Ranulf de Blondeville



=Ranulf de Blondeville "The Good" (1181-1232: Fourth Earl)=

(Kings: Henry II, Richard I, John, Henry III)

Summary




Ranulf de Blondeville, 4th Earl of Chester otherwise known as Ranulph IV de Meschines (1172-1232) was said to have been small in physical stature. He succeeded to the title of Vicomte d'Avranches [Normandy] and the earldom of Chester (like his father before him) as a minor in 1181 (aged 9) and attained his majority (at 16) in 1187. He has been described as “almost the last relic of the great feudal aristocracy of the conquest”. During his minority his inheritance was administered first by Gilbert Pipard and later by Bertram de Verdon.

Throughout his long life Ranulf was loyal to his four monarchs. Under instructions from Henry II he married (in 1189) Constance of Brittany, widow of Henry II's son Geoffrey. Somewhat strangely, Ranulf became father to the heir to the English throne when (in 1191) Richard I declared Ranulf's stepson Arthur of Brittany as successor instead of Richard I's brother John. Ranulf would oppose John's attempted coup (of 1193), but also imprisoned his then estranged wife in 1196. His stepson Arthur was to die in mysterious circumstances after king Richard I died (in 1199) and John grasped the throne. The otherwise childless Ranulf's true feelings towards the stepson Arthur are difficult to fathom. Towards the end of his life Ranulf was powerful enough to defy the Henry III's collection of taxes and begin (in 1225) the construction of Beeston Castle, unfinished at the time of his death (in 1232). Beeston can be seen as a political statement of his own authority. After Ranulf's death the earldom passed to John Canmore - earl for five years (died 1237). Thereafter the earldom was taken by the crown. It is possible that Henry's acquisition of the earldom was a measure intended to prevent anyone else ever getting into as strong a position as Ranulf.


 * Parents: Hugh de Kevelioc, Earl of Chester and Bertrade de Montfort
 * Spouse: 1189, married to Constance of Brittany, the widow of Henry II’s son Geoffrey, and the mother of Arthur of Brittany, with whom King John contested the succession. They were divorced in 1199. 1200, married to Clemence of Fougères; daughter of William of Fougères, widow of Alan de Dinant, and sister of Geoffrey of Fougères.


 * Children: none - the earldom went to John Canmore. However according to some sources, Earl Ranulf & his [second] wife had one child:



[MARGUERITE (-[1220] or before). "Europäische Stammtafeln" cites Ranulf as having a daughter name Marguerite by his first wife Constance, although the primary source on which this is based has not yet been identified. Assuming that Marguerite was the daughter of Earl Ranulf, it is more probable that she was his daughter by his second wife as no record has been found of her claiming the succession to Brittany, despite what would have been her superior claim to her younger half-sister Alix. The "Genealogia Comitum Richemundiæ" records the second marriage of "Constantia filia Conani" and "Ranulphus Comes Cestriæ" was childless. The primary source which confirms her marriage has not yet been identified. Marguerite is said to have married, as his first wife, GEOFFROY [I] Vicomte de Rohan, son of ALAIN [IV] Vicomte de Rohan & his wife Mabile de Fougères (-15 Sep 1221).

Henry II
Henry II was an energetic and sometimes ruthless ruler, driven by a desire to restore the lands and privileges of his royal grandfather, Henry I. During the early years of the younger Henry's reign he restored the royal administration in England, re-established hegemony over Wales and gained full control over his lands in Anjou, Maine and Touraine. Henry's desire to reform the relationship with the Church led to conflict with his former friend Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury. This controversy lasted for much of the 1160s and resulted in Becket's murder in 1170. Henry soon came into conflict with Louis VII and the two rulers fought what has been termed a "cold war" over several decades. Henry expanded his empire, often at Louis' expense, taking Brittany and pushing east into central France and south into Toulouse; despite numerous peace conferences and treaties no lasting agreement was reached. By 1172, he controlled England, large parts of Wales, the eastern half of Ireland and the western half of France, an area that would later come to be called the Angevin Empire.



Ranulf de Blundeville, succeeded to the title of Vicomte d'Avranches [Normandy] in 1181. He was invested as a Knight on 1 January 1187/88 at Caen, Normandy, France. He was styled as Duc de Bretagne between 1189 and 1199 and as Earl of Richmond between 1189 and 1199. A commander of the forces of King Richard I in 1194, he also fought in the Wars with the Welsh between 1209 and 1214. He held the office of Governor of Newcastle-under-Lyme in 1215, and also of Governor of the Peak Castle and Forest. He fought in the defeat of the rebels under the Count of Perche in April 1217, as a Commander of the Royal Army. He was created 1st Earl of Lincoln on 23 May 1217, and held the office of Steward of the Honour of Lancashire. He held the office of Sheriff of Lancashire, Sheriff of Staffordshire and Sheriff of Shropshire. The city of Chester, in Ranulf’s time was a prosperous port described by the monk Lucian as follows:


 * Chester has beneath its walls a beautiful river abundant in fish, with a harbour on its south side where ships from Aquitaine, Spain, Ireland and Germany unload their cargoes of wine and other merchandise. The daily tides provide a flourishing fish trade and its rising and falling makes a wide expanse of both water and sand.



His coat of arms features in both the windows of the Town Hall and on the Queen's Park Suspension Bridge, and shows three "garbs" or sheaves of corn. These feature in the current arms of the city and in the arms of the "Chester Herald". The arms can be found on the Eastgate Clock. The arms of the city are made up in part of de Blundeville's three sheaves of corn, and the symbols are also used in the logo of the unitary authority of City of Chester and West Cheshire. The arms also features in the assay mark for the Chester Assay Office (closed 24th August 1962). More on local heraldry can be found on Cheshire heraldry

At this time Chester appears to have been a significant military port. The Annals for 1185 record that Prince John used it as a base for his failed invasion of Ireland:


 * mclxxxv Johannes sine terra filius Regis Henrici II. cum multa manu armatorum et navium multitudine apud Penbroch Wallie mare ingrediens Ebdomada pascali Hiberniam Rex coronandus petiit. Ceteri vero Anglie cc justicie et primores cum ejus (?) sociis apud Cestria iter navale arripiunt. Eodem anno interfectus Hugo de Lacy a quodam Hiberniense in Hibernia. Quo audito Henricus rex preparuit Johannem filium suum iterum mittere in Hibernia. Qui Johannes veniens Cestriam dum ventum ibi expectat, nuntiatur patri suo mors Galfridi fratris sui comitis de Britania. Qua audita Henricus rex revocare fecit Johannem filium suum et misit in Hiberniam Phillippum de Wigornia cum aliis quam paucis. (John Lackland, son of king Henry II., with a great band of armed men, and a multitude of ships, arrived by sea at Pembroke in Wales. On the Sunday after Easter he started for Ireland in order to be crowned king there. But two hundred other justices and nobles of England, with his [their ?] companions, commence their sea voyage to Ireland at Chester. The same year Hugh de Lacy was killed in Ireland by a certain Irishman. When king Henry heard of it, he prepared to send his son John again into Ireland. But when John had come to Chester, and was waiting for a [favourable] wind, the death of his brother Geoffry, count of Brittany, is announced to his father; when Henry heard of this, he caused his son John to be recalled, and sent Philip of Worcester with a very few others to Ireland.)

Philip II of France
King Philip II of France, also known as Philip Augustus is the most famous and successful king of the Capetian dynasty. He was born at Gonesse, Val-d'Oise, in France on August 21, 1165. He was the son of the previous king, King Louis VII and his third wife. He was crowned king 1179, by his sickening father. They co-ruled France until his Father passed away at September 18, 1180. On April 28, 1180 he was married to Isabelle of Hainaut. During his life he would greatly expand the borders of France by driving the "English" (actually the Norman French) out. His relations with Richard I of England have led to some speculation, as Roger of Hoveden wrote:




 * "Ricardus dux Aquitaniae, filus regis Angliae, morum fecit cum Philipo rege Franciae, quem ipse in tantum honoravit per longum tempus quod singulis diebus in una mensa ad unum cantinum manducabant, et in noctibus non seperabat eos lectus. Et diliexit eum rex Franciae quasi animam suam; et in tantum se mutuo diligebant, quod propter vehmentem delictionem quae inter illos erat, dominus rex Angliae nimio stupore arreptus admirabatur quid hoc esset." (Richard, [then] duke of Aquitaine, the son of the king of England, remained with Philip, the King of France, who so honored him for so long that they ate every day at the same table and from the same dish, and at night their beds did not separate them. And the king of France loved him as his own soul; and they loved each other so much that the king of England was absolutely astonished and the passionate love between them and marveled at it.)"

That the two were "in bed together" may be nothing more than a metaphor - and at the time several of Henry II's sons were prepared to do almost anything to grab land from their father. However, Hoveden drops another (possible) hint about Richard in another passage:


 * "In the same year, there came a hermit to king Richard, and, preaching the words of eternal salvation to him, said: "Be thou mindful of the destruction of Sodom, and abstain from what is unlawful; for if thou dost not, a vengeance worthy of God shall overtake thee". The king, however, intent upon the things of this world, and not those that are of God, was not able so readily to withdraw his mind from what was unlawful, unless a revelation should come to him from above or he should behold a sign. For he despised the person of his advisor, not understanding that sometimes the Lord reveals to babes the things that are hidden from the wise; for the lepers announced the good tidings to Samaria [2 Kings 7], and the ass of Balaam recalled its master from the unlawful way. Wherefore, the hermit, leaving the king, went his way, and hid himself from before his face. In the process of time, however, although the before-named king despised the admonitions of the poor hermit, still, by inspiration of Divine grace, he retained some part of his warning in his memory, having faith in the Lord, that He who recalled the publicans and the Canaanitish woman to repentance, in his great mercy would give to him a penitent heart. Hence it was, that on the Lord's day in Easter when the Lord visited him with a rod of iron, not that he might bruise him, but that he might receive the scourging to his advantage. For on that day the Lord scourged him with a severe attack of illness, so that calling before him religious men, he was not ashamed to confess the guiltiness of his life, and after receiving absolution, took back his wife, whom for along time he had not known, and putting away all illicit intercourse, he remained constant to his wife and the two become one flesh and Lord gave him health of both body and soul…"

Whatever type of "love" it was (and there has been much speculation - given that "lectus" could mean couch and "deligo" could mean esteem) it was not to last. In 1189, Philip II went on the Third Crusade with Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I "Barbarossa", and Richard. After Acre surrendered on July 12, 1191, Philip decided to return to France, because he was tired of crusading, and was ill with dysentery. King Richard was displeased with this decision and was said to have said:


 * "It is a shame and a disgrace on my lord if he goes away without having finished the business that brought him hither. But still, if he finds himself in bad health, or is afraid lest he should die here, his will be done."

This was not their first falling-out. In late March 1191, while in Sicily, Richard had rejected his long-term betrothal to Philip’s sister Alice and announced his decision to marry Berengaria of Navarre. Richard then went on to claim that Alice had been his father’s mistress and had borne him an illegitimate son. When King Philip returned to France, he used King Richard's absence to take back some of the French land which was under English rule. King Richard finally returned to England in 1194: there was a delay in his return due to Richard being captured by duke Leopold V of Austria and held for ransom by Henry VI, the Holy Roman Emperor. Richard regained most of the land King Philip had taken, but Richard died in 1199, and was succeeded by somewhat unpopular King John. Under John, England was to lose Maine, Touraine, Anjou, Brittany, and all of Normandy to Philip and even have a French prince proclaimed King of England. John's death (1216), in the midst of a French invasion and a civil war left a very young Henry III (1 October 1207 – 16 November 1272) next in line.

In such times lived Ranulf de Blondeville, Earl of Chester. His support at key moments for Henry II, Richard, John and Henry III literally "made history".

Young Ranulf


Ranulf's birthplace (1170) is something of a mystery. Some place his birth at Blanville (hence "deBlanville - one of the many spellings of his name) near Avranches in Normandy, others at Oswestry in Shropshire. In the same year his father Earl of Chester Hugh of Cyfeiliog was reported in the Chester Annals to have built a mound at Boughton out of the heads of Welshmen killed at the 'bridge of Baldert', possibly Balderton (in Dodleston), south of Chester. Hugh of Cyfeiliog. In 1173, (aged 26) Hugh stuck with family tradition and joined the baronial Revolt of 1173-1174 against Henry II. Hugh was captured, deprived of his lands and had them partially restored in 1177, and then died (30 June 1181 - aged 34) at Leek, Staffordshire. It has been suggested that Hugh was poisoned, like his father before him.



