Notes:

She inherited the Castle and Manor of Bolingbroke and other large estates in Lincolnshire from her father. She was created 1st Countess of Lincoln [England] on 27 October 1232, suo jure.

Hawise of Chester, 1st Countess of Lincoln suo jure (1180- 6 June 1241/3 May 1243), was an Anglo-Norman noblewoman and a wealthy heiress. Her father was Hugh de Kevelioc, 5th Earl of Chester. She was the sister and a co-heiress of Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester. She was created suo jure 1st Countess of Lincoln in 1232. She was the wife of Robert de Quincy, by whom she had one daughter, Margaret, who became heiress to her title and estates. She was also known as Hawise of Kevelioc.
Family

Hawise was born in 1180 in Chester, Cheshire, England, the youngest child of Hugh de Kevelioc, 5th Earl of Chester and Bertrade de Montfort of Évreux, a cousin of King Henry II of England. Hawise had four siblings, including Maud of Chester, Countess of Huntingdon, Mabel of Chester, Countess of Arundel, Agnes of Chester, Countess of Derby, and a brother Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester. She also had an illegitimate half-sister, Amice of Chester who married Ralph de Mainwaring, Justice of Chester by whom she had children.

Her paternal grandparents were Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester, and Maud of Gloucester, the granddaughter of King Henry I of England, and her maternal grandparents were Simon III de Montfort and Mahaut.

In 1181, when Hawise was a year old, her father died. He had served in Henry II's Irish campaigns after his estates had been restored to him in 1177. They had been confiscated by the King as a result of his having taken part in the baronial Revolt of 1173-1174. Her only brother Ranulf succeeded him as the 6th Earl of Chester.

She inherited the castle and manor of Bolingbroke, and other large estates from her brother to whom she was co-heiress after his death on 26 October 1232. Hawise had already became 1st Countess of Lincoln in April 1231, when her brother Ranulf de Blondeville, 1st Earl of Lincoln resigned the title in her favour. He granted her the title by a formal charter under his seal which was confirmed by King Henry III. She was formally invested as suo jure 1st Countess of Lincoln by King Henry III on 27 October 1232 the day after her brother's death.

Less than a month later, in the same manner as her brother Ranulf de Blondeville, 1st Earl of Lincoln, she likewise made an inter vivos gift, after receiving dispensation from the crown, of the Earldom of Lincoln to her daughter Margaret de Quincy who then became 2nd Countess of Lincoln suo jureand her son-in-law John de Lacy, Baron of Pontefract who then became the 2nd Earl of Lincoln by right of his wife. (John de Lacy is mistakenly called the 1st Earl of Lincoln in many references.) They were formally invested by King Henry III as Countess and Earl of Lincoln on 23 November 1232.

Marriage and issue

Sometime before 1206, she married Robert de Quincy, son of Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester and Margaret de Beaumont of Leicester. The marriage produced one daughter:

Margaret de Quincy, 2nd Countess of Lincoln suo jure (c.1206 - March 1266), married firstly in 1221 John de Lacy, 2nd Earl of Lincoln by whom she had two children, Edmund de Lacy, Baron of Pontefract, and Maud de Lacy; she married secondly on 6 January 1242 Walter Marshal, 5th Earl of Pembroke.

Hawise's husband Robert died in 1217 in London. He had been accidentally poisoned through medicine prepared by a Cistercian monk. Robert and his father had both been excommunicated in December 1215 as a result of the latter having been one of the 25 sureties of the Magna Carta six months before. Hawise died sometime between 6 June 1241 and 3 May 1243. She was more than sixty years of age.

Hawisse was married a second time to Sir Warren de Bostoke; they had a son, Sir Henry de Bostoke.

[Sources: Burke's Landed Gentry (1847), vol. 1, p. 81; G. Ormerod, "History of the County Palatine and City of Chester" (1882), vol. 3, pp. 253, 259; J. P. Rylands, "The Visitation of Cheshire in the Year 1580", Harliean Soc., vol. 18, p. 27.

Hawise married Robert de Quincey Bef 1206. Robert (son of Saher de Quency, 1st Earl of Winchester and Margaret de Beaumont) died 1217, London, England. [Group Sheet]

1. Margaret de Quincy was born Abt 1206; died Abt Mar 1265/66, Hampstead, London, England; was buried Clerkenwell, London, England.

Notes:

He was also known as Hugh le Meschin. He succeeded to the title of 3rd Earl of Chester [E., 1071] on 16 December 1153. He succeeded to the title of Vicomte d'Avranches [Normandy] on 16 December 1153. He fought in the Battle of Alnwick on 13 July 1174, where he was taken prisoner by King Henry II. He was deprived of his Earldom, but was then restored in January 1177.

Hugh de Kevelioc, 5th Earl of Chester (1147 - 30 June 1181) was the son of Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester and Maud of Gloucester, daughter of Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester (otherwise known as Robert de Caen, the illegitimate son of Henry I of England, making her Henry's granddaughter).

Early life

He is thought to have been born Kevelioc in Monmouth. But he may have taken the name of, the cwmwd of Cyfeiliog (in modern Powys) in the southern part of the Kingdom of Powys, Wales.

