch. Soc.), viii, 32, where the total number of infantry is put at 17,500 ; but were not many of the orders sent to the sheriffs lost ? See Oman, Art of War in the Middle Ages, 573. 113 Stubbs says of him : 'His hatred for his cousin was a stronger motive than his ambition, or else he was a traitor to his country as well as his king. . . . The Scots spared his estates when they ravaged the North, his own policy towards them was one of supineness, if not of treacherous connivance ' ; Const. Hist, ii, 357. "' Ibid, ii, 356. 114 Coll. (Salt Arch. Soc.), viii, 35 ; Par!. Writs, ii (4), 394. m Purl. Accts. and Papers, kii (i), e I 232