Ranulf (now 11) would spend the next few years at Henry II's court at Domfront in Normandy. He was not quite a prisoner. His early companions would have included Constance of Brittany, whom he was later to marry, and possibly also Otto of Brunswick (born 1175).

During his minority Ranulf's inheritance was administered first by Gilbert Pipard and later by Bertram de Verdon. Gilbert Pipard served as sheriff of Gloucester and Hereford and guardian of Chester before travelling to Ireland with John, son of Henry II, in 1185 and receiving grants of Ardee in Louth and most of Monaghan. He went on crusade with Richard I and died at Brindisi in 1191. Bertram de Verdon (III) was sheriff of Leicestershire until 1183 and deeply religious man accompanying Henry II on his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella in North of Spain. After King John's first expedition to Ireland, Bertram held the town of Dundalk and several castles in Louth. Following Henry’s death Bertram III remained an influential figure with Richard I and became his castellan, went on the Third Crusade with Richard, was governor of Saint-John of Acre and died at Jaffa in 1191.

Both Pipard and de Verdon were probably instrumental in instilling in the young Ranulf the loyalty to the crown and strong sense of honour which was a characteristic of his long tenure as Earl. Another major influence would have been his tutor "Alexander son of Ralph", almost certainly a minor Norman steward who married Annabella de Savage, daughter of a Norman lord from Caen. In his teens he would have also received some "education" from Sir Ralph Mainwaring, who had served Ranulf's father and was his half-sister's husband. Whether the half-sister was legitimate was an argument that was to go on for centuries. In his 1673 "Historical antiquities in two books; the first treating in general of Great Britain and Ireland; the second containing particular remarks concerning Cheshire, and chiefly of the Bucklow hundred. Whereunto is annexed a transcript of Domesday-Book, so far as it concerneth Cheshire"; (usually referred to with the shorter title of Historical antiquities), Peter Leycester presented a discussion as to whether or not she was the lawful daughter of Earl Hugh of Cyfeiliog. This led to a dispute with Sir Thomas Mainwaring of Peover (one of her descendants), who in 1673 published a Defence of Amicia. Leycester replied later that year with "An Answer to the Book of Sir Thomas Manwaringe". After this there followed a paper war of 15 pamphlets (sources can be found here). In 1675 the justices itinerant at Chester assizes declared in favour of Amicia's legitimacy. Whether there is a link between Ralph Mainwaring and Fulk FitzWarren (of which more below) has never been clearly decided.

Arthur
In 1189, aged seventeen, Ranulf was married to Constance of Brittany (born 1161 Bretagne – died September 5, 1201 Nantes) at 29 already the widow of Henry II’s son Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany. The Chester annals records it as follows:


 * In the course of the same year Randle Blundeville, earl of Chester, was knighted by Henry, king of England, on the feast of the Circumcision of our Lord (January 1, 1189 N. S.) at Caen. To whom also Henry, king of England, gave as a wife the countess of Brittany, widow of his son Geoffry, and daughter of Alan (Conan), count of Brittany, Constance by name, with all the county of Richmond; the said Randle, earl of Chester, married her on the feast of S. Werburg the Virgin, that is, February 3.



Constance was already the mother of Arthur of Brittany (born 1187) with whom King John would contest the succession (in 1199). Indeed even at his birth some thought that Arthur should eventually become king:


 * The son of Geoffrey Plantagenet, and Constance, Duchess of Brittany, was born at Nantes, on Easter Day, 1187, six months after the death of his father. He was the first grandson of Henry II., for the graceless young King Henry had died childless. Richard was still unmarried, and the elder child of Geoffrey was a daughter named Eleanor; his birth was therefore the subject of universal joy. There was a prophecy of Merlin, that King Arthur should re-appear from the realm of the fairy Morgana, who had borne him away in his death-like trance after the battle of Camelford, and returning in the form of a child, should conquer England from the Saxon race, and restore the splendours of the British Pendragons. The Bretons, resolved to see in their infant duke this champion of their glories, overlooked the hated Angevin and Norman blood that flowed in his veins, and insisted on his receiving their beloved name of Arthur. Thanksgivings were poured forth in all the churches in Brittany, and the altars and shrines at the sacred fountains were adorned with wreaths of flowers.

A rather unlikely embelishment is sometime added to this tale:


 * At the same time a Welsh bard directed King Henry to cause search to be made at Glastonbury, the true Avalon, for the ancient hero's corpse, which, as old traditions declared, had been buried between two-pyramids within the Abbey. There, in fact, at some distance beneath the surface, was found a leaden cross inscribed with the words, 'Here lies Arthur, Once and Future King'

It was a very convenient find - however the exact date seems to have been around 1191 (two years after the death of Henry II) and by finding these relics the monks of Glastonbury managed to boost the number of pilgrims visiting them. One chronicler who appears to have a rather low opinion of Ranulf of Chester puts the events which ensued as follows:


 * Henry entered Brittany, assembled the States at Nantes, and claimed the guardianship of his grandson's person and domains. They were at first intimidated by his threats, but Constance showed so much spirit that she obtained the keeping of her son, and the immediate government, though she was not to act without the advice and consent of the King of England, who received the oaths of the barons present. The widowed heiress suffered much persecution from the different suitors for her hand, among whom figured her brother-in-law, John Lackland; and Henry, fearing her marriage with some powerful prince, so tormented her by threats of removing her son from her charge, that he forced her into a marriage with Ranulf de Blondeville, Count of Chester, grandson to an illegitimate son of Henry I., a man of violent and ambitious temper, and of mean and ungraceful appearance. In a dispute which took place between him and the Count de Perche, in Lincoln Cathedral, the latter contemptuously called him a dwarf. ' Sayest thou so,' cried Ranulf, 'ere long I shall seem to thee as high as that steeple !' and his words were fulfilled when, as Duke of Brittany, he claimed the allegiance of the count. He made himself extremely hated in Brittany by his cruelty and injustice; and no sooner had the news arrived of the death of Henry II., than the people rose with one consent, drove him away, and restored the power to Constance. Richard I. did not interfere in his behalf, and appeared favourable to his nephew Arthur; acknowledging him as heir presumptive of England, and when at Messina, betrothing him to the daughter of Taucred, King of Sicily.

The young Ranulf had been drawn into a complex political mess. In 1182, Henry II's son's Young Henry, Richard and their brother Geoffrey all began fighting each other for their father's possessions on the continent. The situation was exacerbated by French rebels and the king of France, Philip Augustus. On 11 June 1183, Henry the "Young King" died causing things to settle down for a while. The final battle between Henry's Princes came in 1184. Geoffrey of Brittany and John of Ireland, the youngest brothers, had been promised Aquitaine, which belonged to elder brother Richard. Geoffrey and John invaded, but Richard had been controlling an army for almost 10 years was an accomplished military commander and was able to expell his fickle brothers. In 1186, with the death of Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany (trampled to death at a tournament) an unstable Brittany threatened the delicate balance of power between France and England. Matters became worse in 1187 when to strengthen his position, Richard allied himself with 22-year-old Philip II, who was the son of Eleanor of Aquitaine's ex-husband Louis VII by his third wife, Adele of Champagne. Roger of Hoveden wrote:


 * "The King of England was struck with great astonishment, and wondered what [this alliance] could mean, and, taking precautions for the future, frequently sent messengers into France for the purpose of recalling his son Richard; who, pretending that he was peaceably inclined and ready to come to his father, made his way to Chinon, and, in spite of the person who had the custody thereof, carried off the greater part of his father's treasures, and fortified his castles in Poitou with the same, refusing to go to his father."

Henry II's "trump card" was to marry Ranulf to the widow Constance. They were married on 3rd February 1189 (the feast of St Werburgh).

Weak, ill, and deserted by all but an illegitimate son, Geoffrey, Archbishop of York, Henry died at Chinon on 6 July 1189. Traditionally, Henry's dying words are supposed to have been, "Shame, shame on a conquered king," referring to his sons' insurrections. His legitimate children, chroniclers record him saying, were "the real bastards". When Richard I died (in 1199), John did not gain immediate universal recognition as king as some regarded his young nephew as the rightful heir. Already by 1189 the aging Henry II did not trust the Countess and wanted her married to a magnate he could trust. The marriage gave Ranulf control of the earldom of Richmond and the duchy of Brittany, but was not a success.

Richard I
Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy (as Richard IV), Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Poitiers, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, and Overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period. He was the third of five sons of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. He was known as Richard Cœur de Lion or Richard the Lionheart because of his reputation as a great military leader and warrior.



Ranulf (now aged aged 19) was present at Richard's coronation on the 3rd September 1189. Mathhew Paris wites:


 * There then followed them six earls and counts, carrying a single cofer, on which were laid out the royal insignia and garments; following them was the Earl of Chester, holding up high the crown, which was of gold and wonderfully set with jewels.

In 1190, St John's Hospital (Little St Johns) was founded by Earl Ranulph - its site is now the Blue Coat School. "St. John without the Northgate" was established by Ranulf to care for the poor, but seems to have had a limited parochial function - it was allowed to offer the sacrament to visiting strangers, and, by permission of St. Werburgh's and St. John's, to bury the poor who died there, the brethren themselves, and those in confraternity with them.

Richard Departs
A single reference (the Chronicle of Dieulacres) has Ranulf travelling with King Richard in Crusade in 1190, although the veracity of this is doubted (Ralph of Coggeshall and Roger of Hoveden, who was with Richard, do not mention Ranulf). In September 1190 both King Richard and Philip the French King arrived in Sicily on their way to the Third Crusade. After the death of King William II of Sicily, his cousin Tancred seized power and was crowned early in 1190 as King Tancred I, although the legal heir was William's aunt Constance, wife of the new Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI. Tancred had also imprisoned William's widow, Queen Joan, who was King Richard's sister. When Richard arrived, he demanded that his sister be released and given her inheritance. The people of Messina then revolted, demanding that the foreigners leave. Richard attacked Messina, capturing it on October 4, 1190 and looting and burning the city. Tancred finally agreed to sign a treaty on March 4, 1191. The treaty was signed by Richard, Philip and Tancred. Its main terms were:


 * Joan was to be released, receiving her inheritance and the dowry her father had given to her late husband.
 * Richard and Philip recognized Tancred as King of Sicily and vowed to keep the peace between all three of their kingdoms.
 * Richard officially proclaimed his nephew, Arthur of Brittany, as his heir, and Tancred promised to marry one of his daughters to Arthur when he came of age.
 * Richard and Tancred exchanged gifts; According to some (but not all) versions Richard gave Tancred a sword which he claimed was Excalibur, the legendary sword of King Arthur.



In 1190 Arthur would not yet have been four years old, and his step-father, Ranulf of Chester, had just become step-father to the future king of England. He rapidly found himself dragged into the political in-fighting that started almost as soon as Richard had left the country. Richard had appointed William Longchamp (Lord Chancellor, Chief Justiciar, and Bishop of Ely) to govern England while he was away, but Longchamp's authority was challenged by John, who eventually succeeded in driving Longchamp from power. Throughout 1190, Longchamp's relations with John were difficult and this led to Longchamp besieging Lincoln Castle because the castellan would not surrender the castle and allow himself to be replaced by Longchamp's nominee. The castellan, Gerard de Camville, had sworn allegiance to John and stated he would no longer recognise the chancellor's authority. In response, John took the two castles of Tickhill and Northampton. News of the dispute reached Richard, who sent Walter de Coutances, the Archbishop of Rouen, to England in late spring 1191, with orders to negotiate a peace between John and Longchamp. Walter brokered a compromise between the two as a result of which Gerard was confirmed as castellan and John relinquished the castles. Longchamp also agreed to work to ensure John's succession to the throne in the event of Richard's death but the intense propaganda campaign led by John continued through 1191.