He was underage when his father's death in 1153 made him heir to his family's estates on both sides of the channel. He joined the baronial Revolt of 1173-1174 against King Henry II of England, and was influential in convincing the Bretons to revolt. After being captured and imprisoned after the Battle of Alnwick, he finally got his estates restored in 1177, and served in King Henry's Irish campaigns.
Marriage

In 1169 he married Bertrade de Montfort of Evreux, daughter of Simon III de Montfort. She was the cousin of King Henry, who gave her away in marriage. Their children were:

Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester
Matilda (Maud) of Chester (1171-1233), married David of Scotland, 8th Earl of Huntingdon
Mabel of Chester, married William d'Aubigny, 3rd Earl of Arundel
Agnes of Chester (died 2 November 1247), married William de Ferrers, 4th Earl of Derby
Hawise of Chester (1180-1242), married Robert II de Quincy
Beatrix of Chester, married Lord William Belward of Malpas

Hugh also had another daughter, Amice of Chester, who married Ralph de Mainwaring. There is no record of Amice's mother or whether she was Hugh's wife or mistress. The issue of Amice's legitimacy has been subject to a longstanding dispute.

One letter from the Pope suggests that Llywelyn Fawr may have been married to an unnamed sister of Earl Ranulph of Chester in about 1192, but there appears to be no confirmation of this. If this was the case it could have been either Mabel or Hawise, or perhaps Amice, and the marriage would have had to have been annulled before any subsequent marriages.

Death and succession

Hugh of Kevelioc died 30 June 1181 at Leek, Staffordshire, England. He was succeeded by his son, Ranulf.

Hugh married Bertrade de Montfort, of Evreux 1169. Bertrade (daughter of Simon de Montfort, Comte d'Evreux and Maud) was born Abt 1155; died Abt 1227. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name:

Notes:

She was also known as Bertrade de Montfort.

Notes:

He succeeded to the title of Vicomte d'Avranches [Normandy] circa 1129. He succeeded to the title of 2nd Earl of Chester [E., 1121] circa 1129. He held the office of Constable of Lincoln in 1136, by King Stephen. He fought in the Battle of Lincoln on 2 February 1141, against King Stephen. On 29 August 1146 at Northampton, Northamptonshire, England, he was seized at court by King Stephen, in return for his part in the Battle of Lincoln. He died on 16 December 1153, supposedly poisoned by his wife and William Peverell, of Nottingham.

Ranulf II (also known as Ranulf le Meschin or Ranulf de Gernon) (1099-1153) was an Anglo-Norman potentate who inherited the honour of the palatine county of Chester upon the death of his father Ranulf le Meschin, 3rd Earl of Chester. He was descended from the Counts of Bayeux in Normandy.

In 1136 David I of Scotland invaded England as far as Durham but was forced by Stephen of England to negotiate treaties that involved granting Ranulf's lands to Scotland. Ranulf allied himself to Matilda to further his cause. He took Lincoln Castle in 1141, which was retaken by Stephen in a siege in which Ranulf was forced to flee for his life. Ranulf enlisted the help of Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester to retake the castle and succeeded when King Stephen surrendered to him at Lincoln. Whilst Matilda ruled England, Stephen's queen Matilda of Boulogne managed to defeat Ranulf and his allies at Winchester, which eventually resulted in Stephen being able to resume the throne.

Early life

Ranulf was born in Normandy at the Château Guernon, around 1100. He was the son of Ranulf le Meschin, 3rd Earl of Chester and Lucy of Bolingbroke, who were both significant landowners with considerable autonomy within the county palatine. His father had begun a new lineage of the earldom of Chester. Ranulf married Maud, daughter of Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester and inherited the earldom in 1128. Three years later he founded an abbey in North Wales, colonised by monks from the Norman Congregation of Savigny.

Loss of northern lands to Scotland

In late January 1136, during the first months of the reign of Stephen of England, his northern neighbour David I of Scotland crossed the border into England. He took Carlisle, Wark, Alnwick, Norham and Newcastle upon Tyne and struck towards Durham. On 5 February 1136, Stephen reached Durham with a large force of mercenaries from Flanders and forced David to negotiate a treaty by which the Scots were granted the towns of Carlisle and Doncaster, for the return of Wark, Alnwick, Norham and Newcastle.

Lost from England to Scotland along with Carlisle was much of Cumberland and the honour of Lancaster, lands that belonged to Earl Ranulf's father and had been surrendered by agreement to Henry I of England in return for the Earldom of Chester. Ranulf claimed that his father had at that time been disinherited. When he heard of the concessions made to the Scottish King, Ranulf left Stephen's court in a rage.

In the second Treaty of Durham (1139), Stephen was even more generous to David, granting the Earldom of Northumbria (Carlisle, Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire north of the Ribble) to his son Prince Henry. Ranulf was prepared to revolt in order to win back his lordship of the north.

