drew up a long list of the lords in his Histoire du bourg d'Écouché, most notable of whom were: Raoul de Gacé William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, King of England (1028–1089) Girard de Gournay, who took part in the Crusade of 1096 Thereafter, and for five centuries, the lordship was split into two branches: Hugues de Gournay, who shone at the siege of St.John of Acre in 1192 King Philippe Auguste, of France (1165–1223) Henry FitzHugh, Chamberlain of the King of England during the English occupation King Henry of Navarre (1503–1559) the Harcourt family Reunification of the lordship Gabriel II, Count de Montgomery, of an old Norman and English family, purchased one half of the lordship at auction on 13 May 1607 for the sum of 20,000 Pounds. He then inherited the other half from Girard de Gournay; Gabriel II was the son of the accidental murderer of King Henri II in a tournament in Paris in 1559 Jean Baptiste Ango, who was the last of the lords. Écouché was a barony with responsibility for feudal judicial and administrative practices. Justice The lords made a show of their power by erecting three gibbets, but in practice exercised only lower judicial powers delegated to an executive sergeant of the Seneschal, a judge who dealt mainly with matters of tax collection and observance of customs. For higher judicial matters, Écouché was attached to Exmes and later to Argentan. Until the Revolution, cases coming from the thirty-odd surrounding parishes were heard every fortnight in the courtroom above the Hall. Access to the court was by way of the storeys exteriors still in existence. The Lords' Resources They received: A duty on animals and merchandise in transit, for the maintenance of roads and pathways Taxes on the sale of drink in inns and property transfer duties (4 deniers per contract). In addition, they had the right to appoint the langueyeurs, i.e. those who checked that pigs were in good health prior to consumption. The Lords' Properties The Manor House built in the 17th century beside the mill The covered market comprising 4 buildings The corn mills, together with mill races, fisheries, waters and rivers Meadows totalling about a dozen acres A four-acre field for crops Common marshlands near the Udon and the Cance, but without right of exploitation Walls, towers, ditches, bridges, the mound and other defensive structures. Écouché, a city Écouché was