Honour of Laxton

The Honour of Laxton is held by the descendants of Robert I de Caux, who are also the hereditary Keepers of the Forests of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, including Sherwood Forest.
Its caput is the village of Laxton.
Robert III de Caux answered for 15 knights in the Cartae Baronum,of 1166. At this time the Honour had 0.5 knights' fee in demesne (at Laxton, with a small retained interest in Shelford, Nottinghamshire), and 15 tenants holding 14.5 knights' fees between them. The barony was charged scutage on 12.5 knights' fees, but the scutage of 10 of these were remitted due to the honour holder's service as hereditary keeper of the royal forests of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
It is not clear, however, that holders of the honour ever paid the £100 relief for inheritance demanded of barons; this due may have remained with the Honour of Shelford, from which the Honour of Laxton was created in the reign of King Henry I.

Culture

Robert I de Caux was one of the founders of Lenton Priory. Robert II de Caux was a benefactor of Thurgaton Priory, donating to it the mill of Doverbeck, and of Haverholme Priory.
Robert III de Caux was a generous benefactor of the Knights Templar. He granted them the advowson of the church of Rowston, Lincolnshire, nine bovates of land in Brauncceswell, more than seven bovates in Rauceby, two bovates and a toft in Toynton St Peter, a toft in Dorrington, and 1.25 bovates and a toft in Stubton. The Templars also held one toft and an acres from the Caux lands in Shelford.

Assets

The Honour of Laxton has Laxton Castle and the manor of Laxton, Nottinghamshire in demesne, and has subinfeudated 14.5 knight's fees. IN addition, the honour has the manor of Brampton, Derbyshire, in fee from the Honour of Staveley.

The tables show the holders of these subinfeudated fees as of 1166, whether they are of the old enfeoffment (before the death of Henry I in 1135) or new enfeoffment (during the reigns of King Stephen and King Henry II, and (where possible from other documents) where these manors were located.
In additioin, the Caux fmaily holds a manor worth one knight's fee from the barony of Poorstock in Devon, and one from the Honour of Belvoir.

Old Enfeoffment

Holder in 1166	Knight's Fees	Location	Notes
Geoffrey de le Fremont	2	Kirkton Wileghby, Walesby, Besthrope, Birchwood	Geoffrey also held one fee of new enfeoffment; his brother later sold all these lands to Hugh Bardolf. Bardolf may have been in possession of these lands by 1190-1194, when he witnessed Count John;s charter to Matilda de Caux and Radulf Fitzstephen.
Daniel de Creveceur	1.5	Redburn, Yorkshire?
Widow of Robert de Arches	2	Grove, near Retford, and Wragby, Lincolnshire
Jordan de Chevercourt	1	Carlton in Lindrick	Married a daughter of Ranulf FitzIngelram of Alfreton; their daughters were co-heiresses. Isabella married Robert Furneus of Beighton; Letice married Ranulf Newmarch; Mabel married Ralf de St George; Aubrea married Robert de St Quenten
Thomas de Muscamp	1	North Muskham, Little Carlton
Robert D'Eiville	1	Egmanton, Nottinghamshire
Ralf de Hamerwych	1	Amwick, Lincolnshire?
Ralf FitzGeremund	0.5	Ockbrook and Avaston, Derbyshire	Granted to Dale Abbey by his descendants
Robert de St Pierre	0.5
Ralf de Claypole and Ralf de Duddington	1	Claypole and Dry Doddington, Lincolnshire
Robert de Beauchamp	0.5

New Enfeoffment

Holder in 1166	Knight's Fees	Location	Notes
Geoffrey de le Fremont	1		See New Enfeoffment above
Geoffrey de Caux	0.5	Possibly Bradbourne, Derbyshire	Geoffrey may hav ebeen a brother of Robert III de Caux who predeceased him, in which case the fee may have reverted to demesne land
Richard Ursel	0.5		Robert Ursel (a brother?) may have been the de Caux seneschal in the 1160s
Aliz, sister of Robert III de Caux	0.5		Still a minor in 1178