Ranulph takes Lincoln

By this time Matilda, named as the future Queen by her father Henry I, had gathered enough strength to contest Stephen's usurpation, supported by her husband Geoffrey of Anjou and her half-brother Robert of Gloucester. Prince Henry was to attend the English court that Michaelmas and Ranulf planned to overwhelm him on his return to Scotland. Stephen’s queen Matilda of Boulogne heard about the plot and persuaded Stephen to escort Henry back to Scotland. Ranulf then used subterfuge to seize Lincoln Castle. He and his half-brother William de Roumare sent their wives to visit the constable’s wife there and then arrived (dressed in ordinary clothes and escorted by three knights), apparently to fetch the ladies. They then seized the weapons in the castle, admitted their own men and ejected the royal garrison.

Stephen eventually made a pact with the Ranulf and his half-brother and left Lincolnshire, returning to London before Christmas 1140, after bestowing making William de Roumare Earl of Lincoln and awarding Ranulf with administrative and military powers over Lincolnshire and the town and castle of Derby. The citizens of Lincoln sent Stephen a message complaining about the treatment they were receiving from Ranulf and asking the King to capture the brothers. The King immediately marched on Lincoln. One of his key pretexts was that according to the settlement, Lincoln Castle was to revert back to royal ownership and that the half-brothers had reneged on this. He arrived on 6 January 1141 and found the place scantily garrisoned: the citizens of Lincoln admitted him into the city and he immediately laid siege to the castle, captured seventeen knights and began to batter down the garrison with his siege engines.

Ranulf managed to escape to his earldom, collect his Cheshire and Welsh retainers and appeal to his father-in-law Robert of Gloucester, whose daughter Maud was still besieged in Lincoln, possibly as a deliberate ploy to encourage her father's assistance. In return for Robert's aid, Ranulf agreed to promise fidelity to the Empress Matilda.

To Robert and the other supporters of the Empress this was good news, as Ranulf was a major magnate. Robert swiftly raised an army and set out for Lincoln, joining forces with Ranulf on the way. Stephen held a council of war at which his advisors counselled that he leave a force and depart to safety, but Stephen disregarded the odds and decided to fight, but was obliged to surrender to Robert. Ranulf took advantage of disarray amongst the king’s followers and in the weeks after the fighting managed to take the Earl of Richmond’s northern castles and capture him when he tried to ambush Ranulf. Richmond was put in chains and tortured until he submitted to Ranulf and did him homage.

Stephen had been effectively deposed and Matilda ruled in his place. In September 1141, Robert of Gloucester and Matilda besieged Winchester. The queen responded quickly and rushed to Winchester with her own army, commanded by the professional soldier William of Ypres. The queen’s forces surrounded the army of the empress, commanded by Robert, who was captured as a result of deciding to fight his way out of the situation. The magnates following the empress were forced to flee or be taken captive. Earl Ranulf managed to escape and fled back to Chester. Later that year Robert was exchanged for Stephen, who resumed the throne.

Defection to Stephen

In 1144 Stephen attacked Ranulf again by laying siege to Lincoln Castle. He made preparations for a long siege but abandoned the attempt when eighty of his men were killed whilst working on a siege tower that fell and knocked them into a trench, suffocating them all.

In 1145 (or early 1146) Ranulf switched allegiance from the Empress Matilda to Stephen. Since 1141 King David had been allied to Matilda, so Ranulf could now take up his quarrel with David of Scotland regarding his northern lands. It is probable that Ranulf's brother-in-law Phillip, (the son of Earl Robert), acted as an intermediary as Phillip had defected to the king. Ranulf came to Stephen at Stamford, repented his previous crimes and was restored to favour. He was allowed to retain Lincoln Castle until he could recover his Norman lands. Ranulf demonstrated his good will by helping Stephen to capture Bedford from Miles de Beauchamp and bringing 300 knights to the siege of Wallingford.

Stephen welcomed Ranulf’s support but some of the king's supporters, (especially William de Clerfeith, Gilbert de Gant, Alan, 1st Earl of Richmond, William Peverel the Younger, William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel and John, Count of Eu), did not. Many of the magnates were alarmed when it was discovered that Ranulf wanted the king to take part in a campaign against the Welsh. Ranulf's opponents counselled the king that the earl might be planning treachery, since he had offered no hostages or security and could easily be ambushed in Wales. Stephen contrived a quarrel with Ranulf at Northampton, provoked by an advisor who told the earl that the king would not assist him unless he restored all the property he had taken and rendered hostages. The earl refused these terms. He was accused of treason and was arrested and imprisoned in chains until his friends succeeded in coming to terms with the King on 28 August 1146. It was then agreed that the earl should be released, provided he surrendered all the royal lands and castles he had seized (Lincoln included), gave hostages and took a solemn oath not to resist the king in future.

Ranulf, arrested in contravention of the oath which the king had sworn to him at Stamford, revolted as soon as he regained his liberty and "burst into a blind fury of rebellion, scarcely discriminating between friend or foe”. He came with his army to Lincoln to recover the city but failed to break into its north gate and his chief lieutenant was slain in the fighting. Ranulf also tried to recover the castle at Coventry, by building a counter castle. The King came with a relief force to Coventry and although wounded in the fighting, drove Ranulf off and seized his hostages, including his nephew Gilbert fitz Richard de Clare, Earl of Hertford, whom Stephen refused to release unless Gilbert surrendered his own castles. Gilbert, while agreeing to the condition, revolted as soon as he was at liberty. This action pushed the Clares into a conflict from which they had previously remained aloof.

