Robert de Neville

Notes:

Murdered upon being caught in flagrante. Dugdale: "It is said, That this Robert frequenting the company of a certain Lady in Craven, in an adulterous manner, was surprised by some of her Husbands friends, and by them so gelded, that he died of the wound."

Robert married Mary Fitz Ranulph about 1260. Mary (daughter of Ralph fitz Ranulph and Anastasia de Percy) died before 11 Apr 1320; was buried in Coverham Abbey, Yorkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 18 Apr 1331

Notes:

"Randolf or Ranulph (sometimes called, seemingly in error, Ralph, son and heir of Robert de Neville and Mary his wife, was born 18 October 1262, and was heir to the Neville estates on the death of his grandfather, in 1282 (having livery under writ of 11 January 1283/4), and to his mother's inheritance, April 1320. He was summoned, 15 July 1287, with horses and arms to a military council at Gloucester (before Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, in the King's absence abroad), and to attend the King at Westminster, June 1294. He was summoned to Parliament from 24 June 1295 to 18 February 1330/1, by writs directed Ranulpho (and Radulpho) de Neville, whereby he is held to have become Lord Neville. For service in Scotland he was summoned 1291 and in later years; for service in Gascony, 1294, 1297 and 1324; and against the rebels under the Earl of Lancaster, 1322. His seal, as Dominus de Raby, was attached to the letter of the Barons to the Pope, February 1300/1. In 1303 he was chief of the delegates summoned by the King to set forth the grievances of the people against the Bishop of Durham. He, or possibly his son Ralph, was commissioner of array in Durham, 1322, in the North Riding of Yorks, 1324, and in Northumberland, 1324 and 1326; in 1325 Keeper of the Peace and one of the specially appointed keepers of the coast in Northumberland, and in 1326 one of the commissioners to impress shipping in the ports of that county. He m., 1stly, Eupheme, daughter of Robert Fitzroger, Lord Fitzroger (see Clavering), and, 2ndly, Margery, dau. of John de Thweng, by whom he had no issue. He died shortly after 18 April 1331." [Complete Peerage IX:497-8.]

Dugdale says of him that "It is reported of this Ranulph, that he little minded Secular business; but, for the most part, betook himself to conversation with the Canons of Merton and Coverham; as also, that he committed Incest with his own Daughter, and that Richard de Kellaw, Bishop of Durham, did for that crime compel him to do publick pennance." According to footnote (b) of the CP account quoted previously, this took place in 1313.

A slightly different version of the incest story is found in the 1875 Preface to Volume III of The Register of Richard de Kellawe, Lord Palatine and Bishop of Durham, 1314-1316, by the volume's editor, Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy. Hardy devotes nearly a page to the conviction and punishment of Ranulph's daughter Anastasia for her adultery with John de Lilleford, dwelling at length on how "proving contumacious, sentence of the Greater Excommunication was pronounced against her." This sentence was subquently commuted by the bishop and replaced with six weeks of elaborate public penance. But "[t]his unhappy woman's troubles seem not to have ended even with this promulgation of her shame and disgrace. On the 9th of November following, a mandate was issued by the bishop for the condemnation of Sur Ranulph de Neville, knight, who had been 'judicially convicted of the crime of incest and adultery with the said Anastasia, his daughter, and wife of Sir Walter de Fauconberg;' to appear in the parish church of Aukland, on the Monday after the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, there to receive penance for the said crime and for the further offence of contumacy. Sir Ranulph failing to appear, on the 16th of the following month, a mandate was issued, directing him to be excommunicated, in the Galilee at Durham, and all parish churches within the archdeaconry of Durham. We have no further details of this lamentable story. Sir Ranulph de Nevill, of Raby, was a baron of Parliament by writ, succeeded his grandfather Robert, in 1282, and died in 1331. It is only just to add, that Sir Ranulph seems habitually to have been in disfavour with the church; as for other, and apparently, trivial offenses, he had been pronounced excommunicated in the month of August before; but on the Tuesday after Michaelmas day had been absolved. On the 13th of October following, we find him again cited, 'for certain crimes and excesses which he has confessed,' to appear before the bishop or his commissaries, in the Galilee at Durham. In this instance, the nature of his offenses is not named."