One of the leaders of the campaign against Longchamp was Hugh Nonant, Bishop of Chester, and he convened a trial on 5 October 1191. Longchamp did not attend, but he was deposed and excommunicated, and after trying to hold the Tower of London, was forced to surrender due to lack of support from the citizens of London. He attempted to leave England in various disguises, including a monk's habit and women's clothes (Hugh Nonant wrote that Longchamp attempted on one occasion to hide dressed as a prostitute, which led to him being assaulted by a fisherman who mistook him for a whore). Nonant had already come into conflict with Ranulf as he started to tax Ranulf's property. In July 1192 Ranulf, short of powerful allies, was forced to "donate" control of property to Nonant. Later the same year disaster struck when Richard I was captured while returning from Crusade and began over a year of captivity.

In 1193 Ranulf was appointed a judge in the kings court. This involved the sponsorship of Richard's new Justicar, Walter de Coutances and Ranulf would now for the first time serve alongside Willam Marshall, generally regarded as one of the major soldiers and statesmen of the age. At around the same time his sister married William de Ferrers, 4th Earl of Derby. Now allied to a powerful faction, Ranulph opposed John's attempted coups of 1193-4, besieging John at Windsor castle in 1193. Nonant was soon to fall from power and the properties that Ranulf had been forced to hand over in 1192 were returned (Nonant died in 1198 - on his deathbed, he confessed a long record of sins, which deterred any priest from absolving him.). While plotting at home John was in deep trouble in France - at the start of 1193, John had paid a visit to Philip II in Paris where he paid homage for Richard’s French lands. When word reached Philip that Richard had finished crusading and had been captured on his way back from Holy Land, Philip promptly invaded the Vexin. His first target was the fortress of Gisors, which surrendered without putting up a struggle. Philip then penetrated deep into Normandy, reaching as far as Dieppe. To keep the duplicitous John on side, Philip entrusted the defense of the town of Evreux over to him. Meanwhile, Philip was joined by Count Baldwin of Flanders, and together they laid siege to the ducal capital of Normandy, Rouen. Here, Philip’s advance was halted.

Richard Returns
Ranulf was one of the few who was aware that Richard was returning to England. In March 1194 in the company of Earl David (Ceannmhor) of Huntingdon, Ranulf played a role in besieging and taking Nottingham Castle.

On 4th February 1194, Richard had been set free from Germany by the Emperor Henry VI and letters were despatched from the Emperor to Philip II and John requiring them to restore to Richard all that was his. Before the news may have reached England, John, who was in France, sent over a clerk, Adam of St Edmund, who carried secret letters ordering all castles held by John’s men to be defended against the king. Adam dined with Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, and rashly disclosed certain plans and the thinking of his master. Hubert, alarmed, remained composed and allowed Adam to leave on his mission but he was arrested by the Mayor of London and all his papers were taken and given to the Archbishop. The following day these papers were shown to the bishops, earls and barons of the Council and by common assent they disseised John of all his lands and proceeded to reduce his castles.

To reduce Nottingham Castle were sent David, Earl of Huntingdon and brother of the King of Scots, Ranulph, Earl of Chester, and William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby. The sending of three earls to Nottingham may have been dictated by the knowledge that because of its position and reputed impregnability, a siege of Nottingham Castle could be difficult, absorbing time and money in its reduction. The Earl Ferrers, and to a certain extent the Earl of Chester, would have possessed invaluable local knowledge and could have called on the assistance of their tenants in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire. Earl Ferrers was married to Agnes De Kevelioch, sister of Ranulph de Blondeville, for 55 years. A further reason for sending along three major Earls that may have been well known in the area, was possibly to ensure that the the defenders actually believed that Richard had returned, and that the rumour of his return was not a ruse by John's enemies to take the Castle. However, it isn't clear whether the fact of Richard's imminent return was actually communicated to Nottingham Castle's defenders.



On 13th March 1194 Richard had landed in England at Sandwich. Roger de Hoveden is silent on the king’s movements during the next twelve days until he arrived at Nottingham. The panegyric poem "Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal" states that Richard left Marlborough with a large army and retinue and made straight for Nottingham. Other chroniclers give an itinerary: Richard proceeded to London via Canterbury and Rochester, and left London arriving at Nottingham by way of Bury St Edmunds and Huntingdon, where he was met by William Marshall.

Roger de Hoveden thus describes the siege:


 * Earl David, brother of the King of Scotland, and Ranulph, Earl of Chester, and Earl de Ferrers besieged Nottingham Castle with a large army.

Ranulf and Huntingdon brought-up siege engines including (in its first use in England) a revolutionary machine designed to throw "Greek-Fire". Also present at Nottingham was "Master Urric" one of the King Richard's "ingeniatores", who seems to have regularly accompanied the royal siege train and specialised in the construction of specialist engines. It is likely that Richard had obtained this technology - which would be lacking to John's garrison - from his experience on the Third Crusade, where the Turks had made extensive use of Greek fire, notably in the defence of Acre. Intriguingly, the Pipe Rolls not only reveal the expenses paid for crossbowmen sent to Nottingham, but also those of "quodam Saraceno et quodam Griffon". Greek engineers, some of whom Richard may have encountered in Sicily or Cyprus, were regarded as highly skilled siege technicians. The castle, then under the control of William de Wendenal surrendered after just a few (one source says two, the other three) days. Even so, Richard had to hangs some of John's supporters outside the walls and do quite a bit of fighting before he got his castle back.

Following the siege Richard decided that some recreation was in order whilst the castle was tidied-up and before a Council, which he had summoned, began. So on 29th March:


 * “Richard, king of England, professed a desire to see Clipstone and Sherwood Forest which he had never seen before and it pleased him much. On the same day he returned to Nottingham”

So, while "Robin Hood" does not turn up in the story, the returning Richard does end up in Sherwood Forest.

Around this time Hugh Nonant's star was falling, as William of Newburgh writes:


 * Hugh de Nonant, bishop of Chester, a man unstable in all his ways, who, being pricked by his evil conscience, had fled from the face of the king of England into France, also appeased the king with no small sum of money; and having recovered his bishopric, he afterwards took care to make himself useful more in the affairs of the king than in the duties of his pastoral office.

When Richard was ceremonially "re-crowned" in September 1194 Matthew of Westminster tells us that Ranulf was one of the three "sword bearers":


 * William, king of Scotland, on the aforesaid day of the coronation of king Richard, carried before the king, as his proper service, one of the three swords which were brought forward out of the king's treasury ; and the two counts, Hamelin de Warenne on the right hand of the king of Scotland, and Ranulph, earl of Chester, on his left hand) carried the two other swords.

sources and links

 * Siege of Nottingham Castle and Richard I in Sherwood Forest;

Trouble at Home
The earl was also busy sorting out problems at Chester:


 * mcxciiij Confirmatus est abbas Galfridus in abbatia de Cestra disceptans et litigans coram archiepiscopo Huberto Cantuariensi contra Robertum de Hastinges quondam abbatem Cestrie tandem patrocinante Sancta Werburga et glorioso Comite Cestrensi Rannulpho Galfridus optinuit dignitatem suam reddendo annuatim supradicto Roberto de Hastinges xx marcas duobus terminis et sic pacificati sunt. (1194 The abbot Geoffrey was confirmed in the abbey of Chester after much dispute and litigation with Robert de Hastings the former abbot, before Hubert, archbishop of Canterbury; at last, by the assistance of S. Werburg, and of the glorious earl Randle, of Chester, Geoffry obtained his dignity on the terms of paying an annual pension to the above-mentioned Robert de Hastings of twenty marks by two half-yearly payments; and so peace was made between them.)



Ranulf was by now almost completely estranged from his wife Constance, and in 1195, together with Richard, hatched a plot to weaken the power of Constance. An unstable Britanny was once again threatening the balance of power with France. The plot was probably put together in March 1195 when Ranulf and Richard met at Ranulf's castle of St-James-de-Beuvron to sign a charter relating to St Marie de Maontmorel. Also present were Roger of Chester (Ranulf's half-brother), Roger de Lacy (Constable of Chester), Baldwin Wake and William de Verdun. The plan was to capture Constance and Arthur after luring them to discussions regarding Arthur's right to the English crown. Ranulph captured and imprisoned his wife in 1196, but Arthur escaped, an act that sparked a rebellion in Constance's native Brittany:


 * Arthur, who was now nine years Old, was in 1196 introduced by his mother to the assembly of the states of Brittany, and associated with her in the duchy. His uncle at the same time claimed the charge of him as his heir, and invited Constance to a conference at Pontorson. On her way, it is much to be feared with his connivance, she was seized by a body of troops under her husband, the Earl of Chester, and carried a prisoner to the castle of St.James de Beuvron.

In 1197 Ranulf and Richard led an army into eastern Brittany to subdue the revolt. By this time Arthur had fled to the French court of Phillip II. Finally in 1198 Constance was released, and shortly thereafter had her marriage to Ranulf annulled (the grounds, according to "The Judges of England" (Edward Foss, 1848) are curious: "by reason that King John haunted her company" - John became King in 1199, and was well known for his pursuit of the wives of his barons.).

Richard was unaware that he had already set in motion the chain of events that would lead to his own death. Back in 1196, Ranulf and others had been summoned to Château-Gaillard where Richard intended to build a castle, perched high above the River Seine, an important transport route. Under the terms of the Peace of Louviers (December 1195) between Richard and Philip II neither was allowed to fortify the site; despite this, Richard intended to build a castle to fill a gap in the Norman defences left by the fall of Château de Gisors and to act as a base from which Richard could launch his campaign to take back the Vexin from French control. Richard tried to obtain the manor through negotiation but Walter de Coutances, Archibishop of Rouen, was reluctant to sell the manor as it was one of the diocese's most profitable, eventually Richard grew tired of waiting and seized the manor. Walter de Coutances left for Rome in November 1196 in an attempt to get Pope Celestine III to intercede,. Richard sent a delegation to represent him in Rome. One of the party, Richard's Lord Chancellor William Longchamp (no longer dressed as a woman), died during the journey. Walter de Coutances meanwhile issued an interdict against the duchy of Normandy which prohibited church services from being performed in the region. Roger of Howden detailed "the unburied bodies of the dead lying in the streets and square of the cities of Normandy". Construction began with the interdict hanging over Normandy, but it was later repealed in April 1197 by Celestine III, after Richard made gifts of land to de Coutances. Work at Château-Gaillard cost an estimated £15,000 to £20,000 between 1196 and 1198. According to William of Newburgh, in May 1198 Richard and the labourers working on the castle were drenched in a "rain of blood". While some of his advisers thought the rain was an evil omen, Richard was undeterred.


 * the king was not moved by this to slacken one whit the pace of work, in which he took such keen pleasure that, unless I am mistaken, even if an angel had descended from heaven to urge its abandonment he would have been roundly cursed.

War between Phillip and Richard continued - by the fall of 1198, Richard had regained almost all that had been lost in 1193. The castle of Château-Gaillard became Richard's favourite residence, and writs and charters written there are signed "apud Bellum Castrum de Rupe" (at the Fair Castle of the Rock). Richard did not enjoy the benefits of the castle for long, however, as he died in Normandy on 6 April 1199, from an infected crossbow wound to his shoulder, sustained while besieging the Château de Châlus-Chabrol. The accepted account says that Achard who held the Château had discovered hidden loot, Roman perhaps, and had delivered it to their master. Protocol dictated that Achard send some of the wealth to the count of Limoges as well as to Richard, his supreme overlord. Achard left Richard out of the cut. When Richard found out that a vast hoard of wealth had been discovered and he had been deprived of his share, he launched an invasion. His death at Châlus — a small castle defended by no more than 40 men — was viewed by French chroniclers with glee.

sources and links

 * Richard the Lionheart and Philip II of France;
 * more on Richard and Philip;
 * Philip II in Shakespeare;

John - ebrius et daemonio plenus




King Richard died on Tuesday, 6 April 1199 and was succeeded by his brother John. John's succession was not uncontested as Arthur of Brittany also had a claim to the throne - his mother (Ranulf's wife) the Duchess of Britany had already (in 1194) abdicated in his favour and had the young Arthur proclaimed duke of Brittany as a child of seven years.

While on his deathbed Richard I had (apparently) named John his heir, but the rules of inheritance were still fluid and there were genuine doubts about who was the rightful successor. On the death of Richard, Philip II of France recognized Arthur's right to Brittany, Anjou, Maine, and Poitou, Arthur having invaded the last-named. In return for this Arthur agreed to become the vassal of the king of France.

