Ranulph de Blondeville, 4th Earl of Chester
Encyclopedia
Anglo-Norman
The Anglo-Normans were mainly the descendants of the Normans who ruled England following the Norman conquest by William the Conqueror in 1066. A small number of Normans were already settled in England prior to the conquest...
baron
Baron
Baron is a title of nobility. The word baron comes from Old French baron, itself from Old High German and Latin baro meaning " man, warrior"; it merged with cognate Old English beorn meaning "nobleman"...
s whose loyalty to the Angevin dynasty was consistent but contingent on the receipt of lucrative favours. He was described as "almost the last relic of the great feudal aristocracy of the Conquest".
Early life
Ranulf, born in 1172, was the son of Hugh de KeveliocHugh de Kevelioc, 3rd Earl of Chester
Hugh de Kevelioc, 5th Earl of Chester was the son of Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester and Maud of Gloucester, daughter of Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester .-Early life:He is thought to have been born Kevelioc in Monmouth...
and Bertrade de Montfort of Evreux. He was said to have been small in physical stature.
He succeeded to the earldom of Chester
Earl of Chester
The Earldom of Chester was one of the most powerful earldoms in medieval England. Since 1301 the title has generally been granted to heirs-apparent to the English throne, and from the late 14th century it has been given only in conjunction with that of Prince of Wales.- Honour of Chester :The...
(like his father before him) as a minor (aged nine) and attained his majority in 1187, which gave him control of his estates in England and Normandy.
Early career
In 1189, aged seventeen, he was married to Constance of BrittanyConstance, Duchess of Brittany
Constance of Penthièvre was hereditary Duchess of Brittany between 1171 and 1196...
, the widow of Henry II
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
’s son Geoffrey, and the mother of Arthur of Brittany, with whom King John
John of England
John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...
contested the succession. Henry did not trust the Duchess and wanted her married to a magnate
Magnate
Magnate, from the Late Latin magnas, a great man, itself from Latin magnus 'great', designates a noble or other man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or other qualities...
he could trust. The marriage gave Ranulf control of the earldom of Richmond
Earl of Richmond
The now-extinct title of Earl of Richmond was created many times in the Peerage of England. The earldom of Richmond was held by various Bretons, Normans, the royal families of Plantagenet, Capet, Savoy, Tudor and Stuart.-History:...
and the duchy of Brittany
Duke of Brittany
The Duchy of Brittany was a medieval tribal and feudal state covering the northwestern peninsula of Europe,bordered by the Alantic Ocean on the west and the English Channel to the north with less definitive borders of the Loire River to the south and Normandy to the east...
, but was not a success and they separated.
In 1196, King Richard I of England
Richard I of England
Richard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, and Overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period...
nominated the nine-year-old Arthur as his heir, and summoned him and his mother, Duchess Constance, to Normandy. Constance left Nantes
Nantes
Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....
and travelled towards Rouen
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
. On the way she was abducted by her estranged husband. Richard, furious, marched to Brittany at the head of an army, intent on rescuing his nephew. Arthur was secretly taken away by his tutor to the French court to be brought up with Louis
Louis VIII of France
Louis VIII the Lion reigned as King of France from 1223 to 1226. He was a member of the House of Capet. Louis VIII was born in Paris, France, the son of Philip II Augustus and Isabelle of Hainaut. He was also Count of Artois, inheriting the county from his mother, from 1190–1226...
, son of the French king Philip II
Philip II of France
Philip II Augustus was the King of France from 1180 until his death. A member of the House of Capet, Philip Augustus was born at Gonesse in the Val-d'Oise, the son of Louis VII and his third wife, Adela of Champagne...
.
In 1199, Constance escaped from her husband and their marriage was dissolved on the grounds of desertion.
In 1200 Ranulf cemented his power in Normandy by marrying Clemence of Fougères; she was the daughter of William of Fougères, widow of Alan de Dinant, and sister of Geoffrey of Fougères. He had opposed John's attempted coup of 1193–4, and retained many contacts with partisan
Partisan (political)
In politics, a partisan is a committed member of a political party. In multi-party systems, the term is widely understood to carry a negative connotation - referring to those who wholly support their party's policies and are perhaps even reluctant to acknowledge correctness on the part of their...
s of his former stepson Arthur. He spent most of 1199–1204 in France and his continued loyalty was bought by John with further patronage. However the King was suspicious of the Earl, perhaps with some reason. In the winter of 1204-5, Ranulph, suspected of dealings with the rebellious Welsh and of contemplating revolt himself, had extensive estates temporarily confiscated by the king. This episode apparently convinced Ranulph to show loyalty in future. Thereafter he was showered with royal favours. In return he fought John’s Welsh wars 1209–12; helped secure the peace with the pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
in 1213–14, and was with the king in Poitou
Poitou
Poitou was a province of west-central France whose capital city was Poitiers.The region of Poitou was called Thifalia in the sixth century....
in 1214.
