Among the earliest residents at
Hawarden occurs the name of Roger Fitzvalence, son of one of the
Conqueror's followers; subsequently it continued in the possession of the
Earls of Chester till the death of Ranulf de Blundeville, the last earl,
in 1231, when, with Castle Rising and the 'Earl's Half' in Coventry, it
passed, through his sister Mabel, to her descendants, the Montalts.
The Barons de Monte Alto, sometimes styled de Moaldis or Mohaut (now
Mold, 6 miles from Hawarden, where the mound of the castle remains), were
hereditary seneschals of Chester and lords of Mold. Roger de Montalt
inherited Hawarden, Coventry, and Castle Rising, and married Julian,
daughter of Roger de Clifford, Justiciary of Chester and North Wales, who
was captured at the storming of the Castle by Llewelyn, in 1281. Robert
de Montalt the last lord, died childless {8} in 1329, when the barony
became extinct. He it was who signed the celebrated letter to the Pope
in 1300 as Dominus de Hawardyn.
Robert de Montalt bequeathed his estates to Isabella, Queen of Edward
II., and Hawarden afterwards passed by exchange, in 1337, to Sir William
de Montacute, Earl of Salisbury. From that family it reverted in 1406,
by attainder, to the Crown, and in 1411 was granted by Henry IV. to his
second son, Thomas, Duke of Clarence. Clarence dying without issue in
1420, it reverted once more to the Crown, but finally, in 1454, passed to
Sir Thomas Stanley, Comptroller of the Household and afterwards Lord
Stanley, whose son became the first Earl of Derby.
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