In 1200 Ranulf (now aged 28) improved his power-base in Normandy by marrying Clemence of Fougères (daughter of Ralph de Fougeres - his father's old ally in the revolt against Henry II). On September 5, 1201 his ex-wife Constance died at Nantes, but not before marrying Guy of Thouars and becoming the mother of twin daughters; Alix and Katherine of Thouars. Constance's cause of death is debated - some historians believe she died of leprosy. Others believe she died from complications after giving birth to twin girls. Other cite a combination of both. Constance has several eloquent speeches concerning grief and death in Shakespeare's play King John - Ranulf does not feature at all.

In 1201 Arthur (aged about 15) was surprised by forces of King John while besieging Mirabeau and his octagenarian grandmother Eleanor of Aquitaine. John for once showing the boldness of his Angevin roots, covered the eighty miles from Le Mans in fouty-eight hours. After his capture by John's Barons, Arthur was imprisoned at Falaise in Normandy, guarded by Hubert de Burgh.

Ranulph spent most of 1199-1204 in France and his continued loyalty was bought by Richard by John with further patronage. One of Ranulf's charters from this period survives in Coventry. However trouble was brewing back at home in Chester. In 1194, with the aid of his cousins Gruffudd ap Cynan and Maredudd ap Cynan, Llyewlyn "the Great" defeated Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd at the Battle of Aberconwy. In 1197 Llywelyn captured Dafydd and imprisoned him. In 1199, Llywelyn laid siege to Mold and took the town on the 6th of January. The constable of Chester, together with the local baron (Ralph de Montalt) were killed. in 1201, John was able to broker a peace treaty with Llyewlyn. Llywelyn consolidated his position in 1205 by marrying Joan, the "natural daughter" of King John (her mother's name is unknown). Peace was only to last until 1210.

Ranulf maintained contacts with supporters of his former stepson Arthur who vanished mysteriously in April 1202 (aged 16). Arthur's eventual fate is unclear, one account was that one of Arthur's jailers (Hubert de Burgh) feared to harm Arthur when ordered to blind and castrate him, and so he was murdered by John directly and his body dumped in the Seine. Other variants on the tale place the guilt with William de Braose who was put in charge of Arthur of Brittany in 1203 - William had personally captured Arthur the previous year at the Battle of Mirabeau. The Margam annals provide the following account of Arthur's death at the hands of John in a typical Angevin rage:




 * After King John had captured Arthur and kept him alive in prison for some time, at length, in the castle of Rouen, after dinner on the Thursday before Easter, when he was inebriated and filled with the devil (ebrius et daemonio plenus), he slew him with his own hand, and tying a heavy stone to the body cast it into the Seine. It was discovered by a fisherman in his net, and being dragged to the bank and recognized, was taken for secret burial, in fear of the tyrant [John], to the priory of Bec called Notre Dame de Pres.

William de Braose rose high in John's favour after Arthur's disappearance. In 1206 King John gave William de Braose the three great neighbouring trilateral castles of Gwent (Skenfrith Castle, Grosmont Castle, and White Castle). These have been interpreted as bribes encouraging silence on the demise of Arthur, seen by many as a rightful heir to the throne. Some years later, after conflict with King John, William de Braose's wife Maud de Braose personally and directly accused the King of murdering Arthur, which resulted in Maud and her eldest son, also William, being imprisoned and starved to death in the dungeon of Corfe Castle. William de Braose escaped (in disguise as a beggar) to France, where he was supposed to have published a statement on what happened to Arthur, but no copy has been found. William Camden writes:


 * True it is indeede that for this cause the French called King John into question as Duke of Normandie. And notwithstanding he was absent, and not heard once to plead, neither confessing ought nor convicted, yet by a definitive sentence they condemned him and awarded from him Normandie and his possessions in France, albeit himselfe had promised, under safe conduct, to appeere in personally at Paris, there to make answere as touching the death of Arthur, who as a liege subject had bound himselfe by oath to bee true and loyall unto him, and yet started backe from his allegeance, raised a rebellion, and was taken prisoner in battaile. At which time this question was debated, whether the Peeres of France might give judgement of a King annointed, and therefore superiour, considering that a greater dignity drowneth the lesse, and now one and the same person was both King of England and Duke of Normandie. But whither do I digresse? After Arthur, there succeeded orderly in the Earldome of Richmond Guy Vicount of Thouars, unto whom the foresaid Constance was secondly married. Ranulph the third, Earle of Chester, the third husband of the said Constance.

Shakespeare's "King John" compresses history somewhat and has John's death follow quickly on that of Arthur (who dies falling from a wall while trying to escape from his prison). In reality, 14 years passed between the death of Arthur and that of John. Arthur is also the principal character of am alternative history novel by the eccentric English writer Frederick Rolfe ('Baron Corvo'), entitled "Hubert's Arthur", posthumously published by A. J. A. Symons in 1935. This is presented as the lengthy narrative of the aged Hubert de Burgh, who is supposed to have saved Arthur's life and accompanied him on crusade to the Holy Land, where he becomes King of Jerusalem and eventually returns to England, defeats King John and kills his son Henry Plantagenet (the historical Henry III) in single combat. The remainder of the book details the prosperous reign of King Arthur, his defeat of the Barons under Simon de Montfort, and his eventual miraculous death.



Arthur's murder is the subject of a Breton folk song Arthur Plantagenest by the group Tri Yann.


 * To the Englysshe kynge yclept Lackelande
 * haþ Arþure yn to ambusshe yfallen.
 * Yslayn bye þe Englysshe kynges sworde
 * is Arþur yn to the Seyne ycasten.
 * Alas! Alas! Playe ye Mvsickers,
 * all Brettanie is mvrnynge hedaye
 * ffor here ydrouned Prynssë
 * Arþure, in hys six tenþe yere off lyffue.
 * Þe Seyne is redde wiþ hys blvde.
 * Soe maye Gvde damne warre.

Arthur of Brittany has been the subject of many "counter-factual" histories, including the Arthur Counter-factual which features in the Chester Mystery novels.

The Loss of Normandy
At the start of the thirteenth century Ranulph (not yet thirty) held lands in Normandy which included all of the Cotentin Peninsula and the rest of Manche and encompassed Bayeux, Vire and St Hilaire du Harcouet. At various time he held castles at Mont St Michel, St James de Beuvron, Avranches, St Pierre de Semilly, Briquessart and St Sauveur le-Vicomte. This provided around 50 knights and their support together with a force of around 250 men at arms. Within five years he would lose all his lands and castles in Normandy to the French.

The result of Arthur's death in 1202 was predictable - Normandy rose in revolt against John and threw in it's lot with Philippe II of France. Many land-holders in Normandy defected to the French (losing their lands in England in the process). Philip took the offensive and, apart from a five month siege of Château Galliard, he swept all before him. On the fall of Andelys, John fled to England, and by the end of 1204, most of Normandy and the Angevin lands, including much of Aquitaine had fallen into Philip's hands.

During this time King John, beset on all sides, behaved in a predictable manner, turning on his friends and supporters and blaming them of treachery leading to the king's losses. In April 1203 Ranulph was charged with treason while at Vire, supposedly having conspired with one Fulk Pagnel and others to change sides in the war. There is some evidence that this could have been an opportunity for Ranulph - he was now married to Clemence and Pagnel had recently married Agatha de Humet, Clemence's mother. Consequently there were strong links between Ranulph and the families of the Norman-Breton border. Fulk and Ranulph were compelled to defend themselves. The details are unknown, but Ranulph was required to return his castle at Semilly to the king and several hostages were given, including Roger de Lacy, Constable of Chester. So many powerful families were prepared to give hostages in support of Ranulph's case that after only a month King John relented and reversed his confiscation of Semilly. As a simple fiscal choice, Ranulph was better served to side with the Anglo-Norman King (soon to be just the English King) but their were few other knights who held the bulk of their lands in England and many of these defected to the side of France, retaining their Norman lands and losing those in England.



At this time Ranulph was in dire financial straights. In 1203 he was the heaviest tax-payer in Normandy, but had actually been unable to collect these taxes for some time. He owed £2600 tax from his dominions, £1150 in loans and other duties payable to King John, £700 to Gascony (another loan), £195 in scutage and £2250 unpaid taxes from previous years. On top of that, 240 quarters of wheat were owed as "crop tax". This massive debt of around £7000 can be compared with the annual income from the lands he was to lose in Normandy: Avranche (£60), St James-de-Beuvron (£100), Vau de Vire (£180) and Bessin (£140) - a total of less than £500. In March 1204 (while Ranulph was back in England), news came from France that Château Galliard had fallen. Roger de Lacy (Constable of Chester) had held out for six months against the French but was now taken prisoner. Ranulph contributed a large part of de Lacy's ransom of £1000 (but had to borrow further from King John to make up his contribution). Mont St Michel fell to the Bretons who opened a second front in the West. Fulk Pagnel now finally changed sides as did Ranulphs followers in St James-de-Beuvron, Creully, Saye and Semilly. Normandy was lost. One positive thing about the loss of Norman lands was that his debts in Normandy were wiped out - there was no longer an Anglo-Norman treasury at Caen, Falaise, Rouen or Verneuil to owe money to.

In the autumn of 1204, Ranulph returned to Normandy. Philippe II had set a period of a year and a day within which the former Anglo-Normans could petition him for the return of their lands in return for their homage. Ranulph probably considered shifting his loyalty to France, but on 14th December 1204 John ordered the seizure and forfeit of all his lands in England (some sources suggest that John suspected Ranulph of colluding with the Welsh - particularly Gwenwynwyn ap Owain). There may well have been good grounds for the Kings suspicions, as Ranulph later made an alliance with Llywelyn the Great (effectively Prince of Wales), whose daughter Elen married de Blondeville's nephew and heir, John Canmore, in about 1222. Ranulph was given safe-conduct and required to appear before the King by the 6th January 1205. He had little time to lose: it took time for the news to arrive in Normandy and a captain would have to be found to attempt a treacherous winter crossing of the channel. Ranulph arrived in Dover before the 6th January, but it was the 16th when he stood before the King at Lambeth.

His professions of loyalty to John were not unrewarded and he either was awarded, or bought (Newton in Nottinghamshire for £100), property confiscated from those who chose to side with France. Had Ranulph (aged ~32) taken the other path and himself sided with France then, how the course of history might have been different..

Rescued by Minstrels
It seems that the rift with the king was soon healed as John granted Ranulf the right to hold a weekly Wednesday market and an annual seven-day fair in Leek in 1207.

In 1207 William Marshal, having "lost the king's love", left court and sailed to Ireland to try to secure his wife's Irish inheritance, the county of Leinster. This period is marked by William's war against his Irish vassals led by Meilyr fitz Henry, John's justiciar in Ireland, who refused to acknowledge William's lordship (at one point, William was recalled to England by John, leaving Isabel in Ireland; she ended up being besieged. King John went so far as to confiscate the lands of John of Early and William's other household knights who held in chief from him). In 1208 William's relations with John took still another turn for the worse, because of William's harboring in Ireland of the fugitive baron William de Braose, not only William's friend but also his overlord for some land in England. John couldn't prove that William was guilty of treason, but he still demanded further hostage, including his squire and best friend John of Early.



However Ranulph fought John’s Welsh wars 1210-12. While John led his campaign against de Braose and his allies in Ireland, an army led by Earl Ranulph of Chester and Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, invaded Gwynedd. Llywelyn destroyed his own castle at Deganwy and retreated west of the River Conwy. The Earl of Chester rebuilt Deganwy (the castle was later demolished by Edward I when Conwy Castle was built opposite), and Llywelyn retaliated by ravaging the earl's lands. It is from this time that a curious tale arises regarding Rhuddlan castle. In 1211, Roger de Lacy (Constable of Chester) rescued Ranulf from Llywelyn's siege at Rhuddlan by collecting a body of "players, fiddlers and other loose persons" from the midsummer fair. This led to the Dutton/Button family being granted the right to hold the "Minstrel Court,"


 * "...in exercise of a privilege and jurisdiction attached to the Button estate; which, from its curious incidents and long assertion, is worthy of notice. It consisted in a right to license all the minstrels and players of Cheshire, and none were to use minstrelsy within Cheshire or the city of Chester, but by order and licence of the proprietor of the Button estate."