Loyal to the king in 1215–16, he was one of the few magnates to witness the Magna Carta
Magna Carta
Magna Carta is an English charter, originally issued in the year 1215 and reissued later in the 13th century in modified versions, which included the most direct challenges to the monarch's authority to date. The charter first passed into law in 1225...
of 1215. He played a leading military role in the civil war by virtue of his extensive estates and numerous castles. Ranulf stood with William Marshal
William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke
Sir William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke , also called William the Marshal , was an Anglo-Norman soldier and statesman. He was described as the "greatest knight that ever lived" by Stephen Langton...
and the Earls of Derby
William de Ferrers, 4th Earl of Derby
William II de Ferrers, 4th Earl of Derby was a favourite of King John of England. He succeeded to the estate upon the death of his father, William de Ferrers, 3rd Earl of Derby, at the Siege of Acre in 1190...
and Warwick with the King, whilst the other nobility of the land stood with the enemy or remained aloof from the conflict.
Regency
On John's death in 1216, Ranulf's influence increased further. There was an expectation at GloucesterGloucester
Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....
that Ranulf would contend for the regency for the young Henry III
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
. Events moved quickly at Gloucester, where William Marshal and the young king were, in Ranulph's absence. The Marshal was put forward and offered the regency by the nobility and clerics gathered at Gloucester before the arrival of Ranulph. There was concern that Ranulph might object to the decision, but when he arrived (29 October 1216) he stated that he did not want to be regent, so any potential conflict vanished.
He was appointed in 1215 Lord of the County of Lancashire with the power to appoint sheriffs. He was also High Sheriff of Lancashire
High Sheriff of Lancashire
The High Sheriff of Lancashire is an ancient officer, now largely ceremonial, granted to Lancashire, a county in North West England. High Shrievalties are the oldest secular titles under the Crown, in England and Wales...
, High Sheriff of Staffordshire
High Sheriff of Staffordshire
This is a list of the High Sheriffs of Staffordshire.The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred...
and High Sheriff of Shropshire
High Sheriff of Shropshire
The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred elsewhere or are now defunct, so that its functions...
in 1216.
Campaign of 1217
Before John's death, rebel barons had offered the throne of England to Louis, the heir to the French throne. Louis had invaded the country during the summer of 1216 and had taken Winchester. De Blondeville put his political weight behind re-issuing the Magna Carta in 1216 and 1217; his military experience was utilised in defeating the rebels at Lincoln in 1217. Ranulph was based in the north midlands and was charged with stopping the northern barons linking up with Louis in the south.The Earl chose to combine personal concerns with those of the country by attacking Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester
Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester
Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester was one of the leaders of the baronial rebellion against King John of England, and a major figure in both Scotland and England in the decades around the turn of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.Saer de Quincy's immediate background was in the Scottish...
's castle at Mountsorrel
Mountsorrel
Mountsorrel is a village in Leicestershire on the River Soar, just south of Loughborough with a population in 2001 of 6,662 inhabitants.-Geography:...
in Leicestershire – from which the Earl of Winchester's predecessors had ousted Ranulph's grandfather, Ranulf de Gernon. Louis was persuaded by the Earl of Winchester to send a relief force to the castle. When they arrived, de Blondeville and the Royalist force were gone. In fact they had headed to Lincoln to deal with a French force besieging the castle there.
