Ralph de Cromwell

Family/Spouse: Joan de la Mare. Joan (daughter of Geoffrey de la Mare and (Unknown first wife of Geoffrey de la Mare)) died on 3 Aug 1348. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Ralph de Cromwell was born in of Cromwell, Southwell, Nottinghamshire, England; died before 28 Oct 1364.

Ralph married Joan de Somerville before 1292 and 1293. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ralph married Margaret de Somery before 26 Jan 1271. Margaret (daughter of Roger de Somery and Nichole d'Aubigny) died after 18 Jun 1293. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"She took the veil shortly before 18 June 1293." [Complete Peerage II:2]

Robert married Isabel de Merlay before 7 May 1275. Isabel (daughter of Roger de Merlay and Isabel de Ros) was born about 1256; died after Jun 1303. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1272
• Alternate death: Bef 27 Aug 1273

Notes:

Fought at Evesham on the King's side, according to the CP entry on his son-in-law Ralph Basset. Earlier, according to The Ancestry of Dorothea Poyntz, he was taken prisoner with the King at the battle of Lewes.

Roger married Nichole d'Aubigny before 22 Nov 1232. Nichole (daughter of William d'Aubigny and Mabel of Chester) was born in of Barrow-on-Soar, Leicestershire, England; died about 1240. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 20 Jan 1247

Notes:

Also called Colette.

Roger married Isabel de Ros before 1241. Isabel (daughter of Robert de Ros) died before 7 May 1275. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 29 Sep 1210
• Alternate death: 1211

Notes:

Note that although Dudley town is in Worcestershire, Dudley Castle was across the county border in Staffordshire.

Ralph married Margaret le Gras before 1194. Margaret (daughter of William le Gras and (Unknown) Marshal) died after 14 Jun 1247. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Margaret Marshal.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Mar 1221, near Rome
• Alternate death: Bef 30 Mar 1221, Cainell, near Rome

Notes:

Earl of Arundel; Earl of Sussex. Chief Butler of England; Privy Councillor; Judge in the King's Court 1198, 1200, 1218. A King's man at Runnymede.

Went on Crusade in 1218; was present at the siege of Damietta.

"In the beginning he was one of King John's favourites, but he joined the baronial party opposing the King in 1216 after the sealing of the Magna Carta. According to the Barnwell Chronicle, when the barons met in London in 1216 to plan the division of England among them, they assigned to d'Aubigny the government of Lincolnshire. In 1217 he switched his support back to the young Henry III." [Leo van de Pas]

From Complete Peerage I:236-38:

William (d'Aubigny), Earl of Sussex, and Earl of Arundel, s. & h. He was a favorite of King John, whose concession of the Kingdom to the Pope, 15 May 1213, he witnessed, and whom he accompanied to Runnymede, 15 June 1215. (d) When, however, King John abandoned Winchester, 14 June 1216, to Louis (afterwards Louis VIII) of France, he joined that Prince, but (consistently taking the winning side) returned to his allegiance 14 July 1217, after the Royalist victory at Lincoln. Shortly afterwards he acted as Justiciar, the young King, Henry III, having restored to him his forfeited possessions. He m. Mabel, 2nd da. of Hugh (le Meschin, surnamed Kevelioc), Earl of Chester, by Bertrade, da. of Simon, Count of Evreux in Normandy. She, in her issue, was (1232) one of the four coheirs to her br. Ranulph (surnamed Blundeville), Earl of Chester. He embarked in the crusade of 1218, and was at the taking of Damietta in Nov. 12 19, but d. at Cainell, near Rome, ("quoddam oppidulum Kainel nomine") shortly before 30 Mar. 1221 (when the news reached England) and was bur. at Wynmondham Priory.

(d) His namesake of Belvoir became one of the sureties for the King's observance of Magna Charta as 'William d'Aubigny, Sheriff of Warwick and Leicester.'

William married Mabel of Chester. Mabel (daughter of Hugh of Chester and Bertrade de Montfort) died before 1232. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Mabel le Meschin.

Roger married Ada. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Chief Justice of the Forests North of Trent, 1236; Justice of the King's Bench, 1234.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 1196

John married Hawise Paynel. Hawise (daughter of Ralph Paynel and (Unknown) de Ferrers) died before 1209. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 1210

Notes:

Also called William le Cras; William Crassus.

Seigneur of Soulangy in Normandy. Seneschal of Mortain 1193-4; Seneschal of Normandy 1203-4.

William married (Unknown) Marshal. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Earl of Arundel, also styled earl of Sussex. Hereditary Chief Butler of England; Privy Councillor; Constable of Windsor Castle 1191-3.

According to Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans (citation details below), he was a crusader.