 * "Hugh, the first Earl of Chester, in his charter of foundation of St. Werburgh's Abbey in that city, had granted to them, who should come to Chester fair, that they should not be then apprehended for theft or any other misdemeanour, except the crime were commited during the fair. The consequence of which privilege was, that multitudes of disorderly people resorted thither. Now it came to pass that Ranulph, last Earl of Chester, marching into Wales with a slender attendance, was constrained to retire to his Castle of Rhuddlan, where he was strictly besieged by the Welsh. Finding himself very hard pressed, he contrived to give notice of his danger to Roger Lacy, Constable of Chester, who taking advantage of the number of the minstrels and players attending the fair, collected a crowd and marched to Rhuddlan."




 * "The minstrels, says an old account, "by their music and their songs, so allured and inspirited the multitudes of loose and lawless persons then brought together, that they resolutely marched against the Welsh. Hugh de Dutton, a gallant youth, who was steward to Lacy, put himself at their head. The Welsh, alarmed at the approach of this rabble, supposing them to be a regular body of armed and disciplined soldiers, instantly raised the siege and retired with precipitation."


 * "For this good service Ranulph granted to the Laeys, by charter, a peculiar patronage over men of their sort, who devolved the same again upon Dutton and his heirs. This Hugh de Dutton was the third in descent from the above mentioned Odard, and under him and his descendants, the minstrels who had been his assistants upon this occasion enjoyed for many ages peculiar honour and privileges, and even so late as the reign of Elizabeth, when this profession had fallen into such discredit, that it was considered in law as a nuisance, the minstrels, under the protection of the family of Dutton, are expressly excepted out of all acts of Parliament made for their suppression, and have continued to be excepted ever since." - from "The Patrician" (1848) edited by John Burke.

Indeed they were excepted: in the 1744 Vagrancy Act, (17 George II., c. 5.), the heirs and assigns of John Dutton, of Dutton, co. Chester, deceased, Esq., are "exempt from the pains and penalties of vagrancy". The march of minstrels to Rhuddlan Castle is depicted in the carvings at Chester Town Hall.

Ranulph also helped secure the peace with Pope Innocent III in 1213-14, and was with the king in Poitou in 1214. In November 1209 King John had managed to get himself excommunicated by the Pope, and in February 1213, Innocent III threatened stronger measures unless John submitted to Papal rulership. The papal terms for submission were accepted in the presence of the papal legate Pandulph in May 1213 (according to Matthew Paris, at the Templar Church at Dover) in addition, John offered to surrender the Kingdom of England to God and the Saints Peter and Paul for a feudal service of 1,000 marks annually, 700 for England and 300 for Ireland. In effect, King John sold the entire country to the Pope.

Dieulacres Abbey
In 1214 Ranulph founded the the Cistercian abbey of Dieulacres beside the Churnet a mile north of Leek, possibly on or near the site of a former hermitage. The abbey had originally been established at Poulton.

The story is that after the dissolution of his first marriage followed by a second marriage - that is around the time that Arthur was captured - Ranulph had a vision, while in bed, of his grandfather, Ranulf de Gernon. The elder Ranulph told his grandson to go to 'Cholpesdale in the territory of Leek' and found a Cistercian abbey on the site of the former chapel of St. Mary the Virgin there, providing it with buildings and ample possessions. Ranulph went on to command that in the seventh year of the interdict that was to be laid on England his grandson was to transfer to this new site the Cistercians of Poulton (in Pulford, Ches.); this was a daughter-house of Combermere (Ches.) and had been founded in the elder Ranulph's name by Robert the Butler between 1146 and 1153. When Ranulph told his new wife Clemence about his vision and the proposed foundation she exclaimed in French: 'Deux encres' — 'May God grant it increase'. Ranulph thereupon fixed the name of the place as 'Deulencres' and gave it this name when he laid the foundation stone of the abbey.

A case has been made for connecting the 14th-century poem 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' with Dieulacres - while the authorship is unknown (the author is known as the "Pearl Poet") it may have been written by a monk at the Abbey. Several scholars have attempted to find a real-word correspondence for Gawain's journey to the Green Chapel. The Anglesey islands, for example, are mentioned in the poem. They exist today as a single island off the coast of Wales. In line 700, Gawain is said to pass the "Holy Head", believed by many scholars to be either Holywell or the Cistercian abbey of Poulton in Pulford. Holywell is associated with the beheading of Saint Winifred. As the story goes, Winifred was a virgin who was beheaded by a local leader after she refused his sexual advances. Her uncle, another saint, put her head back in place and healed the wound, leaving only a white scar. The parallels between this story and Gawain's make this area a likely candidate for the journey. Gawain's trek leads him directly into the centre of the "Pearl Poet's" dialect region, where the candidates for the locations of the Castle at Hautdesert and the Green Chapel stand. Hautdesert is thought to be in the area of Swythamley in northwest Midland, as it lies in the writer's dialect area and matches the topographical features described in the poem. The area is also known to have housed all of the animals hunted by Bertilak (deer, boar, fox) in the 14th century. The Green Chapel is thought to be in either Lud's Church or Wetton Mill, as these areas closely match the descriptions given by the author.

During 1212-13 the French had been building up an invasion fleet to strike at England. However 0n 30th May 1213, the French fleet of 1700 ships heavily laden with supplies and the personal goods of the French barons was surprised at Damme by 500 ships, 700 knights and their attendants, and a large force of mercenaries, under the command of William Longespée, 3rd Earl of Salisbury. Most of the French army was away besieging Ghent, and so the fleet was only lightly guarded. The English seized 300 ships which were anchored or beached outside the harbour, and pillaged and burned a hundred more. The next day they attacked the rest of the ships as well as the town itself. They returned to England with the seized ships and a large booty (the biographer of William Marshal claimed "never had so much treasure come into England since the days of King Arthur"). Emboldened by the French losses John decide to invade Poitou in February 1214 and Ranulf (now 44) was placed in command of one wing of the army. John was optimistic, as he had successfully built up alliances with the Emperor Otto IV, Count Renaud of Boulogne and Count Ferdinand of Flanders. John had arranged that the German Emperor Otto IV would attack simultaneously. However, few other English magnates joined the campaign due to the fact that John had become almost completely unpopular.



The forces under Ranulf did well, besieging Vouvent and capturing Nantes. Unfortunately the northern wing of the invasion force, commanded by William Longespée and Otto IV suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Bouvines in July 1214. Bouvines was the most important battle for a century - 'the battle that made France'. If Philippe II had lost, the Platagenêts could have won back their lost Norman and Angevin territories, the counts of Flanders could have gained freedom from the French king, and the German emperor might have retained the Lotharingian territories. For England, Philippe II's victory of Bouvines more than confirmed the end of Plantagenet claims to Angevin France and brought John "Lackland" ("Jean sans Terre" to the French) to his lowest ebb - he now had to return to England and explain to the Norman Magnates how he had finally lost their lands in France.

William Longespée would not long survive his return to England. Roger of Wendover alleged that he was poisoned by Hubert de Burgh. William Longespee was buried at Salisbury Cathedral and when his tomb was opened, in 1791, the well-preserved corpse of a rat which carried traces of arsenic was found inside his skull. The rat is now on display in a case at the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum.

Magna Carta and Civil War


On his return Ranulf spent some time with the Knights Templar at their centre in London (the Temple) and while there made a vow to go on Crusade. In January 1215 William Marshall (who is buried in the nave next to his sons, under one of the nine marble effigies of medieval knights there) served as a negotiator during a meeting in the Temple between King John and the barons, who demanded that John uphold the rights enshrined in the Coronation Charter of Richard I. William swore on behalf of the king that the grievances of the barons would be addressed in the summer, leading to John's signing of Magna Carta in June. Ranulf was one of the few magnates not to witness the Magna Carta of 1215, probably because clause 50 of the charter was directed against several individuals including Engelard de Cigogne who had fought with Ranulf in France:


 * We will utterly remove from their offices the relatives of Gérard d'Athée, Engelard de Cigogne, Peter and Guy and Andrew de Chanceaux, Guy de Cigogne, Geoffrey de Martigny and his brothers, Philip Marc and his brothers and his nephew Geoffrey, together with all their adherents, so that henceforth they shall have no office in England.

John de Lacy (married to Margaret de Quincy, daughter of Robert de Quincy and niece of Ranulph de Blondeville through her mother Hawise of Chester) was one of twenty-five barons charged with overseeing the observance of Magna Carta. Because he had signed under duress, however, John received approval from the Pope to break his word after signing (and because he had sold the country to the Pope in 1213, he needed the Pope's approval to sign anything), provoking the "First Barons War" and an invited French invasion by Prince Louis of France (whom the English barons had invited to replace John on the throne). Ranulf once again found himself on the minority side of politics. Only Ranulf, William Marshal (Earl of Pembroke), William de Ferrers (Earl of Derby) and Henry de Beaumont (Earl of Warwick) stood with the King.

This turned out to be quite profitable. John started to distribute his own royal castles to those few loyal magnates that could hold them. Ranulf gained Newcstle-under-Lyme and The Peak Castle in 1215 and in 1216 gained Lancaster. In addition he gained Bridgenorth, Richmond and Middleham. In 1215 John also gave to Ranulf all the rebel-held lands in Lincolnshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Northampton, Norfolk and Suffolk. At the same time Ranulf's friends were lining up on the side of the king or against him. Some including Saer de Quincy (father-in-law to Ranulf's sister) were persuaded by the rebel cause, while others remained loyal to the crown. The First Barons War raged on, John travelled around the country to oppose the rebel forces, directing, among other operations, a two-month siege of the rebel-held Rochester Castle. Guala Bicchieri, the Papal legate, arrived in England in the midst of the baronial rebellion, when the suspension and exile of archbishop Stephen Langton had left the English church without a leader. Bicchieri was a supporter of King John and as the Pope’s representative, played an important role in stabilizing the English church in the aftermath of this civil war and was instrumental in the reissuing of the Magna Carta.

On 17 July 1216 Ranulf and Falkes de Breauté sacked Worcester, which had allied itself with Louis (the sacking included plunder of Worcester Cathedral - John's favoured church). Retreating from the French invasion, John took a safe route around the marshy area of the Wash to avoid the rebel held area of East Anglia. His slow baggage train (including the Crown Jewels), however, took a direct route across it and was lost to the unexpected incoming tide. This dealt John a terrible blow, which affected his health and state of mind. Succumbing to dysentery and moving from place to place, he stayed one night at Sleaford Castle before dying on 18 October (or possibly 19 October) 1216, at Newark Castle (then in Lincolnshire, now on Nottinghamshire's border with that county). Numerous, possibly fictitious, accounts circulated soon after his death that he had been killed by poisoned ale, poisoned plums or a "surfeit of peaches". His last wish was that he should be buried in Worcester Cathedral, so recently plundered by Ranulf.

Henry III


After John's death in October 1216, the war went on between the forces of the future Louis VIII of France and those of King Henry III of England (John's son, who was then aged 10). Louis and his army had landed in England and he was proclaimed King in London in May 1216. Henry's coronation (29th October) was a simple affair, attended by only a handful of noblemen and three bishops. In the absence of a crown (famously lost by his father) a simple golden band was placed on the young boy's head. Legend has it that the 'crown' was made in a hurry from a necklace. Since other English Kings such as Edward V and Edward VIII were not crowned but only proclaimed, and - more to the point - Louis occupied so much of England and was recognised as king by the barons as well as by the king of Scotland, there is a good case for including Louis VIII in the list of Kings of England. On the other hand, John was still alive at the time.

It was thought briefly that Ranulph (now aged 54) would contend for the regency for the young Henry III with William Marshal - however Ranulph soon stated that he did not want to be regent and both William and Ranulph fought against Thomas Châteaudun, the Count of Perche, at the second Battle of Lincoln which occurred at Lincoln Castle on 20 May 1217:


 * mccxvij Capta est Lincolnia a Comite Ranulpho Cestrie et Willelmo Marescallo et ceteris qui cum Rege Johanne [Henrico] tunc temporis tenuerunt in vigilia Sancte Trinitatis. (1217 On the eve of the Holy Trinity [May 20], Lincoln was captured by Randle, earl of Chester, and William Marshal [earl of Pembroke] and others who at this time held with king [Henry]).