William Marshal with his main army at Northampton also made for the city, and at Lincoln a battle
Battle of Lincoln (1217)
The Second Battle of Lincoln occurred at Lincoln Castle on 20 May 1217, during the First Barons' War, between the forces of the future Louis VIII of France and those of King Henry III of England. Louis' forces were attacked by a relief force under the command of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke...
was fought between the Royalists headed by William Marshal and de Blondeville and the French forces and their allies. The battle went in favour of the Royalists, and they captured forty-six Barons and the Earls of Winchester and Hereford and the Earl of Lincoln recently created by Louis the French King. Following the battle in recognition of his support Ranulf was created Earl of Lincoln
Earl of Lincoln
Earl of Lincoln is a title that has been created eight times in the Peerage of England.-Earls of Lincoln, First Creation :*William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Lincoln and 1st Earl of Arundel Earl of Lincoln is a title that has been created eight times in the Peerage of England.-Earls of Lincoln, First...
by King Henry III of England on 23rd May 1217.
Fifth Crusade
In 1218, de Blondeville decided to honour the crusading vow he had made three years previously, and he journeyed eastwards. He met up with the Count of Nevers and the Count of La Marche in GenoaGenoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
, accompanied by the Earls of Derby, Arundel and Winchester. They then sailed on towards Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and the Nile. An icy winter in camp was followed by a burning summer which affected the morale of the crusaders greatly. During September 1219, the Sultan, wary of the conflict outside Damietta
Damietta
Damietta , also known as Damiata, or Domyat, is a port and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt. It is located at the intersection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile, about north of Cairo.-History:...
, offered the Crusaders a startling bargain – Bethlehem, Nazareth, Jerusalem and central Palastine and Galilee, so long as the Crusaders gave up their war in Egypt. Earl Ranulph was one of many voices in support of taking the offer, and was supported by his English peers. However, Bishop Pelagius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem and the military orders would have none of it. They finally refused the offer and on 5 November they found the walls of Damietta poorly manned, so they attacked and secured the city. When winter came the army was smouldering with discontent. Earl Ranulf left Damietta in September of 1220, with his fellow English earls, leaving behind an indecisive force under the command of Bishop Pelagius and the Military Orders. Upon the crusade’s failure he returned to England to find his rival, William Marshal dead and the government in the hands of Hubert de Burgh.
Final years
From 1220 to 1224, tensions grew between government officials and old loyalists of King John. This flared into open conflict in the winter of 1223-4 when Ranulf among others briefly tried to resist de Burgh’s policy of resumption of sheriffdoms and royal castles. Ranulf built Bolingbroke CastleBolingbroke Castle
Bolingbroke Castle is a ruined castle in Bolingbroke Lincolnshire, England.-Construction:Most of the castle is built of Spilsby greenstone, as are several nearby churches. The local greenstone is a limestone that proved to be porous, prone to rapid deterioration when exposed to weather and a...
near Spilsby
Spilsby
Spilsby is a market town and civil parish in Lincolnshire. England. The town is situated adjacent to the main A16 Trunk Road at the southern edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds north of the Fenlands, east of the county town of Lincoln, north east of Boston and north west from Skegness.The town has...
in Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
around 1220, later the birthplace of King Henry IV, as well as Chartley Castle
Chartley Castle
Chartley Castle lies in ruins to the north of the village of Stowe-by-Chartley in Staffordshire, between Stafford and Uttoxeter . It is a Grade II* listed building...
Staffordshire, and Beeston Castle
Beeston Castle
Beeston Castle is a former Royal castle in Beeston, Cheshire, England , perched on a rocky sandstone crag above the Cheshire Plain. It was built in the 1220s by Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester, , on his return from the Crusades...
in Cheshire. Ranulf was briefly made castellan of Wallingford Castle
Wallingford Castle
Wallingford Castle was a major medieval castle situated in Wallingford in the English county of Oxfordshire , adjacent to the River Thames...
. He made an alliance with Llywelyn the Great
Llywelyn the Great
Llywelyn the Great , full name Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, was a Prince of Gwynedd in north Wales and eventually de facto ruler over most of Wales...
, whose daughter Elen
Elen ferch Llywelyn
Elen ferch Llywelyn was the daughter of Llywelyn the Great of Gwynedd in north Wales by Lady Joan, daughter of King John of England....
married Ranulf's nephew and heir, John the Scot, in about 1222.
De Blondeville's final years saw him acting as an elder statesman, witnessing the 1225 re-issue of the Magna Carta, playing a prominent role in the dispute in 1227 over Forest Laws and, as a veteran, leading Henry III’s army on the ill-fated Poitou expedition of 1230-1. He came to lead the campaign after the death of William Marshal (the younger). He showed vigour and made a thrust into Anjou, but by the end of June the French had reached the Breton border. Ranulf concluded the campaign with a truce with the King of France for three years, to end in 1234.