History

The Honour of Laxton was created around 1115, when King Henry I granted Robert I de Caux the hand of Basilia, daughter of Ralph de Normanville. Exactly what the Normanville claim on the honor was is uncertain, but the hereditary keepership of the forests came with it. 
Robert I lived until around 1130, when the honor and custody of the forests passed to his son Robert II de Caux, who was married to Isabel de Ferrers, daughter of Robert I de Ferrers, first earl of Derby. Robert II, like many Nottinghamshire barons, supported King Stephen during the Anarchy, and in 1153 Prince Henry agreed to give the honor to Ranulf, Earl of Chester in the Treaty of Devizes. This he was unable to do, and the treaty itself was rendered invalid by the Treaty of Winchester between Prince Henry and King Stephen, then the death of the earl of Chester in December. 
Robert II de Caux retained his lands, but died soon afterwards. His son Robert III de Caux inherited the honor and custody of the forests. He married Sybil Basset, whose father, one of King Henry I's 'new men', had served as a royal justice from 1110 to his death in 1127.
When Robert III died around 1168 his daughter Mathilda was a minor and therefore a royal ward. King Henry II assigned Reynold de Lucy, a relative of his justiciar Richard de Lucy, as guardian of her and her estate. When she attained majority in 1176 (suggesting she was born around 1162), King Henry gave her hand to his chamberlain and royal justice Radulf FitzStephen, some 20 years her senior. They had no children - or at least, none that survived to adulthood. 
Count John confirmed their position as hereditary keepers of Sherwood  and the royal forests of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire during his years in control of the counties, from 1190 to 1194. Mathilda and Radulf administered the barony and custody of the forests jointly from that point.
'Future history'
Radulf FitzStephen died in 1202. For two years the honour was in royal guardianship, and administered by the Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, as was custody of the royal forests of those counties.
In 1204 King John stayed at Laxton, liked it, and sequestered the castle. He appointed Richard de Lexington to manage the barony and act as keeper of the royal forests, saving the king's enclosures and parks, which remained under the sheriff's control. Lexington is a variant name for Laxton, and it is possible he was a relative of Mathilda's. Richard administered the lands until 1207, during which time King John gave Mathilda a 'gift' of 10 marks from the income of her lands. She seems to have been loving in the Caux manor of Brampton, Derbyshire, at this time.
In 1207, Richard de Lexington fell out of favour with King John, and lost control of the barony. He was fined 200 marks for maladministration of the royal forests, and his chattels were sold to make up part of the fine. From 1207 to 1215 Brian de Lisle, one of King John's household knights, administered the barony and the forests, as deputy to chief forest justice Hugh de Neville. Around 1210 Richard de Lexington was restored to favour, and his son Robert was employed as a clerk to Brian de Lisle.
In 1215 Richard de Lexington joined the rebel side int he Barons' War. On his march north following the siege of Rochester, King John threatened to burn Laxton to the ground. On 1 January 1216 the villagers of Laxton offered King John £100, payable within 8 days, to have his peace and spare their homes. Two weeks later, on 17 January, Richard de Lexington submitted to King John, offering 100 marks and two palfreys to have his goodwill.
Mathilda sought the return of her lands and custody of the forest throughout these years, but King John would have none of it. Following his death at Newark on 19 October 1216, she redoubled her efforts. Although Brian de Lisle was confirmed by the regency council of Henry III in the office of Keeper of the Forests of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire on 7 July 1217, on 6 October Mathilda agreed to pay 60 marks to have the barony restored to her, half at Michaelmas 1218 and half the following Hilarytide.
Though she was now in possession of the barony, sheriff Philip Mark refused to withdraw his men from the forest. In April 1220, complaints were made to the regency about the number of men he had in the forest, and the grave exactions and oppressions they were making, and in summer he was ordered to withdraw his men and not to trouble Mathilda, who paid an additional 80 marks to have the custody of the forests confiirmed as a hereditary right.
Until her death in 1224 she was sole lady of Laxton and keeper of the royal forests, after which the barony and keepership passed to her cousin John de Birkin, the son of her paternal aunt, also Mathilda de Caux, and Adam FitzPeter, lord of Birkin in Yorkshire.
Mathilda de Caux's gravestone can be seen in the church of St Peter & St Paul Church, Old Brampton.

Sources
Crook, David, The Early Keepers of Sherwood Forest (Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire, vol 84, 1980)
Crook, David, Maud de Caux and the custody of the forests of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire (Fine Rolls Henry III Project, January 2006l)
Sanders, I. J.: English Baronies, A Study of their Origin and Descent 1086-1327 (Oxford, 1960), pp 76-77
Stacy, Neil (ed): Cartae Baronum (Pipe Roll Society, 2019)mkm pp 174-175
Yeatman, JP: The Feudal History of the County of Derby, vol 1, part 2 (1886), pp 321-337

Type

Geopolitical, Barony

Leader

Matilda de Caux

Location

Laxton Castle