1910 CASTLE-GUABD AND BARONS' HOUSES 715 A similar service, known as ' heckage,' was due from many of the knights who owed castle-guard to Pevensey : Mr. Salzmann was the first to point out that this word ' was connected with liaga, a hedge, hay, or palisade, and implied the obligation of keeping up a certain portion of the palisades on the ramparts of Pevensey.' "& In proof of this interpretation, he quotes a plea of 4 John in which Hugh Dyve, lord of the manor of East Haddon in Northamptonshire, claimed against Henry Dyve, his mesne tenant, the service of erecting Downloaded from a certain hay upon the vallum of the king's castle of Pevensey, as pertaining to a knight's fee which he held in Brarnpton, Northampton- shire.23 But this service was commuted in 1254 when Peter of Savoy, as lord of Pevensey, made an agreement with John of Gatesden and others by which they compounded for their heckages at the rate http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ of twelve marks for each heckage.24 It seems probable that a service of a somewhat similar nature was due to another Sussex castle ; for there is an interesting series of fines, dated 1266-7, by which in consideration of payments at the rate of twelve marks from every knight's fee William de Breuse released to his knights the castle-guard and murage that they owed to his castle at Bramber.25 Of course, it may be that the Bramber murage was like the murage of certain towns, a payment for the at University of California, San Diego on August 26, 2015 repair of the walls, but, even so, it is an unusual incident of castle- guard. It is possible that further investigation may show the existence of ' barons' houses ' in other castles, and also of other castles where those who owed castle-guard were also responsible for the repairs of the walls ; it is sufficient, however, to call attention to the support given by the cases of Newcastle, Bamburgh, and Dover to the ' garrison theory ' of the origin of the non-dominical burgesses in the boroughs of the eleventh century. A. BALLAED. Sir William Oldhall. SIR WILLIAM OLDHALL was a staunch adherent of the House of York in the Wars of the Eoses. The Oldhalls were a Norfolk family, owning manors in and around East Dereham and Fransham. Edmund Oldhall, father of Sir William, was on the commission of the peace for Norfolk and much employed in county business ; when he died in 1417, William Oldhall was abroad serving under Thomas Beaufort, duke of Exeter, and administration of Edmund's estate was granted to a certain William Shelton, who, spreading reports that William Oldhall had died abroad, succeeded in H Sussex Ardiacol. Collections, xlix. 3. a Salzmann, Hist, of Hailsham, p. 177. •l Sussex Arehaeol. Collections, xlix. 4. 3 Feet of Fines, Sussex Record Soc., p. 721 4c. 716 SIR WILLIAM OLDHALL Oct. alienating two manors of his and appropriated the proceeds. It was not till 1421, when Henry V returned to England after the Treaty of Troyes, that Oldhall was able to petition 1 for redress, and his manors were then restored to him. Oldhall went back to Prance and served under Thomas Montacute, earl of Salisbury, at the battle of Crevant in 1423 and at Verneuil in 1424, where he was knighted ; he distinguished himself in the invasion of Anjou and Maine in 1425, and was sent to Flanders in 1426. He was for a while Downloaded from seneschal of Normandy and was captain of various castles at different times, and altogether gained a considerable reputation as a soldier, in view of which, no doubt, he was summoned to the great council at Westminster in April and May 1434, and again in February 1489, to discuss the war. In 1440 Oldhall became chamberlain and http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ a member of the ' discreet counoil' of Eichard, duke of York, who had been put in command in France, and he thus began a connexion which lasted for the rest of his hie. About 1447 apparently Oldhall acquired from the duke of York the manor and park of Hunsdon, Hertfordshire, and added to the estate by purchasing in 1448 the adjoining manor of Eastwick. The duke had had licence " in 1447 to build an embattled tower of stone at Hunsdon, and Oldhall prooeeded to build there a briok tower 80 feet square with 7 buttresses of at University of California, San Diego on August 26, 2015 great width on each side and measuring in height 100 feet with the ' ovyrstorye ' called an ' oryell' with gilt vanes ; the total length of all the buildings with the stables was 80 