Agreement with King David

In May 1149 the young Prince Henry met the king of Scotland and Ranulf at Carlisle, where Ranulf resolved his territorial disputes with Scotland and an agreement was reached to attack York. Stephen hurried north with a large force and his opponents dispersed before they could reach the city. The southern portion of the honour of Lancaster, (the land between the Ribble and the Mersey), was conceded to Ranulf, who in return resigned his claim on Carlisle. Hence the Angevin cause secured the loyalty of Ranulf.

Prince Henry, whilst trying to escape south after the aborted attack on York, was forced to avoid the ambushes of Eustace, King Stephen’s son. Ranulf assisted Henry, creating a diversion by attacking Lincoln, thus drawing Stephen to Lincoln and allowing Henry to escape.

Treaty with Robert, Earl of Leicester

The Earl’s territory in Leicestershire and Warwickshire brought him face to face with Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester, whose family (including his cousin Roger de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Warwick and his brother Waleran de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Worcester) controlled a large part of the south Midlands. The two earls concluded an elaborate treaty between 1149 and 1153. The Bishops of Chester and Leicester were both entrusted with pledges that were to be surrendered if either party infringed the agreement.

Death

In 1153 Henry granted Staffordshire to Ranulf. That year, whilst Ranulf was a guest at the house of William Peverel the Younger, his host attempted to kill him with poisoned wine. Three of his men that had drunk the wine died, while Ranulf suffered agonizing pain. A few months later Henry became king and exiled Peverel from England as punishment. Ranulf succumbed to the poison on 16 December 1153: his son Hugh inherited his lands as held in 1135 (when Stephen took the throne), while other honours bestowed upon Ranulf were revoked.

Ranulph married Maud FitzRobert Abt 1141. Maud (daughter of Robert de Caen, 1st Earl of Gloucester and Mabel FitzHamon) died 29 Jul 1190. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

In 1172 she founded Repton Priory, Derbyshire.

Maud of Gloucester, Countess of Chester (died 29 July 1190), also known as Maud FitzRobert, was an Anglo-Norman noblewoman, and the daughter of Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester, an illegitimate son of King Henry I of England. Her husband was Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester, whom she allegedly poisoned with the assistance of William Peverel of Nottingham.

Family

Lady Maud FitzRobert was born on an unknown date, the daughter of Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester and Mabel FitzHamon of Gloucester. She had seven siblings including William Fitz Robert, 2nd Earl of Gloucester and Roger, Bishop of Worcester. She also had an illegitimate half-brother, Richard, Bishop of Bayeux, whom her father sired by Isabel de Douvres.

Her paternal grandparents were King Henry I of England and his mistress, Sybil Corbet. Her maternal grandparents were Robert FitzHamon, Lord of Gloucester and Glamorgan, and Sybil de Montgomery, daughter of Roger de Montgomery, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury and Mabel Talvas of Belleme.

Marriage and issue

Sometime before 1141, Lady Maud married Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester. She assumed the title of Countess of Chester upon her marriage. Her husband had considerable autonomy in his palatine earldom.

Shortly after their marriage, in January 1141, Maud was besieged at Lincoln Castle by the forces of King Stephen of England. A relief army, loyal to Empress Matilda and led by her father, defeated the King in the fierce fighting which followed, which became known as the First Battle of Lincoln. In return for his help in repelling the King's troops, Maud's father compelled Ranulf to swear fealty to his half-sister Matilda. Ranulf was seized by King Stephen at court in Northampton on 29 August 1146. Stephen later granted him the castle and city of Lincoln sometime after 1151.

Together Ranulf and Maud had three children:

Hugh de Kevelioc, 5th Earl of Chester (1147- 30 June 1181), married Bertrade de Montfort of Évreux, by whom he had five children, including Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester, Maud of Chester, and Hawise of Chester, 1st Countess of Lincoln.
Richard of Chester (died 1170/1175), buried in Coventry.
Beatrice of Chester, married Raoul de Malpas
Ranulf of Chester, fought in the siege of Lisbon, granted with the lordship of Azambuja by Afonso I of Portugal.

Ranulf had an illegitimate son, Robert FitzCount (died before 1166), by an unknown mistress. His date of birth was not recorded. Robert married as her second husband, Agnes FitzNeel.

On 16 December 1153, Maud allegedly poisoned her husband with the assistance of William Peverel of Nottingham. In 1172, she founded Repton Priory in Derbyshire.

The Rotuli de Dominabus of 1185 records property Wadinton de feodo comitis Cestrie, held by Maud, Countess of Chester.

Maud died on 29 July 1190. The Annals of Tewkesbury records the death in 1190 of Maud, Countess of Chester.

Notes:

He gained the title of Comte d'Evreux [Normandy].

Simon — Maud. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

He was also known as Ranulph de Briquessart. He gained the title of Vicomte de Bayeux [Normandy]. He succeeded to the title of Vicomte d'Avranches [Normandy] on 25 November 1120. He was created 1st Earl of Chester [England] in 1121. He was Commander of the Royal forces in Normandy in 1124.

