| Cascades of earls, rubies, sapphires, diamonds and tortoiseshell hatpins, 76 items in all, poured out. |
| The earls and viscounts had claimed their expulsion would amount to a severance from the English past. |
| Seven of Edward's ten earls possessed Marcher estates, including the powerful Mortimer, Fitzalan, Bohun and de Clare families. |
| The earls and bishops palatine were powerful men, but subjects they remained. |
| Membership was limited to 600 and included five dukes, five marquesses and 20 earls, and the clientele would bet thousands at the tables. |
| But the name earl gradually merged with the Danish jarl and, after the reign of Alfred, earls took over the responsibilities of ealdormen. |
