(Vol. ix., p. 85.)
Clarence is beyond all doubt the district comprehending and lying around
the town and castle of Clare in Suffolk, and not, as some have fancifully
supposed, the town of Chiarenza in the Morea. Some of the crusaders did,
indeed, acquire titles of honour derived from places in eastern lands, but
certainly no such place ever gave its name to an honorary feud held of the
crown of England, nor, indeed, has _ever_ any English sovereign to this day
bestowed a territorial title derived from a place beyond the limits of his
own nominal dominions; the latest creations of the kind being the earldoms
of Albemarle and Tankerville, respectively bestowed by William III. and
George I., who were both nominally kings of Great Britain, _France_, and
Ireland. In ancient times every English title (with the exception of
Aumerle or Albemarle, which exception is only an apparent one) was either
personal, or derived from some place in England. The ancient earls of
Albemarle were not English peers by virtue of that earldom, but by virtue
of the tenure of lands in England, though, being the holders of a Norman
earldom, they were known in England by their higher designation, just as
some of the {225} Barons De Umfravill were styled, even in writs of
summons, by their superior Scottish title of Earl of Angos. If these earls
had not held English fees, they would not have been peers of England any
more than were the ancient Earls of Tankerville and Eu. In later times the
strictness of the feudal law was so far relaxed, that in two or three
instances English peers were created with territorial titles derived from
places in the Duchy of Normandy.
As to the locality of Clarence, see Sandford's _Genealogical History_,
1707, p. 222. There is a paper on the subject in the _Gentleman's Magazine_
for November, 1850. The king of arms called Clarenceux, or in Latin
_Clarentius_, was, as it has been very reasonably conjectured, originally a
herald retained by a Duke of Clarence. (Noble's _History of the College of
Arms_, p. 61.) Hoping ere long to send you some notes respecting certain
real or seeming anomalies amongst our English dignities, I reserve some
particulars which may, perhaps, farther elucidate the present question.