Ranulf le Meschin, Ranulf de Briquessart or Ranulf I [Ranulph, Ralph] (died 1129) was a late 11th- and early 12th-century Norman magnate based in northern and central England. Originating in Bessin in Normandy, Ranulf made his career in England thanks to his kinship with Hugh d'Avranches - the earl of Chester, the patronage of kings William II Rufus and Henry I Beauclerc, and his marriage to Lucy, heiress of the Bolingbroke-Spalding estates in Lincolnshire.

Ranulf fought in Normandy on behalf of Henry I, and served the English king as a kind of semi-independent governor in the far north-west, in Cumberland and Westmorland, founding Wetheral Priory. After the death of his cousin Richard d'Avranches in the White Ship Disaster of November 1120, Ranulf became earl of the county of Chester on the Anglo-Welsh marches. He held this position for the remainder of his life, and passed the title on to his son.

Family and origins

Ranulf le Meschin's father and mother represented two different families of viscounts in Normandy, and both of them were strongly tied to Henry, son of William the Conqueror. His father was Ranulf de Briquessart, and likely for this reason the former Ranulf was styled le Meschin, "the younger". Ranulf's father was viscount of the Bessin, the area around Bayeux. Besides Odo, bishop of Bayeux, Ranulf the elder was the most powerful magnate in the Bessin region of Normandy. Ranulf le Meschin's great-grandmother may even have been from the ducal family of Normandy, as le Meschin's paternal great-grandfather viscount Anschitil is known to have married a daughter of Duke Richard III.

Ranulf le Meschin's mother was the daughter of Richard Goz. Richard's father Thurstan Goz had become viscount of the Hiémois between 1017 and 1025, while Richard himself became viscount of the Avranchin in either 1055 or 1056. Her brother (Richard Goz's son) was Hugh d'Avranches "Lupus" ("the Wolf"), viscount of the Avranchin and Earl of Chester (from c. 1070). Ranulf was thus, in addition to being heir to the Bessin, the nephew of one of Norman England's most powerful and prestigious families.

We know from an entry in the Durham Liber Vitae, c. 1098 x 1120, that Ranulf le Meschin had an older brother named Richard (who died in youth), and a younger brother named William. He had a sister called Agnes, who later married Robert de Grandmesnil (died 1136).

Early career

Historian C. Warren Hollister thought that Ranulf's father Ranulf de Briquessart was one of the early close companions of Prince Henry, the future Henry I. Hollister called Ranulf the Elder "a friend from Henry's youthful days in western Normandy", and argued that the homeland of the two Ranulfs had been under Henry's overlordship since 1088, despite both ducal and royal authority lying with Henry's two brothers. Hollister further suggested that Ranulf le Meschin may have had a role in persuading Robert Curthose to free Henry from captivity in 1089.

The date of Ranulf senior's death, and succession of Ranulf junior, is unclear, but the former's last and the latter's earliest appearance in extant historical records coincides, dating to 24 April 1089 in charter of Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy, to Bayeux Cathedral. Ranulf le Meschin appears as "Ranulf son of Ranulf the viscount".

In the foundation charter of Chester Abbey granted by his uncle Hugh Lupus, earl of Chester, and purportedly issued in 1093, Ranulf le Meschin is listed as a witness. His attestation to this grant is written Signum Ranulfi nepotis comitis, "signature of Ranulf nephew of the earl". However, the editor of the Chester comital charters, Geoffrey Barraclough, thought this charter was forged in the period of Earl Ranulf II. Between 1098 and 1101 (probably in 1098) Ranulf became a major English landowner in his own right when he became the third husband of Lucy, heiress of the honour of Bolingbroke in Lincolnshire. This acquisition also brought him the lordship of Appleby in Westmorland, previously held by Lucy's second husband Ivo Taillebois.

Marriage to a great heiress came only with royal patronage, which in turn meant that Ranulf had to be respected and trusted by the king. Ranulf was probably, like his father, among the earliest and most loyal of Henry's followers, and was noted as such by Orderic Vitalis. Ranulf was however not recorded often at the court of Henry I, and did not form part of the king's closest group of administrative advisers. He witnessed charters only occasionally, though this became more frequent after he became earl. In 1106 he is found serving as a one of several justiciars at York hearing a case about the lordship of Ripon. In 1116 he is recorded in a similar context.

Ranulf was, however, one of the king's military companions. When, soon after Whitsun 1101 Henry heard news of a planned invasion of England by his brother Robert Curthose, he sought promises from his subjects to defended the kingdom. A letter to the men of Lincolnshire names Ranulf as one of four figures entrusted with collecting these oaths. Ranulf was one of the magnates who accompanied King Henry on his invasion of Duke Robert's Norman territory in 1106. Ranulf served under Henry as an officer of the royal household when the latter was on campaign; Ranulf was in fact one of his three commanders at the Battle of Tinchebrai. The first line of Henry's force was led by Ranulf, the second (with the king) by Robert of Meulan, and third by William de Warrene, with another thousand knights from Brittany and Maine led by Helias, Count of Maine. Ranulf's line consisted of the men of Bayeux, Avranches and Coutances.