There certainly seems to have been no love lost between the Neville family and the Durham ecclesiastical establishment. Dugdale reports that shortly after Ranulph assumed his inheritance in 1282, he had a feud with the prior of Durham over the terms of a customary presentation of a stag to the priory on St. Cuthbert's Day. And we see from his CP entry that in 1303 "Ranulph was chief of the delegates summoned by the King to set forth the grievances of the people against the Bishop of Durham." The incest case happened in 1313. In 1318, Ranulph's eldest son Robert attacked and killed Richard Marmaduke, seneschal to the bishop, on the Old Bridge of Durham. All of which suggests a cycle of offense and reprisal. (Later in the same year, Robert was killed by James, earl of Douglas, in single combat to which Robert had dared the earl.)

It should also be noted that Dugdale's characterization of Ranulph as "little minding Secular business" accords oddly with the eventful life of military and civilian service set forth by Complete Peerage. And yet this characterization appears elsewhere. T. F. Bulmer's 1890 History and Directory of Old Yorkshire states that this Ranulph "was so indolent and careless in the management of his affairs, that his mother settled Middleham and the rest of her manors on her grandson, Robert Neville". One wonders if we aren't simply picking through the tattered leavings of a 700-years-gone propaganda war.

Ranulph married Euphemia de Clavering before 12 Mar 1281. Euphemia (daughter of Robert fitz Roger and Margaret la Zouche) was born after 1265; died about 1320; was buried in Staindrop, Durham, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"Ralph (de Neville), Lord Neville, 2nd but 1st surviving son, was aged 40 and more at his father's death. He was taken prisoner with his younger brothers at Berwick in 1319. He had begun his long career of public service and official work already in 1322, when he was constable of Warkworth Castle, and serving in the Marches under the Earl of Carlisle. In 1324 he was appointed with the Earl of Angus to escort the envoys of Robert Bruce to York, to treat of peace, and in 1325 commissioner to keep the truce in Northumberland. At the time of his father's death he was already steward of the King's household. In the following January he indented to serve Sir Henry Percy, and in July was commissioned to take over the keepership of the Forest beyond Trent. He was present at the surrender of Berwick Castle to Edward III, July 1333, and again with the King in Scotland in 1334 (June-October) and in the summer of 1335; joint commissioner, 1333 and 1334, to Edward Baliol's Parliament, to demand confirmation of covenants, and in 1334 Warden of the Scottish Marches, some time sole and some time with Percy; in the same year chief of the justices in eyre of the Forest (Notts and Yorks) for that turn; in 1335 he was made keeper of Bamburgh Castle for life, and by Mar. 1336/7 was a banneret. In July 1338 and June 1340 he was appointed on the Council of Prince Edward as Keeper of the Realm, and (by the Bishop) overseer of the keepers of the temporalities of the see of Durham during his absence on the King's service. He commanded the first division at the victory of Durham, or Nevill's Cross, 17 October 1346, where King David of Scotland was taken prisoner; and took part in the naval success against the Spaniards off Winchelsea, 29 Aug. 1350." [Complete Peerage]

Unmentioned by CP, but he was educated at Oxford. He was the first layman to be buried at Durham Cathedral, in recognition of his role in the victory at Nevill's Cross.