paces, and, according to Sir William's keeper of the wardrobe, Humphrey Paris, the total cost was just over seven thousand marks.3 In August 1450 York, who was accused of having instigated Cade's insurrection, left Ireland, where he was lieutenant, and, accompanied, it would appear, by Oldhall, made his way in spite of some opposition to London, where he complained to the king that certain persons ' had in charge, as I am informed, to take me and put me in your castle of Conway, and to strike off the head of Sir William Oldhall, knight, and to have put in prison Sir William Devereux, knight, and Sir Edmund Malso, knight.'4 The king however denied any such intentions. Early in the following October Sir William Oldhall was with the king at Westminster more than two hours and had of the king good cheer. And the king desired of Sir William Oldhall that he should speak to his cousin, York, that he would be good lord to John Penycock and that my lord of York should write unto his tenantry that they would suffer Penycock's officers go and gather up his rents ferms within the said duke's lordships. And Sir William Oldhall answered again to the king and prayed him to hold my lord excused, for, though my lord wrote under his seal of his arms, his tenants will not obey 1 Soils of Parliament, iv. 158 b. ; Patent Rolls, 25 Hen. VL pt. 2, m. 10. 3 itinerary of William of Worcester, ed. J. Nasniith (1778), p. 89. 4 See Gairdner, intr. to Paston Letttrs, L 80 f., ed. 1004. 1910 SIB WILLIAM OLDHALL 717 it, insomuch that, when Sir Thomas Hoo met with my lord of York beyond St. Albans, the western men fell upon him and would have slain him, had [not] Sir William Oldhall have been [there], and therefore would the western men fall upon the said Sir William and have killed him. And so he told the king.5 In the unsettled state of the kingdom, unscrupulous persons had acquired great influence in the country districts ; two such in Norfolk, Sir Thomas Tuddenham and John Heydon, now sought to make Downloaded from friends among York's party, and certain persons, we hear, ' labour sore for Heydon and Tuddenham to Sir William Oldhall and proffer more than two thousand pounds for to have his good lordship.'6 Meanwhile a parliament had been summoned and on 15 October 1450 Oldhall was chosen one of the representatives for Hertford- http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ shire. Parliament met on 6 November, and, being favourable to the duke of York, chose Oldhall as Speaker. It was dissolved on 10 June 1451, and the duke of Somerset came into power. Later in the year there was a robbery of some of Somerset's goods at the Black Friars. An officer of the court, Walter Burgh, accused Oldhall of the deed, and Henry, at Somerset's instigation, issued a mandate forbidding him to quit the city of London under heavy penalties. Oldhall, seeing that his enemies were too strong at University of California, San Diego on August 26, 2015 for him, and being, it seems, embarrassed by monetary obligations (in connexion perhaps with his building at Hunsdon), took sanctuary on 80 November at St. Martin's-le-Grand, which had special privi- leges. Somerset's party, contending that Oldhall was a traitor (alleging presumably that he was an accomplice of Cade) and as such not entitled to sanctuary, persuaded the king to demand him of the dean of St. Martin's. Dean Cowdray however asserted St. Martin's privileges, and proved that it would be a violation of them to insist on Oldhall's surrender ; Henry's piety would not go to such a length, and for the time Oldhall's enemies were foiled. But a few weeks later Oldhall's accuser, Walter Burgh, was set on in the publio street and wounded, and they were not slow to accuse Oldhall of instigating this outrage. Thereupon, on 18 January 1452 certain lords of Somerset's party broke into St. Martin's by night in the absence of the dean, seized Oldhall, and earned him on horseback to Westminster palace. To Oldhall his case must have seemed desperate, but the dean, hearing what had occurred, returned to London in great haste and made urgent representations to the king, with the result that after two days' detention Oldhall was surrendered to him ' in the gate of the Friars Preachers by the servants of the king in the presence of the duke of Somerset and others and thus,' in Cowdray's words, ' we led him back in midday in his proper person in the sight of many people.' 6 Patton Letters, ii. 174-5, ed. 1904. I have modernised the spelling. 6 Ibid. p. 175.