Manor
Tostig Godwinson, Earl of Northumbria held the manor of Stoke Lyne before the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. When Tostig's elder brother Harold Godwinson was crowned King Harold II in January 1066, Earl Tostig encouraged Harald III of Norway to invade England, but in September Harold II defeated the Norwegian army at the Battle of Stamford Bridge and both Harald and Tostig were killed in the fighting.
The Domesday Book records that in 1086 Stoke Lyne's feudal overlord was Walter Giffard, who William II made 1st Earl of Buckingham in 1097. The manor remained part of the honour of Giffard until Walter Giffard, 2nd Earl of Buckingham died without an heir in 1164. It then passed to Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, who was descended from a sister of the first Walter Giffard. It remained with his heirs until Anselm Marshal, 6th Earl of Pembroke died without a male heir in 1245. Anselm's estates were divided between five co-heiresses and Stoke Lyne passed to Richard de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford and 2nd Earl of Gloucester, whose mother Isabel Marshal was a daughter of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke. Richard de Clare's grandson Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Hertford was killed at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 leaving no male heir. His estates were divided between his three sisters but there is no mention of Stoke Lyne being among them.
Thereafter the Earls of Oxford held Stoke Lyne as part of their honour of Whitchurch until at least the 16th century.
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