John de Neville

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]

1. Elizabeth Neville

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]

1. Eleanor Neville died after 1441.
2. Thomas Neville died on 14 Mar 1407; was buried in Worksop Priory, Nottinghamshire, England.
3. Ralph de Neville was born before 1367; died on 21 Oct 1425 in Raby Castle, Durham, England; was buried in Collegiate Church of St. Mary, Staindrop, Durham, England.

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: 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]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1 Apr 1325, Wallingford Castle, Oxfordshire, England
• Alternate death: Bef 12 Apr 1326

Notes:

Summoned to Parliament by writ, 1321. Joined the rebellion of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster in 1322, but surrendered before the battle of Boroughbridge. Died while a prisoner in Wallingford Castle.

"Hugh Audley, of Stratton Audley, Oxon, yst. s. of James Audley or Aldithley, of Heleigh, co. Stafford by Ela, da. of William Longespée (s. and h. ap. of Ela, suo jure Countess of Salisbury); was b. c. 1267, and obtained from his mother, soon after her husband's death, a reversionary grant, (1272-73) 1 Edw. I, of Stratton Audley, afsd., which had been her inheritance. He was in the French wars, 1294, &c.; a prisoner in France 2 Apr. 1299; in the Scottish wars, 1299-1302, and again 1313; he was in Gascony in 1304/5; Justice of North Wales 1306; and was Governor of Montgomery Castle, 1309. He was sum. to Parl. 15 May (1321) 14 Edw. II, the writ being directed Hugoni de Audele seniori, to distinguish him from his 2nd s., Hugh Audley, Junior, who had been so sum. in 1317. In 1321/2 he joined the insurrection of the Earl of Lancaster, but surrendered before the battle of Boroughbridge, 16 Mar. 1321/2, and was confined in Wallingford Castle. He m., before 7 Jan. 1293, and probably in 1288, Isolt, widow of Sir Walter de Balun, of Much Marcle, co. Hereford (who was living and m. to her in 1286/7), da. of Sir Edmund de Mortimer, 1st Lord Mortimer, of Wigmore, co. Hereford, by (____). She brought him the manors of Eastington, co. Gloucester, and of Thornbury, Co. Hereford. He d. between Nov. 1325, and Mar. 1325/6, probably while still a prisoner. No trace can be found of the pardon which he is sometimes said to have received, and any peerage which he may be held to have possessed, may be treated as having been forfeited by attainder. His widow was living 1336." [Complete Peerage I:347-48, as corrected in Volume XIV. See the entry on his wife for doubt she was was a daughter of Edmund de Mortimer.]

Hugh married Isolde le Rous before Jul 1291. Isolde (daughter of Roger le Rous and Eleanor de Avenbury) died before 4 Aug 1338. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Complete Peerage and Ancestral Roots give her as a daughter of Sir Edmund Mortimer, 7th Baron Mortimer of Wigmore, by an unidentified first wife, but various discussions on SGM and elsewere led to a consensus that this is chronologically improbable and that her parentage must be regarded as unknown. See also this page on Chris Phillips' site.

More recently, on 17 Dec 2017, Douglas Richardson posted to SGM evidence that she was a daughter of Roger le Rous and his wife Eleanor de Avenbury. Both pieces of evidence have to do with the known fact that her first husband was Walter de Balun, who died in 1287. In 1296 one Isolde sued Reynold de Balun in the Court of Common Pleas regarding the manor of Eastington, Gloucester, which she claimed as her right and which she was in fact holding at that time. Reynold de Balun was Walter de Balun's brother and heir. The record identifies Isolde, the plaintiff, as "daughter of Roger le Rus." The other document is a record of Walter de Balun and his wife, Isolde, being enfeoffed with the manor of Much Marcle, Herefordshire by Roger le Rous. Between these two it seems clear that the wife of Hugh de Audley, widow of Walter de Balun, was a daughter of Roger le Rous.