A perhaps legendary tale tells of a meeting between Earl Ranulph and the Count of Perche, shortly before the second Battle of Lincoln. Aware that a large English force was approaching their position, the Count and a number of his peers had moved forward (near to a church) to watch the arrival of Henry’s vanguard. Spotting the rather short Ranulph, the Count of Perche shouted to his companions; “Have we stayed all this time for such a little man, such a dwarf?” Outraged Ranulph replied; “I vow to God and Our Lady whose church this is, that before tomorrow evening, I will seem to thee to be greater and stronger than that church steeple”. The Count of Perche was slain during the ensuing battle, having been stabbed through the eye by Sir Reginald Crocus. There are several variants on this story (see sources below for one) which have the words being exchanged at various places near Lincoln or in the cathedral.



The events of the day are recorded in the "History of William the Marshall":


 * ...and the next day, a Saturday, following mass, they took up their arms and put every effort into preparing themselves. When they were well and truly armed, they organised and duly drew up their squadrons, and formed their battalions. The earl of Chester rode out first, a brave and highly experienced knight, with the earl Marshal next, he and his son side by side, both of them having high expectations of advancing their cause to the best of their ability.

The Earl of Chester rode out first because he had said that of he could not lead the attack he would not be part of it (french text):


 * E quant li cuens de Cestre oï ces moz, point ne s'en esjoï, ainz lor dit pleinnement sanz faille, s'il n'a la premiere bataille, qu'il n'ireit ovec els en l'ost, ne de lui n'avreient acost. (..When the earl of Chester heard these words, he was not one bit pleased, and, indeed, he told them plainly, without mincing words, that, if he was not given the right to launch the first attack, he would not join them in the army)

The pillage of the city following the battle became known as "Lincoln Fair". According to Roger of Wendover writing in Flores historiarum (Flowers of History):


 * After the battle was thus ended, the king's soldiers found in the city the wagons of the barons and the French, with the sumpter-horses, loaded with baggage, silver vessels, and various kinds of furniture and utensils, all which fell into their possession without opposition. Having then plundered the whole city to the last farthing, they next pillaged the churches throughout the city, and broke open the chests and storerooms with axes and hammers, seizing on the gold and silver in them, clothes of all colours, women's ornaments, gold rings, goblets, and jewels. Nor did the cathedral church escape this destruction, but underwent the same punishment as the rest, for the legate had given orders to the knights to treat all the clergy as excommunicated men, inasmuch as they had been enemies to the church of Rome and to the king of England from the commencement of the war; Geoffrey de Drepinges, precentor of this church, lost eleven thousand marks of silver. When they had thus seized on every kind of property, so that nothing remained in any corner of the houses, they each returned to their lords as rich men, and peace with king Henry having been declared by all throughout the city, they ate and drank amidst mirth and festivity.

The barons switched their allegiance to the new king, and were preparing to besiege Louis in London when the war was terminated by the naval victory of Hubert de Burgh over Louis' supply fleet under Eustace the Monk in the straits of Dover (Battle of Sandwich). Louis was forced to give up his claim and sign the Treaty of Lambeth in 1217. A few of Henry's supporters held out for unconditional surrender, but the Earl of Pembroke successfully argued for more moderate terms. In return for Henry III's pardon, the rebel barons who had joined Louis were made to pay the French prince 10,000 marks to expedite his withdrawal.

sources and links

 * The Count of Perche story in fiction


 * More on the Count of Perche

Crusader
In 1218, de Blondeville (now aged 46) decided to honour the crusading vow he had taken three years previously, and journeyed eastwards as part of the Fifth Crusade. The Annales Cestrienses records that before his departure he made peace with the Welsh:


 * mccxviij Pacificati sunt dominus Ranulphus comes Cestrie et Lewelinus princeps Wallie, et in Septimana Pentecostes proxima profectus est dominus Rannulphus comes Cestrie Jerosolimam. (1218 Peace was made between the lord Randle, earl of Chester, and Llewelin, prince of Wales, and in the following Whit Week [June 3-9] the lord Randle, earl of Chester, set out for Jerusalem.)

Ranulph met up with the Counts of Nevers and La Marche in Genoa, accompanied by the Earls of Derby, Arundel and Winchester. During preparations for the Crusade in 1217, it was decided that Damietta should be the focus of attack as control of Damietta meant control of the Nile, and from there the crusaders believed they would be able to conquer Egypt, attack Palestine and recapture Jerusalem. His journeys are detailed by the Elizabethan writer Richard Hakluyt in "The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation":


 * In the yeere 1218, Ranulph earle of Chester was sent into the Holy land by king Henry the third with a goodly company of souldiers and men of warre, to ayde the Christians there against the Infidels, which at the same time had besieged the city of Damiata in Egypt. In which enterprise the valiancy of the same earle after his comming thither was to his great praise most apparent There went with him in that iourney Saer de Quincy earle of Winchester, William de Albanie earle of Arundel, besides diuers barons, as the lord Robert fitz Walter, Iohn constable of Chester, William de Harecourt, and Oliuer fitz Roy sonne to the king of England, and diuers others.

Due to famine and disease after the Nile failed to flood, Melek al-Kamil could not defend Damietta. During September 1219, Sultan al-Kamil, offered the Crusaders peace on startling terms – Bethlehem, Nazareth, Jerusalem and central Palastine and Galilee, so long as the Crusaders gave up their war in Egypt. Earl Ranulph was one of the voices in support of taking the offer. However, Pelagio Galvani (the Papal legate), the Patriarch of Jerusalem and the military orders would have none of it. Surprisingly, Ranulf would have been in Egypt at the same time as Francis of Assisi, who actually played a part in the battle. Crossing the lines between the sultan and the Crusaders in Damietta, Francis was received by el-Kamel and challenged his Muslim scholars to a test of true religion by fire - Francis proposed to enter the fire first, under the condition that if he left it unharmed, the sultan would recognize Christ as the true God, the sultan was so impressed that he allowed Francis to preach to his subjects. Although Francis did not succeed in converting the sultan, the last words of the sultan to Francis were, according to Jacques de Vitry, bishop of Acre, in his book "Historia occidentalis, De Ordine et praedicatione Fratrum Minorum (1221)" : “Pray for me that God may deign to reveal to me that law and faith which is most pleasing to him.” Negotiations broke down completely when the crusaders finally refused all offers and on November 5 they found the walls of Damietta poorly manned, so they attacked and secured the city.

Earl Ranulf left Damietta in September of 1220, leaving behind an indecisive force under the command of Bishop Pelagius and the Military Orders. He returned to England to find, William Marshal dead and the Regency in the hands of the same Hubert de Burgh who had been (for a time) the jailer of his long dead stepson Arthur. Perhaps Ranulf had some difficulty with landing on his return from the crusades because in 1220 he is said to have had the "Everton Beacon" erected, it was used for many centuries as a navigational guide (and used as a gaol in its later years). The beacon stood for nearly six hundred years - once located on the present site of St George Church, it fell in the great storm of 1803. It is not the tower on the Everton football club's crest 'The Beacon', or 'The Tower', which has been inextricably linked with the Everton area since it's construction in 1787. Originally used as a bridewell to incarcerate criminals, that tower still stands today on Everton Brow in Netherfield Road.

Hakluyt (see his Volume 8) also suggests that Ranulf may have written at least one book:


 * Ranulphus Glanuile Cestriæ Comes, vir nobilissimi generis, et vtroque iure eruditus, in albo illustrium virorum à me meritò ponendus venit. Ita probè omnes adolescentiæ suæ annos legibus tum humanis tum diuinis consecrauit, vt non prius in hominem pet ætatem euaserit, quàm nomen decúsque ab insigni eruditione sibi comparauerit. Cum profecti essent Francorum Heroes Ptolemaidem, inito cum Ioanne Brenno Hierosolymorum rege concilio, Damiatam Ægypti vrbem obsidendam constituebant, anno salutis humanæ 1218. Misit illùc Henricus rex, ab Honorio 3 Rom. Pontifice rogatus, cum magna armatorum manu Ranulphum, ad rem Christianum iuuandam. Cuius virtus, Polydoro teste, in eo bello miris omnium laudibus celebrata fuit. Quo confecto negotio, Ranulphus in patriam reuersus, scripsit, De legibus Angliæ librum vnum. Fertur præterea, et alia quædam scripsisse, sed tempus edax rerum, ea nobis abstulit. Claruit anno à Seruatoris nostri natiuitate 1230 confectus senio, dum Henricus tertius sub Antichristi tyrannide in Anglia regnaret. (Ranulph Granuile earle of Chester, a man of a very noble house, and learned in both the Lawes, deserues of deutie to be here placed by me in the catalogue of woorthy and notable men. He applied so well all the yeeres of his youth to the study of humane and diuine Lawes, that he came not so soone to the age of a man, as he had purchased to himselfe by reason of his singular learning, renowme and honour. When the noble men of France went to Ptolomais, vpon the counsell of Iohn Brenne king of Ierusalem, they resolued to besiege Damiata a city of Egypt, in the yeere 1218. And then Henry the king vpon the motion of Honorius the third, bishop of Rome, sent thither this earle Ranulph with a great power of armed souldiers, to further the enterprise of the Christians: whose valure in that warre (by the testimonie of Polidor Virgil) was marueilously commended of all men. After the end of which businesse, he being returned into his countrey, wrote a booke of the lawes of England. It is also reported that he wrote other books, but time the destroyer of many memorials, hath taken them from vs. He flourished in the yeere after the natiuity of Christ 1230, being very aged, and in the reigne of K. Henry the third.)

Meanwhile the fifth crusade went badly wrong. By now Al-Kamil was able to ally with the other Ayyubids in Syria, who had defeated Keykavus I. In 1221 the crusader march to Cairo was disastrous; the river Nile flooded ahead of them, stopping the crusader advance. A dry canal that was previously crossed by the crusaders flooded, thus blocking the crusader army's retreat. With supplies dwindling, a forced retreat began, culminating in a night time attack by Al-Kamil which resulted in a great number of crusader losses and eventually in the surrender of the army under Pelagius.

Stephen de Segrave had estates in Seagrave (Leicestershire), Chilcotes (Derbyshire) and Alkmunbury. He was born in 1176, at Seagrave, and was a retainer of Ranulph de Blundeville, whom he accompanied on crusade to the Holy Land. On their return, Ranulph granted Stephen the castle of Caludon, at the grand rent of one Sparrowhawk per year.

sources and links

 * Everton Beacon

Relations with the Welsh - and Beeston Castle
After his return, Randulph was evidently enjoying good relations with the Welsh:


 * mccxx Rediit dominus Rannulphus comes Cestrie de Damata venitque Cestriam in crastino Assumpcionis receptus cum maxima veneratione tam cleri quam plebis. Lewelinus etiam princeps Wallie venit ad eum eodem die, cui dominus Rannulphus comes in . . . (1220 The lord Randle, earl of Chester, returned from Damietta, and came to Chester on the morrow of the Assumption [of the Blessed Virgin, August 16]. He was received with the greatest veneration as well by the clergy as the laity. Also Llewelin, prince of Wales, came to him the same day, to whom the lord Randle, earl . . .)

Curiously, this passage of the Annales Cestrienses is unfinished. While the space exists for more words they were never added. However a few lines further on in the Annales we see further evidence of good relations.


 * mccxxij Johannes filius comitis David duxit in uxorem filiam Lewelini pro finali concordia inter ipsum et comitem Cestrie. (1222 John, son of earl David [of Huntingdon], took to wife the daughter of Llewelin, for the purpose of effecting a lasting peace between himself and the earl of Chester.)

Ranulf may well have shown an interest in castles during his trip of the middle east upon his return he raised taxes and started a program of castle building. Bolingbroke Castle was constructed by Ranulf around 1220-30, the earliest written references to it being in 1232 and 1243. In 1220 Ranulph built a magnificent edifice of mortared stone with a circular keep defended by a curtain wall at Chartley Castle in Staffordshire whose outer work incorporates two massive half-towers which still stand in a ruinous, but impressive, state. Chartley may have been started by an earlier earl, but much later, in 1585, was one of the last places of imprisonment of Mary Queen of Scots and may be a location for part of the so-called Babington plot. What came after Chartley was even more spectacular. In 1225 Ranulf had work started on Beeston Castle which still perches on a rocky crag 150 m above the Cheshire plain. Notably, none of these castles face Wales - indicating that Ranulph felt that he had little to fear from that direction. There is no clear military reason why Ranulf should have built a castle at Beeston. It has been suggested that the castle was a political statement showing the king how powerful Ranulf was - but it should be remembered that in 1225 Henry III was only 18 years old and the country was ruled by regents until 1227. Beeston featured may innovations. Instead of protecting an established location it was built in the best defensive position. It did not have a keep, but made use of a solid gatehouse instead. Towers are round and projecting to protect them against siege engines allow raking fire along the castle walls. Many of these improvements had been used in the crusader castles such as Krak and it is likely that Ranulf brought many of his idea's back from the fifth crusade. Neither Ranulf, nor his successor would complete the castle.