"William d'Aubigny, Earl of Sussex, s. and h., n 1176/7, was confirmed in that dignity, but the Castle and Honour of Arundel having, in accordance with the policy of Henry II, been retained by the Crown, on the death of the last holder, he did not obtain restoration of them till Richard I restored them to him, 27 June 1190, when (according to the admission of 1433 abovenamed) he became Earl of Arundel. He was, however, styled Earl of Arundel before he received possession of the Castle and Honour, namely, on 18 Sep. 1189, and on 26 Nov. of the same year he witnessed King Richard's Charter as 'Will. Earl of Arundel.' He received also at the same time, the third penny of the pleas of Sussex in the precise words of the grant made to his father. In 1191 he was made Custos of Windsor Castle, and in 1194 one of the Receivers of the money raised for the King's ransom. He m. Maud, widow of Roger (de Clare), Earl of Hertford (who had d. 1173), da. and h. of James de St. Hilaire du Harcouet, by Aveline, his wife. He d. 24 Dec. 1193, and was bur. at Wymondham Priory." [Complete Peerage I:235-36]

William married Maud de St. Hilary. Maud (daughter of James de St. Hilary du Harcourt and Aveline) was born in of Field Dalling, Norfolk, England; died on 24 Dec 1193; was buried in Priory of Great Carbrooke, Norfolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1195

Notes:

Also called Maud de St. Hilaire du Harcouet.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 1147, Merionethshire, Wales

Notes:

Earl of Chester. Also known as Hugh le Meschin; Hugh de Meschines; Hugh of Kevelioc; Hugh de Cyveiliog.

1908 DNB entry on Hugh of Kevelioc:

[By Thomas Frederick Tout.]

HUGH (D. 1181) called HUGH of CYVEILIOG, palatine Earl of Chester, was the son of Ranulf II, Earl of Chester, and of his wife Matilda, daughter of Earl Robert of Gloucester, the illegitimate son of Henry I. He is sometimes called Hugh of Cyveiliog, because, according to a late writer, he was born in that district of Wales (Powel, Hist. of Cambria, p. 295). His father died on 16 Dec. 1153, whereupon, being probably still under age, he succeeded to his possessions on both sides of the Channel. These included the hereditary viscounties of Avranches and Bayeux. Hugh was present at the council of Clarendon in January 1164 which drew up the assize of Clarendon (Stubbs, Select Charters, p. 138). In 1171 he was in Normandy (Eyton, Itinerary of Henry II, p. 158).

Hugh joined the great feudal revolt against Henry II in 1173. Aided by Ralph of Fougeres, he utilised his great influence on the north-eastern marches of Brittany to excite the Bretons to revolt. Henry II despatched an army of Brabant mercenaries against them. The rebels were defeated in a battle, and on 20 Aug. were shut up in the castle of Dol, which they had captured by fraud not long before. On 23 Aug. Henry II arrived to conduct the siege in person (Hoveden, ii. 51). Hugh and his comrades had no provisions (Jordan Fantosme in Howlett, Chron. of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, iii. 221). They were therefore forced to surrender on 26 Aug. on a promise that their lives and limbs would be saved (W. Newburgh in Howlett, i. 176). Fourscore knights surrendered with them (Diceto, i. 378). Hugh was treated very leniently by Henry, and was confined at Falaise, whither the Earl and Countess of Leicester were also soon brought as prisoners. When Henry II returned to England, he took the two earls with him. They were conveyed from Barfleur to Southampton on 8 July 1174. Hugh was probably afterwards imprisoned at Devizes (Eyton, p. 180). On 8 Aug., however, he was taken back from Portsmouth to Barfleur, when Henry II went back to Normandy. He was now imprisoned at Caen, whence he was removed to Falaise. He was admitted to terms with Henry before the general peace, and witnessed the peace of Falaise on 11 Oct. (Fœdera, i. 31).

Hugh seems to have remained some time longer without complete restoration. At last, at the council of Northampton on 13 Jan. 1177, he received grant of the lands on both sides of the sea which he had held fifteen days before the war broke out (Benedictus, i. 135; Hoveden, ii. 118). In March he witnessed the Spanish award. In May, at the council at Windsor, Henry II restored him his castles, and required him to go to Ireland, along with William Fitzaldhelm and others, to prepare the way for the king's son John (Benedictus, i. 161). But no great grants of Irish land were conferred on him, and he took no prominent part, in the Irish campaigns. He died at Leek in Staffordshire on 30 June 1181 (ib. i. 277; Monasticon, iii. 218; Ormerod, Cheshire, i. 29). He was buried next his father on the south side of the chapter-house of St. Werburgh's, Chester, now the cathedral.

Hugh's liberality to the church was not so great as that of his predecessors. He granted some lands in Wirral to St. Werburgh's, and four charters of his, to Stanlaw, St. Mary's, Coventry, the nuns of Bullington and Greenfield, are printed by Ormerod (i. 27). He also confirmed his mother's grants to her foundation of Austin Canons at Calke, Derbyshire, and those of his father to his convent of the Benedictine nuns of St. Mary's, Chester (Monasticon, vi. 598, iv. 314). In 1171 he had confirmed the grants of Ranulf to the abbey of St. Stephen's in the diocese of Bayeux (Eyton, p. 158). More substantial were his grants of Bettesford Church to Trentham Priory, and of Combe in Gloucestershire to the abbey of Bordesley, Warwickshire (Monasticon, vi. 397, v. 407).