Lord of Cumberland

A charter issued in 1124 by David I, King of the Scots, to Robert I de Brus cited Ranulf's lordship of Carlisle and Cumberland as a model for Robert's new lordship in Annandale. This is significant because Robert is known from other sources to have acted with semi-regal authority in this region. A source from 1212 attests that the jurors of Cumberland remembered Ranulf as quondam dominus Cumberland ("sometime Lord of Cumberland"). Ranulf possessed the power and in some respects the dignity of a semi-independent earl in the region, though he lacked the formal status of being called such. A contemporary illustration of this authority comes from the records of Wetheral Priory, where Ranulf is found addressing his own sheriff, "Richer" (probably Richard de Boivill, baron of Kirklinton). Indeed, no royal activity occurred in Cumberland or Westmorland during Ranulf's time in charge there, testimony to the fullness of his powers in the region.

Ivo Taillebois, when he married Ranulf's future wife Lucy, had acquired her Lincolnshire lands but sometime after 1086 he acquired estates in Kendal and elsewhere in Westmorland. Adjacent lands in Westmorland and Lancashire that had previously been controlled by Earl Tostig Godwinson were probably carved up between Roger the Poitevin and Ivo in the 1080s, a territorial division at least partially responsible for the later boundary between the two counties.[34] Norman lordship in the heartland of Cumberland can be dated from chronicle sources to around 1092, the year King William Rufus seized the region from its previous ruler, Dolfin. There is inconclusive evidence that settlers from Ivo's Lincolnshire lands had come into Cumberland as a result.

Between 1094 and 1098 Lucy was married to Roger fitz Gerold de Roumare, and it is probable that this marriage was the king's way of transferring authority in the region to Roger fitz Gerold. Only from 1106 however, well into the reign of Henry I, do we have certain evidence that this authority had come to Ranulf. The "traditional view", held by the historian William Kapelle, was that Ranulf's authority in the region did not come about until 1106 or after, as a reward for participation in the Battle of Tinchebrai. Another historian, Richard Sharpe, has recently attacked this view and argued that it probably came in or soon after 1098. Sharpe stressed that Lucy was the mechanism by which this authority changed hands, and pointed out that Ranulf had been married to Lucy years before Tinchebrai and can be found months before Tinchebrai taking evidence from county jurors at York (which may have been responsible for Cumbria at this point).

Ranulf likewise distributed land to the church, founding a Benedictine monastic house at Wetheral. This he established as a daughter-house of St Mary's Abbey, York, a house that in turn had been generously endowed by Ivo Taillebois. This had occurred by 1112, the year of the death of Abbot Stephen of St Mary's, named in the foundation deed. In later times at least, the priory of Wetheral was dedicated to St Mary and the Holy Trinity, as well as another saint named Constantine. Ranulf gave Wetheral, among other things, his two churches at Appleby, St Lawrences (Burgate) and St Michaels (Bongate).

As an incoming regional magnate Ranulf would be expected to distribute land to his own followers, and indeed the record of the jurors of Cumberland dating to 1212 claimed that Ranulf created two baronies in the region. Ranulf's brother-in-law Robert de Trevers received the barony of Burgh-by-Sands, while the barony of Liddel went to Turgis Brandos. He appears to have attempted to give the large compact barony of Gilsland to his brother William, but failed to dislogdge the native lord, the eponymous "Gille" son of Boite; later the lordship of Allerdale (including Copeland), even larger than Gilsland stretching along the coast from the river Ellen to the river Esk, was given to William. Kirklinton may have been given to Richard de Boivill, Ranulf's sheriff.

Earl of Chester

1120 was a fateful year for both Henry I and Ranulf. Richard, earl of Chester, like Henry's son and heir William Adeling, died in the White Ship Disaster near Barfleur on 25 November. Only four days before the disaster, Ranulf and his cousin Richard had witnessed a charter together at Cerisy.

Henry probably could not wait long to replace Richard, as the Welsh were resurgent under the charismatic leadership of Gruffydd ap Cynan. According to the Historia Regum, Richard's death prompted the Welsh to raid Cheshire, looting, killing, and burning two castles. Perhaps because of his recognised military ability and social strength, because he was loyal and because he was the closest male relation to Earl Richard, Henry recognized Ranulf as Richard's successor to the county of Chester.

In 1123, Henry sent Ranulf to Normandy with a large number of knights and with his bastard son, Robert, Earl of Gloucester, to strengthen the garrisons there. Ranulf commanded the king's garrison at Évreux and governed the county of Évreux during the 1123-1124 war with William Clito, Robert Curthose's son and heir. In March 1124 Ranulf assisted in the capture of Waleran, Count of Meulan. Scouts informed Ranulf that Waleran's forces were planning an expedition to Vatteville, and Ranulf planned an to intercept them, a plan carried out by Henry de Pommeroy, Odo Borleng and William de Pont-Authou, with 300 knights. A battle followed, perhaps at Rougemontier (or Bourgthéroulde), in which Waleran was captured.

Although Ranulf bore the title "earl of Chester", the honour (i.e., group of estates) which formed the holdings of the earl of Chester were scattered throughout England, and during the rule of his predecessors included the cantref of Tegeingl in Perfeddwlad in north-western Wales. Around 1100, only a quarter of the value of the honour actually lay in Cheshire, which was one of England's poorest and least developed counties. The estates elsewhere were probably given to the earls in compensation for Cheshire's poverty, in order to strengthen its vulnerable position on the Anglo-Welsh border. The possibility of conquest and booty in Wales should have supplemented the lordship's wealth and attractiveness, but for much of Henry's reign the English king tried to keep the neighboring Welsh princes under his peace.