A full list of his English castles includes:

- Inherited:


 * Chester Castle (1189-1232);
 * Coventry Castle (1189-1232);
 * Oversleyford ;
 * Pulford;

- Obtained as gifts from King John:


 * Newcastle Castle (1214-1224);
 * The Peak Castle (1215-1224);
 * Lancaster Castle (1216-1224);
 * Richmond Castle (1216-1218);
 * Bridgenorth Castle (1216-1224);
 * Shrewsbury Castle (1216-1224);
 * West Derby Castle (1216-1224);

- Built or renewed ~1225:


 * Beeston Castle (1225-1232);
 * Chartley Castle (1189-(rebuilt 1225)-1232);
 * Bolingbroke Castle (1198-(rebuilt 1225)-1232);


 * Mountsorrel Castle;
 * Wallingford Castle;
 * Fotheringay Castle;

The loss of castles in 1224 and the rash of castle building/renewal around 1225 is conspicuous. In 1121, Ranulf had argued with his old enemy the Regent Hubert de Burgh at Winchester, and the Archbishop of Canterbury had threatened to excommunicate both. There was civil unrest in 1222 with riots in London, and this was put down rather savagely by Falkes de Breauté and Philip de Albini. In April 1223 the Pope wrote a letter to selected English nobles (including Ranulf) stating that in his view Henry III was now, at 17, old enough to rule the country himself. Henry was not yet married (his future wife, Eleanor of Provence, was only born in 1223 and he wouldn't marry her until she was 12) - Henry's brother Richard was 15.

Then, in 1223 Llywelyn invaded Shropshire and destroyed Whittington Castle. Ranulf acted as mediator between the Welsh and English rulers at Ludlow and managed to broker a peace cemented in part by the marriage of his heir, John Canmore to Elen ferch Llywelyn, daughter of Llywelyn. Then the Pope's letter arrived. Seizing the initiative, Hubert demanded that several royal castles were handed back to the King and, with strife breaking out once more, the disaffected Barons marched on London, led by Ranulf. Among their number were the former French landowners who had lost out under John and who had been singled out in the Magna Carta. Among them were Engelard de Cigogne, John de Lacy, Falkes de Breauté and Philip Marc - all close to Ranulf. Ranulf could have sparked a full scale revolt. He was the most powerful baron in England and the forces at his disposal were enough to fight a civil war. However the king had a marginally larger force and Ranulf backed-down. The price of surrender was high - Ranulf had to surrender several of his castles and lose Lancaster.

In 1227 the ageing Ranulf (he was now 55) was back in court politics as an arbitrator in a dispute between King Henry III and his younger brother Richard, the Duke of Cornwall. Richard had seized a Cornwall manor granted to a certain Waleran by King John and refused to return it, demanding that the matter should be resolved by the magnates, including Ranulph. Ranulph upheld Richard's claim, forcing the king to back down.

Ranulph and Robin Hood
Ranulph de Blondeville is probably the earl of Chester referred to in William Langland's The Vision of Piers Plowman (written ca. 1360–1387) which contains the line:


 * "I kan nought parfitly my Paternoster as the preest it singeth, but I kan rhymes of Robyn hood and Randolf Earl of Chestre".

Another theory holds that "Randolf" here is Ranulf de Gernon an earlier earl of Chester and de Blundeville's grandfather.

Both the Earl of Chester and Robin Hood also turn up in the works of the playwright Anthony Munday (1560-1633) - although the earl is not named in those plays as Ranulph, the presence of prince John (born 24 December 1166, king from 6 April 1199, died 19 October 1216) would indicate that the earl in the plays was indeed Ranulph (Earl: 1181-1232).

The actual connection between the relevant Robin Hood candidate and Ranulph appears quite tenuous:


 * Hugh of Cyfeiliog's daughter (Maud of Chester) married (26th Aug 1190) one David of Huntingdon (born 1144 died 17th June 1219).
 * David supported King Richard against King John (most stories put Robin Hood in that era).
 * The tentative connection is that David had a son - Robert Fitzodo (Fitzooth) (de Huntingdon) born in Loxley, Warwickshire (where legend says Robin was).
 * Robert was Earl of Huntingdon (as legend says Robin was) and declared an outlaw (as legend says Robin was) and his confiscated lands were given to Ranulph, Earl of Chester.

The theory put forward by some is that this Robert of Huntingdon is the basis for the legend of Robin Hood. This Robin Hood's grandfather would be Hugh of Cyfeiliog earl of Chester and "Ranulf Erle of Chestre" would be his uncle.

However, according to Stringer (see sources), David of Huntingdon only had three legitimate sons, two of which, Henry and David, died in infancy, and the surviving son was John 'de Scotia' (John Canmore), Earl of Huntingdon and later of Chester. John married Elen ferch Llywelyn, daughter of Llywelyn the Great, Prince of north Wales, but died without issue. Earl David also had two illegitimate sons, Henry of Brechin and Henry of Stirling, both older than John, being born before his marriage to Maud of Chester (so they could not become Earls). There are two other sons mentioned, Philip, who only occurs in Gervaise of Canterbury's Historical Works, and an actual Robert, who occurs only in Fordun's Chronicles, who Fordun says also died in infancy. The timing also presents some problems - Prince John's attempted coup would have been during King Richard I's absence (on the Third Crusade from 1190 to 1194) - given that Maud of Chester (David's wife) was only born in 1171, it would be impossible for "Robin" to have been born in time for the coup. Worse still for the theory, David Earl of Huntingdon lived until 17 June 1219, which means that any "Robin Hood" son of his would only have become Earl three years after the death of King John.

As for Robert Fitzodo, he was indeed associated with Loxley - but not at the same time. The tradition that Loxley was the birth-place of "Robin Hood" appears to have originated with J. R. Planché, who, in a paper read in 1864, followed up Stukeley's derivation of his name from Fitzooth and connected the outlaw with Robert FitzOdo, lord of the manor of Loxley in the later 12th century. The transfer of lands to Ranulph seems completely fabricated.

Another theory connecting Ranulf and Robin Hood is that concerning Roger de Lacy who was the 7th Baron of Halton and Constable of Chester (de Lacy is the one who famously relieved the besieged Ranulf with a crowd of minstrels - as depicted in carvings at the Town Hall). Roger is a possible candidate for the Sheriff of Nottingham. He is reputed to have become ‘the terror and scourge of the Welsh’ because of his cruelty during his part in their subjugation. For his ferocious temper and the pitiless way he executed his prisoners he was nicknamed ‘Yclept’ or ‘Helle’ by the Welsh. De Lacy was buried in the abbey founded by his father at Stanlow (now almost unreachable between the Mersey and the Ship-canal). It has been suggested that the place-name "Helsby" is a contraction of "Helle's Bay" (although the village was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 under the Norman name of Hellesbe)

A recent find places Robin Hood in Edward I's reign, thus supporting the belief that his legend is of 13th Century origin. A translation of the short inscription, which contains only 23 words in Latin, reads:


 * "Around this time, according to popular opinion, a certain outlaw named Robin Hood, with his accomplices, infested Sherwood and other law-abiding areas of England with continuous robberies."

Curiously, the inscription was found as a marginal note in a copy of Higdon's "Polychronicon" (originally written in Chester).

sources and links

 * The Forrester's Manuscript


 * The "Gest of Robin Hode"


 * The Downfall and Death of Robert, Earle of Huntington;

Ranulph and Fulk Fitzwarrene
The Waryn who turned up in the story of Miletta Peveril had a son who became the outlaw Fulk FitzWarin. Waryn (died 1156AD) had married Miletta Peverel and their son Fulk Fitz Waryn (Fulk Fitzwarrene) took over the barony and castle of Whittington, Shropshire. In 1200 he lost his possessions to a rival claimant (whom in some versions he murdered) was outlawed by King John and for the next three years he engaved in war against King John in the marches. Fulk's rebellion is not detailed by chroniclers but it must have been considerable because in the spring of 1201, while John went into Normandy and Poitou to suppress a revolt of the Lusignans, he ordered Hubert de Burgh with 100 knights to counter the rebellion of Fulk and William Marsh (Marsh was a Somersetshire knight who was raiding off the coast of Devon). He was pardoned in 1203AD at the request of two of the king’s supporters, one of whom is suggested to have been Ranulph, earl of Chester and on being pardoned he recovered his possessions. The "Warin" family (who derived their name from the River Guarenne or Varenne and the small town of that name near Arques in Normandy) are also connected to Ranulph through a "Master Warin" who later worked on Beeston Castle.

One interesting part of the tale puts Ranulph in Ireland fighting a giant:


 * Fouke took leave of the Earl Marshal and went to see Earl Randolph of Chester, who was assembling an army to go to Ireland to defend his rights there. When they got there a great troop of their enemies was waiting for them. The earl commanded his men to take up their arms. Fouke himself set off with three young brothers whom the earl had brought with him. The three young men were of great valor and strength, well armed and mounted on fine horses. Among the enemies facing them stood a hideous giant. He was well armed, black and horrible, twelve feet taller than any other. The giant stepped forward and shouted out: "Earl of Chester, send me the most valiant knight whom you have, to defend your rights." The three youths heard the shout and rushed to engage the giant. He killed them swiftly, one after the other, with the hatchet which he was wielding. Then Fouke charged forward on his steed and tried to pierce him with his lance; but the giant dodged the blow, striking Fouke instead, such that he almost disabled him. Fearful now, Fouke became very cautious, until he was finally able to smite his opponent through the body with his lance. As he was falling down, the giant struck Fouke's horse, severing its two legs. Fouke himself fell to the ground, but quickly leaped up again. He drew his sword and cut off his enemy's head. After the battle, Fouke was later to take this giant's hatchet to his castle at Whittington. For now he helped the Earl of Chester in his conquest of all these lands and castles in Ireland. Sir Randolph stayed long enough in that country to restore his lands, after which he returned to England.

French Wars and Trouble in Wales
In 1223 Pope Honorius III allowed Henry III to be declared of age for certain limited purposes. In January 1227 Henry declared himself of full age and commenced to attempt to regain the overseas French possessions that had been lost. By 1225 had recovered Gascony. By 1230 he was invading Poitou and Henry III sailed for France with an invading force. He was accompanied by the earl of Chester (now approaching 60) and Willam Marshal (son of the regent of the same name). The Annales Cestrienses gives the following details:


 * mccxxx Circa festum Sancti Hylarii Henricus rex Anglie et omnis exercitus anglie convenerunt apud Portesmue ut transfretarent. Sed habito consilio remanserunt ad festum apostolorum Philippi et Jacobi transfretavit Henricus rex Anglie cum exercitu suo ad partes transmarinas. Reddita est etiam Rannulpho Cestrie terra sua de Sancto Jacobo super Boverum. Rex autem circa festum Sancti Michael reversus est in Angliam relicto ibi Rannulpho comite Cestrie et Willelmo Marescallo cum paucis. Item Willelmus de Breaus inculpatus est a Lewelino principe Wallie de uxore sua, et suspenditur. Et mulier carcerata custodia diu. (1230 About the feast of S. Hilary [January 13] Henry [III.], king of England, and the whole army of England, assembled at Portsmouth in order to cross the Channel. But, having taken counsel, they remained until the feast of S. Philip and S. James the Apostles, [May 1], when Henry, king of England, with his army, crossed to the parts beyond the seas [to S. Malo]. There was restored to Randle, earl of Chester, his territory of S. James de Beuvron. But about Michaelmas the king returned into England, having left [in Brittany] Randle, earl of Chester, and William Marshal [earl of Pembroke], with a few [soldiers]. Also William de Braose was charged by Llewelin, prince of Wales, with adultery with his wife, and was hanged. And the woman was imprisoned for a long time.)