Hugh married before 1171 Bertrada, the daughter of Simon III, surnamed the Bald, count of Evreux and Montfort. He was therefore brother-in-law to Simon of Montfort., the conqueror of the Albigenses, and uncle of the Earl of Leicester. His only legitimate son, Ranulf III, succeeded him as Earl of Chester [see Blundevill, Randulf de]. He also left four daughters by his wife, who became, on their brother's death, co-heiresses of the Chester earldom. They were: (1) Maud, who married David, earl of Huntingdon, and became the mother of John the Scot, earl of Chester from 1232 to 1237, on whose death the line of Hugh of Avranches became extinct; (2) Mabel, who married William of Albini, earl of Arundel (d. 1221); (3) Agnes, the wife of William, earl Ferrers of Derby; and (4) Hawise, who married Robert de Quincy, son of Saer de Quincy, earl of Winchester. Hugh was also the father of several bastards, including Pagan, lord of Milton; Roger; Amice, who married Ralph Mainwaring, justice of Chester; and another daughter who married R. Bacon, the founder of Roucester (Ormerod, i. 28). A great controversy was carried on between Sir Peter Leycester and Sir Thomas Mainwaring, Amice's reputed descendant, as to whether that lady was legitimate or not. Fifteen pamphlets and small treatises on the subject, published between 1673 and 1679, were reprinted in the publications of the Chetham Society, vols. lxxiii. lxxix. and lxxx. Mainwaring was the champion of her legitimacy, which Leycester had denied in his 'Historical Antiquities.' Dugdale believed that Amice was the daughter of a former wife of Hugh, of whose existence, however, there is no record. A fine seal of Earl Hugh's is engraved in Ormerod's 'Cheshire,' i. 32.

[Benedictus Abbas and Roger de Hoveden (both ed. Stubbs in Rolls Ser.); Howlett's Chronicles of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I (Rolls Ser.); Eyton's Itinerary of Hen. II; Ormerod's Cheshire, i. 26-32; Dugdale's Baronage, i. 40-1; Dugdale's Monasticon, ed. Ellis, Caley, and Bandinel; Doyle's Official Baronage, i. 364; Beamont's introduction to the Amicia Tracts, Chetham Soc.]

[DNB, Editor, Sidney Lee, Macmillan Co., London & Smith, Elder & Co., NY, 1908, vol. x, pp. 164-5]

Hugh married Bertrade de Montfort in 1169. Bertrade (daughter of Simon de Montfort and Maud) was born about 1155; died after 31 Mar 1227. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1156

Notes:

Also called Bertrade of Evreux. CP notes that at her wedding she was given away by King Henry II "because she was his own cousin." In fact she and the king were second cousins once removed, Simon de Montfort and Agnes d'Evreaux being his great-great grandparents and her great-grandparents.

Notes:

6th Earl of Fife.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 1172
• Alternate death: 1227

Notes:

"Robert de Ros, who bore the unexplained nickname of Furfan or Furson, s. and h., a minor, was in ward to the King in 1185, when his lands were in the custody of Ranulf de Glanville. He had livery of the lands in 1190. In Normandy he was bailiff of the royal castellany of Bonneville sur Toques. As son-in-law of William the Lion, King of Scotland, he was of his escort into England, Nov. 1200, to do homage, and again in 1209. He appears to have obeyed the summons to muster at Porchester for an expedition to Normandy, May 1205. In Feb. 1205/6 he proposed to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He was serving with the King in Ireland in 1210. In 1212 he had taken, or was believed to have taken, the 'habit of religion,' but in the following year was certainly in the King's employment. Sheriff of Cumberland, 1213-15. One of the 12 Barons named as guarantors in John's letters to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the bishops with him, overseas, May and June 1213, on the lifting of the excommunication. In Nov. 1214 he was joint commissioner to preside at the doing of homage to William (de Forz), Count of Aumale. Although he had been so closely associated with the King, he was one of his most vigorous opponents in the matter of Magna Carta, and of the 25 elected to see that its provisions were observed; and Robert and his son were included in the Bull of excommunication, Jan. 1215/6. In Nov. 1217 he had returned to his allegiance, and was one of the escort of Alexander II to England; in 1218, and later, the Cumberland estates were confirmed to him. In 1221 he was one of the barons called upon for help in the siege of Skipsea Castle. He was one of the assessors of an Aid in Feb. 1224/5, and witnessed at Westminster the confirmation of Magna Carta and the Forest charter. He m. at Haddington, early in 1191, Isabel, widow of Robert de Brus (d. v.p.s. of Robert de Brus II), illegitimate da. of William the Lion, King of Scotland. He d., or, as a Templar, retired from secular life, before 23 Dec. 1226, when his son did homage for his lands." [Complete Peerage]

Robert married Isabel of Scotland in 1191 in Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Isabel FitzWilliam.