Ranulf's accession may have involved him giving up many of his other lands, including much of his wife's Lincolnshire lands as well as his lands in Cumbria, though direct evidence for this beyond convenient timing is lacking. That Cumberland was given up at this point is likely, as King Henry visited Carlisle in December 1122, where, according to the Historia Regum, he ordered the strengthening of the castle.

Hollister believed that Ranulf offered the Bolingbroke lands to Henry in exchange for Henry's bestowal of the earldom. The historian A. T. Thacker believed that Henry I forced Ranulf to give up most of the Bolingbroke lands through fear that Ranulf would become too powerful, dominating both Cheshire and the richer county of Lincoln. Sharpe, however, suggested that Ranulf may have had to sell a great deal of land in order to pay the king for the county of Chester, though it could not have covered the whole fee, as Ranulf's son Ranulf de Gernon, when he succeeded his father to Chester in 1129, owed the king £1000 "from his father's debt for the land of Earl Hugh". Hollister thought this debt was merely the normal feudal relief expected to be paid on a large honour, and suggested that Ranulf's partial non-payment, or Henry's forgiveness for non-payment, was a form of royal patronage.

Ranulf died in January 1129, and was buried in Chester Abbey. He was survived by his wife and countess, Lucy, and succeeded by his son Ranulf de Gernon. A daughter, Alicia, married Richard de Clare, a lord in the Anglo-Welsh marches. One of his offspring, his fifth son, participated in the Siege of Lisbon, and for this aid was granted the Lordship of Azambuja by King Afonso I of Portugal.

Ranulph married Lucy of Bolingbroke Abt 1097. Lucy (daughter of Turold and Unknown Malet) was born Abt 1079; died Abt 1138. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Lucy (died c. 1138), sometimes called Lucy of Bolingbroke, was an Anglo-Norman heiress in central England and, later in life, countess-consort of Chester. Probably related to the old English earls of Mercia, she came to possess extensive lands in Lincolnshire which she passed on to her husbands and sons. She was a notable religious patron, founding or co-founding two small religious houses and endowing several with lands and churches.

Ancestry

A charter of Crowland Abbey, now thought to be spurious, described Thorold of Bucknall, perhaps the same as her probable father Thorold of Lincoln, as a brother of Godgifu (Godiva), wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia. The same charter contradicted itself on the matter, proceeding to style Godgifu's son (by Leofric), Ælfgar, as Thorold's cognatus (cousin). Another later source, from Coventry Abbey, made Lucy the sister of Earls Edwin and Morcar Leofricsson, while two other unreliable sources, the Chronicle of Abbot Ingmund of Crowland and the Peterbrough Chronicle also make Lucy the daughter of Earl Ælfgar. Keats-Rohan's explanation for these accounts is that they were ill-informed and were confusing Lucy with her ancestor, William Malet's mother, who was in some manner related to the family of Godgifu.

Although there is much confusion about Lucy's ancestry in earlier writings, recent historians tend to believe that she was the daughter of Thorold, sheriff of Lincoln, by a daughter of William Malet (died 1071). She inherited a huge group of estates centred on Spalding in Lincolnshire, probably inherited from both the Lincoln and the Malet family. This group of estates have come to be called the "Honour of Bolingbroke".

Marriages

The heiress Lucy was married to three different husbands, all of whom died in her lifetime. The first of these was to Ivo Taillebois, a marriage which took place "around 1083". Ivo took over her lands as husband, and seems in addition to have been granted estates and extensive authority in Westmorland and Cumberland. Ivo died in 1094.

The second marriage was to one Roger de Roumare or Roger fitz Gerold, with whom she had one son, William de Roumare (future Earl of Lincoln), who inherited some of her land. The latter was the ancestor of the de Roumare family of Westmorland. Roger died in either 1097 or 1098.

Sometime after this, though before 1101, she was married to Ranulf le Meschin, her last and longest marriage. A son Ranulf de Gernon, succeeded his father to the earldom of Chester (which Ranulf acquired in 1121) and a daughter, Alice, married Richard de Clare.

Upon her death, most of the Lincolnshire lands she inherited passed to her older son William de Roumare, while the rest passed to Ranulf II of Chester (forty versus twenty knights' fees). The 1130 pipe roll informs us that Lucy had paid King Henry I 500 marks after her last husband's death for the right not to have to remarry. She died around 1138.

Religious patronage

Lucy, as widowed countess, founded the convent of Stixwould in 1135, becoming, in the words of one historian, "one of the few aristocratic women of the late eleventh and twelfth centuryes to achieve the role of independent lay founder". Her religious patronage however centered on Spalding Priory, a religious house for which her own family was the primary patron. This house (a monastic cell of Crowland) was founded, or re-founded, in 1085 by Lucy and her first husband Ivo Taillebois.

