The Stanley family of England between about 1125 A.D. and the present. The family was awarded an earldom for supporting Henry VII, the Lancastrian heir to the throne, against the Yorkist King Richard III, in 1485. "With the exception of the earldom of Shrewsbury, that of Derby is today the oldest extant earldom which is not, like Surrey and Chester, held as a subsidiary title by the Crown or by a nobleman of higher rank." (p. [x]).