Earl Ranulf kept in sight his personal advantage. In 1220 some of his estates avoided carucage
Carucage
Carucage was a medieval English land tax introduced by King Richard I in 1194, based on the size—variously calculated—of the estate owned by the taxpayer. It was a replacement for the danegeld, last imposed in 1162, which had become difficult to collect because of an increasing number of exemptions...
; in 1225 Aid was not levied in Cheshire; and in 1229 he successfully resisted the ecclesiastical tax collector. His only major failure, in old age, was not avoiding the 1232 levy of the fortieth on his lands.
Ranulf's death
Ranulf died on 26 October 1232, aged sixty. His viscera were buried at Wallingford Castle, his heart at DieuLacres Abbey (which he had founded), and the remainder of his body at St Werburg's in ChesterChester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
. His various estates were divided between his four sisters Matilda (Maud), Mabel, Agnes (Alice), and Hawise as co-heirs.
Ranulf's second sister Mabel and his eldest sister Matilda (maud) shared in the estates with their other sisters. Ranulf's third sister Agnes (Alice) inherited, along with a share in other estates with her sisters, lands between the Ribble and the Mercy rivers, Powis Castle
Powis Castle
Powis Castle is a medieval castle, fortress and grand country mansion located near the town of Welshpool, in Powys, Mid Wales.The residence of the Earl of Powis, the castle is known for its extensive, attractive formal gardens, terraces, parkland, deerpark and landscaped estate...
near Welshpool
Welshpool
Welshpool is a town in Powys, Wales, or ancient county Montgomeryshire, from the Wales-England border. The town is low-lying on the River Severn; the Welsh language name Y Trallwng literally meaning 'the marshy or sinking land'...
in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, Chartley Castle
Chartley Castle
Chartley Castle lies in ruins to the north of the village of Stowe-by-Chartley in Staffordshire, between Stafford and Uttoxeter . It is a Grade II* listed building...
, Staffordshire, and land at Bugbrooke
Bugbrooke
Bugbrooke is a large village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England, on a ridge overlooking the valley of the River Nene.-Location:It is about south west of Northampton...
, Northamptonshire. Ranulf's youngest sister Hawise inherited the honor and castle of Bolingbroke
Bolingbroke
Bolingbroke is the name of:* Henry IV of England, also known as Henry of Bolingbroke* Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke , a Tory party Jacobite grandee and British statesman...
, other large estates such as Lindsey and Halland in Lincolnshire, and a share of other estates with her sisters.
Prior to Ranulf's death, however, he had also made Hawise, his youngest sister an inter vivos gift, after receiving dispensation from the crown, of the Earldom of Lincoln. In April 1231 he granted her the title by a formal charter under his seal which was confirmed by King Henry III
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
. She was formally invested as suo jure 1st Countess of Lincoln on 27 October 1232 the day after Ranulf's death. She held the Earldom of Lincoln until less than a month later with the consent of the King she likewise gifted the Earldom inter vivos to her daughter Margaret de Quincy and her son-in-law John de Lacy, 2nd Earl of Lincoln
John de Lacy, 2nd Earl of Lincoln
John de Lacy was the 2nd Earl of Lincoln, of the fourth creation.-Background:He was the eldest son and heir of Roger de Lacy and his wife, Maud or Matilda de Clere .-Public life:...
. They were formally invested by King Henry III as Countess and Earl of Lincoln on 23 November 1232.[
On his death Ranulf's Earldom of Chester was inherited by his eldest sister Matilda (Maud) of Chester. Less than a month later with the consent of the King, Matilda gave an inter vivos gift of the Earldom to her son John the Scot
John de Scotia, 9th Earl of Huntingdon
John of Scotland , Earl of Huntingdon and 7th Earl of Chester , sometimes known as "the Scot", was an Anglo-Scottish magnate, the son of David of Scotland, Earl of Huntingdon by his wife Matilda of Chester, daughter of Hugh de Kevelioc.John married Elen ferch Llywelyn, daughter of Llywelyn the...
who became Earl of Chester by right of his mother. He was formally invested by King Henry III as Earl of Chester on 21 November 1232.. He became Earl of Chester in his own right on the death of his mother six weeks later in January 1233.
Biography
- Soden, Iain Sir Ranulf de Blondeville: The First English Hero Amberley Publishing (2009) ISBN 1848686935