Later, she was responsible for many endowments, for instance in the 1120s she and her third husband Earl Ranulf granted the priory the churches of Minting, Belchford and Scamblesby. In 1135, Lucy, now widowed for the last time, granted the priory her own manor of Spalding for the permanent use of the monks. The records indicate that Lucy went to great effort to ensure that, after her own death, her sons would honour and uphold her gifts.

Notes:

Robert de Caen, 1st Earl of Gloucester was born illegitimately circa 1090 at Caen, Normandy, France. He was the son of Henry I 'Beauclerc', King of England and Sybilla Corbet. He married Mabel FitzHamon, daughter of Robert FitzHamon, Earl of Gloucester and Sybil de Montgomery. He died on 31 October 1147 at Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, from a fever. He was buried at Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England. He gained the title of 1st Earl of Gloucester [England] between June 1122 and September 1122.

Robert Fitzroy, 1st Earl of Gloucester (before 1100 - 31 October 1147) was an illegitimate son of King Henry I of England. He was called "Rufus" and occasionally "de Caen", he is also known as Robert "the Consul". He was the half-brother of the Empress Matilda, and her chief military supporter during the civil war known as The Anarchy, in which she vied with Stephen of Blois for the throne of England.

Early life

Robert was probably the eldest of Henry's many illegitimate children. He was born before his father's accession to the English throne. His mother may have been the Welsh princess Nest ferch Rhys, daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr. However, his mother has also been identified as a member of "the Gay or Gayt family of north Oxfordshire", possibly a daughter of Rainald Gay (fl. 1086) of Hampton Gay and Northbrook Gay in Oxfordshire. Rainald had known issue Robert Gaay of Hampton (died c. 1138) and Stephen Gay of Northbrook (died after 1154). A number of Oxfordshire women feature as the mothers of Robert's siblings.

He may have been a native of Caen or he may have been only Constable and Governor of that city, jure uxoris.

His father had contracted him in marriage to Mabel FitzHamon, daughter and heir of Robert Fitzhamon, but the marriage was not solemnized until June 1119 at Lisieux,. His wife brought him the substantial honours of Gloucester in England and Glamorgan in Wales, and the honours of Sainte-Scholasse-sur-Sarthe and Évrecy in Normandy, as well as Creully. After the White Ship disaster late in 1120, and probably because of this marriage, in 1121 or 1122 his father created him Earl of Gloucester.

Family

Robert of Caen and his wife Mabel FitzRobert had seven children:

William FitzRobert (1112-1183): succeeded his father as 2nd Earl of Gloucester
Roger FitzRobert (died 1179): Bishop of Worcester
Hamon FitzRobert (died 1159): killed at the siege of Toulouse.
Philip FitzRobert (died after 1147): lord of Cricklade
Matilda FitzRobert (died 1190): married in 1141 Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester.
Mabel FitzRobert: married Aubrey de Vere
Richard FitzRobert (1120/35-1175): succeeded his mother as Sire de Creully.

Robert of Caen had four illegitimate children:

Richard FitzRobert (died 1142): Bishop of Bayeux [mother: Isabel de Douvres, sister of Richard de Douvres, bishop of Bayeux (1107-1133)]
Robert FitzRobert (died 1170): Castellan of Gloucester, married in 1147 Hawise de Reviers (daughter of Baldwin de Reviers, 1st Earl of Devon and his first wife Adelisa), had daughter Mabel FitzRobert (married firstly Jordan de Chambernon and secondly William de Soliers)
Mabel FitzRobert: married Gruffud, Lord of Senghenydd, son of Ifor Bach. This couple were ancestors of Franklin Pierce, 14th President of the U.S.A.
Father of Thomas

Relationship with King Stephen

There is evidence in the contemporary source, the Gesta Stephani, that Robert was proposed by some as a candidate for the throne, but his illegitimacy ruled him out:

"Among others came Robert, Earl of Gloucester, son of King Henry, but a bastard, a man of proved talent and admirable wisdom. When he was advised, as the story went, to claim the throne on his father's death, deterred by sounder advice he by no means assented, saying it was fairer to yield it to his sister's son (the future Henry II of England), than presumptuously to arrogate it to himself."

This suggestion cannot have led to any idea that he and Stephen were rivals for the Crown, as Geoffrey of Monmouth in 1136 referred to Robert as one of the 'pillars' of the new King's rule.

The capture of King Stephen at the Battle of Lincoln on 2 February 1141 gave the Empress Matilda the upper hand in her battle for the throne, but by alienating the citizens of London she failed to be crowned Queen. Her forces were defeated at the Rout of Winchester on 14 September 1141, and Robert of Gloucester was captured nearby at Stockbridge.

The two prisoners, King Stephen and Robert of Gloucester, were then exchanged, but by freeing Stephen, the Empress Matilda had given up her best chance of becoming queen. She later returned to France, where she died in 1167, though her son succeeded Stephen as King Henry II in 1154.

Robert of Gloucester died in 1147 at Bristol Castle, where he had previously imprisoned King Stephen, and was buried at St James' Priory, Bristol, which he had founded.

Robert — Mabel FitzHamon. Mabel (daughter of Robert FitzHamon, Earl of Gloucester and Sybil de Montgomery) was born Abt 1085; died 1157. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

She was also known as Maud FitzHamon. She was also known as Sybil FitzHamon.