Ranulf returned to England in July 1231, and at once sought out the king who was at Painscastle near Hay on Wye. The castle was being rebuilt in stone by King Henry III of England and Hubert de Burgh as part of a campaign against Llywelyn the Great of Wales.


 * mccxxxj Obiit Willelmus Marescallus. Lewelinus princeps Wallye recepit uxorem suam filiam Johannis Regis quam antea incarceravit. Orta est werra inter Henricum Regem filium Johannis et Lewelinum in partes Suth Wallye. In qua werra dictus Henricus rex firmavit castellum payn ubi venit ad eum nobilis vir ille Rannulphus Comes Cestrie et Lyncolyn de sancto Jacobo de Boverum capta prius treuga trium annorum a Rege Gallie in transmarinis. Orta est quedam discordia inter regem Anglie et ipsum Rannulphum Comitem Cestrie apud predictum castellum pain quare a rege discessit iratus. Et sic apud Cestriam venit in vigilia Octavarum assumpcionis mandatus autem a domino Rege per Stephanum de Sagreve venit ad eum. Obiit Ricardus archiepiscopus Cantuarie in transmarinis. (1231 William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, died. Llewelin, prince of Wales took back his wife, the daughter of king John, whom he had formerly imprisoned. War arose between king Henry [III.], son of John, and Llewelin in the parts of South Wales. In the course of this war the said king Henry strengthened the castle of Pain, where there came to him that noble person Randle, earl of Chester and Lincoln from S. James de Beuvron, having before accepted a truce of three years from the king of France in the parts beyond seas. A certain quarrel arose between the king of England and this same Randle, earl of Chester, at the afore- said castle of Pain, wherefore he departed from the king in a rage. And thus he came to Chester on the eve of the octave of the Assumption [August 21]. But by the command of our lord the king, [given] through Stephen de Segrave, he returned to the king. Richard, archbishop of Canterbury, died beyond seas [at S. Gemma or Gemine, between Todi and Narni, in Italy].)

Just what the quarrel was is not clear. However it could have been:


 * Something to do with William de Braose who was married to Eva Marshall (the daughter of William Marshal), and who's daughter Isabella de Braosewas married to Llywelyn's only legitimate son Dafydd ap Llywelyn. Well connacted though he was, William found time (in 1230) to be caught in bed with Joan the wife of Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Wales and the illegitimate daughter of king John (hence king Henry's half sister) and the one mentioned in the Annales. William de Braose was excecuted by Llewellyn ap Iorwerth at Garth Celyn. William was the grandson of the William de Braose who had been the jailer of Ranulf's long dead step-son, Arthur of Brittany;


 * Something to do with Hubert de Burgh - he was with the King at Painscastle. After John captured Arthur of Brittany, niece Eleanor and their allies in 1202, de Burgh had been made another one of their jailors. After the death of William Marshal in 1219, Hubert de Burgh effectively became regent of England. When Henry III came of age in 1227 de Burgh was made lord of Montgomery Castle in the Welsh Marches and Earl of Kent. de Burgh had been involved in the transfer of some manors in Leicestershire and had failed to consult Ranulf. Also, Hubert de Burgh's nephew Richard de Burgh had arrested some of Ranulf's merchants in Ireland. Further Llywelyn was becoming concerned about the growing power of Hubert de Burgh. Some of his men had been taken prisoner by the garrison of Montgomery and beheaded, and Llywelyn responded by burning Montgomery, Powys, New Radnor, Hay and Brecon before turning west to capture the castles of Neath and Kidwelly. He completed the campaign by recapturing Cardigan castle. King Henry retaliated by launching an invasion and built the new castle at Painscastle, but was unable to penetrate far into Wales.


 * Something to do with the de Montforts. As noted above, Ranulf was related to the de Montfort's of Leicester through his mother Bertrade de Montfort. The mother of Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester (father of the rather more famous Sixth earl), Amicia, was the eldest daughter of Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester and her mother had. After the death of her brother Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester without children in 1204, Amicia inherited half of his estates, and a claim to the Earldom of Leicester. The division of the estates was effected early in 1207, by which the rights to the earldom were assigned to Amicia and Simon. However, King John of England took possession of the lands himself in February 1207, and confiscated its revenues. Later, in 1215, when John was desperate for support, the lands were passed into the hands of Ranulf who was Simon's nephew. Simon's son (and Ranulf's cousin), the better known Simon de Montfort the younger, was much influenced by Ranulf after the elder Simon died. In 1230 Simon petitioned Ranulf for the grant of the Honour of Leicester and this was duly granted to him. It has even been suggested that Ranulf's attitude towards the young Simon was that of an almost adoptive father with no children of his own.

The de Montfort angle is interesting because of what happened later in Simon's life. The reign of Henry III is most remembered for this period of civil strife which was provoked ostensibly by Henry III's demands for extra finances, but marked a more general dissatisfaction with Henry's methods of government on the part of the English barons, discontent which was exacerbated by widespread famine. The famine became worse when, somewhere in the tropics, a volcano exploded violently producing a massive stratospheric aerosol veil that eventually blanketed the globe (Arctic and Antarctic ice cores suggest that this was the world's largest volcanic eruption of the past millennium). According to contemporary chronicles, the stratospheric dry fog manifested itself in Europe as a persistently cloudy aspect of the sky and also through a total darkening of the eclipsed Moon. The frequent cold and rain that year led to severe crop damage and famine throughout much of Europe and pestilence repeatedly broke out in 1258. De Montfort became leader of those who wanted to reassert Magna Carta and force the Henry to surrender more power to the baronial council. In mid 1258, seven leading barons forced Henry to agree to the Provisions of Oxford, which effectively abolished the absolutist Anglo-Norman monarchy, giving power to a council of fifteen barons to deal with the business of government and providing for a thrice-yearly meeting of parliament to monitor their performance. This eventually led to the Second Baron's War in which the charismatic de Montfort and his forces had captured most of southeastern England by 1263, and at the Battle of Lewes on 14 May 1264, defeated Henry and reduced him to a figurehead king. In 1264, de Montfort became Earl of Chester - given that the King and his son were in captivity at the time it would appear that the earldom was not given freely. The Annals of Chester record it as follows:




 * Post festum Omnium Sanctorum Henricus rex Anglie et Edwardus primogenitus ejus concesserunt Simoni de Monteforti, Comiti Leycestric et heredibus suis Cestriam cum toto comitatu et castellum. Novum castellum-sub-lima. Et castellum de Peck cum omnibus honoribus et pertinentiis Jure perpetuo possidenda pro aliis terris quas Simon comes in diversis Anglie locis predicto Edwardo in excambium dedit. (After the feast of All Saints [November 1], Henry, king of England, and Edward, his eldest son, granted to Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, and his heirs, Chester, with the whole county and the castle, Newcastle-under-Lyme, and the Peak castle [in Derbyshire] with all their honours and appurtenances, to be held in perpetuity for other lands in different parts of England, which the aforesaid earl Simon gave in exchange to the aforesaid Edward.)

Simon's success did not last. A royalist comeback led by the future Edward I defeated de Montfort in 1265 at Evesham. Simon's body was mutilated; with his head, hands, feet and testicles being cut off. Legend has it that the fatal blow came from Roger Mortimer. It is said that after the battle Mortimer was awarded Montfort's severed head and "other parts of his anatomy", which he sent home to Wigmore Castle as a gift for his wife, Maud de Braose, Lady Mortimer (daughter of William de Braose). Perhaps Ranulf could already sense rebellion in the young Simon, for a condition of the transfer of Leicester was that Simon would pay homage to Henry III when Simon and Ranulf returned from France.

Death and Taxes


At their peak a large part of Ranulf's lands were roughly co-incident with the extent of the core of Mercia. Ranulf is therefore in many ways the inheritor of Leofric and the Anglo-Saxon earls. Interestingly, at the time of the rebellion of large parts of England at the end of the reign of John, those parts of the country that favoured France were largely co-terminous with the area occupied by the Danes during the time of Alfred, with the "loyal" area in the South-west roughly corresponding to Wessex.

Ranulph strenuously resisted the imposition of a tax by Pope Gregory IX of a tenth of the revenues of the clergy and "one tenth part of the movables of England". This had been imposed in order to fund a war against the Holy Roman Emperor Frederic II, who had been excommunicated for not fulfilling his part in the crusades (in particular the sixth). The Earl's lands were the only part of England which did not pay this tax. Tax "avoidance" was something that Ranulf did quite well at - in 1220 some of his estates avoided payment of "carucage"; in 1225 "Aid" was not levied in Cheshire; and in 1229 he successfully resisted the ecclesiastical tax collector. In 1230 Ranulf granted a charter to Salford making it a free borough. His only major failure, in old age, was not avoiding the 1232 windfall tax of "one fortieth" on his lands.

On 6th May 1232 Ranulf made his will. He was already ill at the time, as history records that a royal tournament had to be postponed due to his state of health. Ranulf died on 27th October 1232, aged 62, at Wallingford in Oxfordshire. Fulk Fitz Warin was present and Henry II was either present or hurrying to be there. His viscera was buried at Wallingford Castle, his heart was buried at DieuLacres Abbey (which he had founded), and the rest of his body was buried at St Werburg's, Chester's Cathedral.

By the end of his life he had managed to get his heir, John Canmore into a very strong dynastic position. John was the son of David of Scotland by his wife Maud of Chester, daughter of Hugh of Cyfeiliog (a previous Earl of Chester). John married Elen ferch Llywelyn, daughter of Llywelyn the Great.

He had also done much to strengthen the position of Simon de Montfort the younger. Who, in January 1238 would marry Eleanor of England, daughter of King John and Isabella of Angouleme and sister of King Henry III (as well as widow of the younger William Marshall). John the Scot would be dead five years later but de Montfort would live long enough to become the last non-royal Earl of Chester. Llewelyn the Great and John de Lacy would die in 1240, and Clemence in 1251. [edit] The "Last Relic" of the Conquest

The historian Stubbs described Ranulf as "almost the last relic of the great feudal aristocracy of the Conquest". Left fatherless at an early age (1181) he was thrust into the complex feudal/political intrigues of the sons of Henry II, and found himself (in 1190) step-father to Arthur, then heir to the throne of England yet he became estranged from Arthur's mother. While he remained loyal to Richard I during John's coup (1193), he was one of the few who would remain loyal to John when the baron's revolted (1215), despite the strong rumours that John, or John's man Hubert de Burgh had been the murderer of his stepson. Ranulf refused to sign the Magna Carta, presumably because of the specific provisions it contained against the French. Again, but for Ranulf Henry III would probably never have become king. With Henry III's assumption of majority in 1223, Ranulf finally came to the point of rebellion but backed down, and saw a shift in the centre of power from the barons back to the king. Ranuld's heir, John the Scot held an envious position by marriage and descent, but died young. There would be further strife in the 1250, when Ranulf's cousin de Montfort would briefly seize control of the country (and the Earldom of Chester), but after that royal authority would be restored by Henry I, who would take the Earldom of Chester for himself, and his line.

sources and links

 * More family history for the Earls of Chester;


 * Earl David of Huntingdon, A Study In Anglo-Scottish History' by K.J.Stringer, Edinburgh University Press 1985


 * Arms, vassals and more at "early blazon"


 * Some Robin Hood theories


 * Hoare, R.C., ed. 1908. Giraldus Cambrensis: The Itinerary through Wales; Description of Wales. Translated by R.C. Hoare. Everyman's Library. ISBN 0-460-00272-4


 * M. Dominica Legge, "William the Marshal and Arthur of Brittany", Historical Research, volume 55 (1982)


 * F. M. Powicke, "King John and Arthur of Brittany", The English Historical Review, volume 24 (October 1909), pp. 659-674


 * Jones, T., ed. 1941. Brut y Tywysogion: Peniarth MS. 20. University of Wales Press;


 * Pryce, H., ed. 2005. The Acts of Welsh rulers 1120–1283. University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-1897-5;


 * "King John, the Braoses, and the Celtic Fringe, 1207-1216", Albion: Journal of British Studies v.33 (2001);


 * Anlgo-Norman Castles, The Braose Rebellion of 1207 to 1210


 * Ranulf of Chester: A Relic of the Conquest by James W. Alexander


 * Ranulf and Fitz Waryn


 * The Downfall and Death of Robert, Earle of Huntington;