Ralph married Alice de Audley after 14 Jan 1327. Alice (daughter of Hugh de Audley and Isolde le Rous) was born about 1300; died on 12 Jan 1374; was buried in Durham Cathedral, Durham, Durham, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 12 May 1372
• Alternate death: 13 May 1372

Margaret married Henry Percy on 12 Jul 1358 in Brancepeth, Durham, England. Henry (son of Henry de Percy and Mary of Lancaster) was born on 10 Nov 1341 in of Warkworth, Northumberland, England; died on 19 Feb 1408 in Bramham Moor, near Tadcaster, Yorkshire, England; was buried in York Cathedral, York, Yorkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1331
• Alternate birth: Between 1337 and 1340

Notes:

"John (de Neville), Lord Neville, son and heir (a), had writs of livery of his father's lands in England and Scotland, after doing homage, October 1367. He was a captain under his father at the battle of Nevill's Cross, 17 October 1346, and was knighted about April 1360. His life of public service was as active as his father's. He served in Aquitaine, 1366 and the following years, and numerous commissions issued to him, December 1367 onwards. In 1368 (September, October) he was joint ambassador to France. K.G. 1369. In 1369 and 1371 trier of petitions in Parliament; Admiral of the North, July 1370, and in November following joint commissioner to treat with Genoa; steward of the King's household, 1372. In July 1372 he sailed for Brittany on an expedition protracted for want of reinforcements. He was then for several years engaged in Scotland and the Marches. In December 1377 he had a patent of the keepership of Bamburgh Castle for life; and in 1378 licence to castellate Raby and Sheriff Hutton in 1382. He was made keeper of Fronsac Castle, on the Dordogne, 3 June, and Seneschal of Gascony in June 1378. Returning to England, he became Warden of the Marches (as above), and in 1381 conservator of the peace, co. Durham and Sedbergh; joint commissioner to treat of peace with Scotland, May 1383 and March 1386/7. In July 1385 he was under orders to accompany the King to Scotland." [Complete Peerage]

"He was presumably of age when a recognizance was made to him in January 1351/2. His age of 40 and more at his mother's death on 13 Jan. 1373/4 supports this conclusion." [The Ancestry of Charles II, citation details below.]

John de Neville and Maud Percy were great-grandparents of Edward IV and Richard III, making them the most recent common ancestors of TNH and Elizabeth II:

John de Neville (1330-1388) = Maud Percy (d. 1379)
Ralph de Neville (1364-1425) = Joan Beaufort (1379-1440)
Cecily Neville (1415-1495) = Richard of York (1411-1460)
Edward IV (1442-1483) = Elizabeth Woodville (1437-1492)
Elizabeth of York (1466-1503) = Henry VII (1457-1509)
Margaret Tudor (1489)-1541) = James IV (1473-1513)
James V (1512-1542) = Mary of Guise (1515-1560)
Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587) = Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley (1545-1567)
James VI and I (1566-1625) = Anne of Denmark (1574-1619)
Elizabeth of Bohemia (1596-1662) = Frederick V of the Palatine (1596-1632)
Sophia of Hanover (1630-1714) = Ernest Augustus, Elector of Brunswick-Lüneberg (1629-1698)
George I (1660-1727) = Sophia Dorothea of Celle (1666-1726)
George II (1683-1760) = Caroline of Ansbach (1683-1737)
Frederick, Prince of Wales (1707-1751) = Augusta of Saxe-Gotha (1719-1772)
George III (1738-1820) = Charlotte of Mecklenburg (1744-1818)
Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (1767-1820) = Victoria of Saxe-Coburg (1786-1861)
Victoria (1819-1901) = Albert of Saxe-Coburg (1819-1861)
Edward VII (1841-1910) = Alexandra of Denmark (1844-1925)
George V (1865-1936) = Mary of Teck (1867-1953)
George VI (1895-1952) = Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900-2002)
Elizabeth II (1926- )

boldface: monarchs of England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom
italic: monarchs of Scotland
boldface & italic: James IV and I, king of both

TNH is therefore 19th cousin once removed to Elizabeth II, no doubt sharing that distinction with literally hundreds of millions of other people.

Family/Spouse: Elizabeth le Latimer. Elizabeth (daughter of William le Latimer and Elizabeth de Arundel) was born about 1357; died on 5 Nov 1395. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Maud Percy before 1362. Maud (daughter of Henry de Percy and Idoine de Clifford) was born about 1345 in Alnwick, Northumberland, England; died before 18 Feb 1379; was buried in Durham Cathedral, Durham, Durham, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]