Complete Peerage and Ancestral Roots give her as a daughter of Sir Edmund Mortimer, 7th Baron Mortimer of Wigmore, by an unidentified first wife, but various discussions on SGM and elsewere led to a consensus that this is chronologically improbable and that her parentage must be regarded as unknown. See also this page on Chris Phillips' site.

More recently, on 17 Dec 2017, Douglas Richardson posted to SGM evidence that she was a daughter of Roger le Rous and his wife Eleanor de Avenbury. Both pieces of evidence have to do with the known fact that her first husband was Walter de Balun, who died in 1287. In 1296 one Isolde sued Reynold de Balun in the Court of Common Pleas regarding the manor of Eastington, Gloucester, which she claimed as her right and which she was in fact holding at that time. Reynold de Balun was Walter de Balun's nephew and heir. The record identifies Isolde, the plaintiff, as "daughter of Roger le Rus." The other document is a record of Walter de Balun and his wife, Isolde, being enfeoffed with the manor of Much Marcle, Herefordshire by Roger le Rous. Between these two it seems clear that the wife of Hugh de Audley, widow of Walter de Balun, was a daughter of Roger le Rous.

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]

Notes:

Also called Mary of Middleham. "She married Robert de Neville, Lord of Raby, who soon after, violating the sanctity of another domestic hearth, met with speedy retribution. Being detected in one of his clandestine visits to a lady in Craven, he was so horribly mutilated by her husband that he died of his wounds, on the 6th of June, 1271. Mary of Middleham did not again enter the bonds of wedlock, but lived on her own inheritance, and dying, in 1320, was buried beside her husband in the choir at Coverham. Ralph, the only child of the marriage, inherited Raby, on the death of his grandfather; but he 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, commonly called 'The Peacock of the North.'" (History and Directory of Old Yorkshire by T. F. Bulmer, 1890.)

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 1247, Clavering, Essex, England
• Alternate death: Bef 20 Apr 1310, Horsford, Norfolk, England

Notes:

"He distinguished himself in the war with Scotland, 1294-8, and was taken prisoner at the Battle of Stirling 11 Sept. 1297. He was summoned to Parliament from 2 Nov. 1295 to 26 October 1309, by writs directed Roberto filio Rogeri, whereby he is held to have become Lord Fitz Roger." [Royal Ancestry]

Robert married Margaret la Zouche in 1265. Margaret (daughter of Alan la Zouche and Ellen de Quincy) was born in 1251 in Winchester, Hampshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 23 Jun 1272, Thomond, Ireland

Notes:

Also de Aldithel, Audley. Crusader with Prince Edward, 1270.

"James of Aldithley, 1st or 2nd s. and h., b. about 1220. Keeper of the castle of Newcastle-under-Lyme, 30 Oct. 1250. He joined in a letter of the Barons to the Pope in 1258. Witnessed, as one of the King's sworn Council, the confirmation by Henry III of the Provisions of Oxford, 1258; Lord Marcher; Sheriff of Salop, and co. Staff., 1261-62 and 1270-71; Justiciar of Ireland 1270-72. He took an active part on the King's side against the Barons, being in arms for the King on the Welsh Marches in 1264, and engaging in the Evesham campaign in 1265. He m., in 1244, Ela, da. of William Longespee (who d. 1250), s. and h. of Ela, suo jure Countess of Salisbury, by Idoine, da. and h. of Richard de Camville. She brought him the manors of Stratton, afterwards called Stratton Audley, and Wretchwick, Oxon, in frank marriage. He d. about 11 June (1272) 56 Hen. III, in Ireland, by 'breaking his neck.' Writ for his Inq. p. m. 16 July 1272. His widow d. apparently shortly before 22 Nov. 1299. Inq. p. m. (1325-26) 19 Edw. II." [Complete Peerage I:337-38, as corrected in Volume XIV.]

Notes:

Suo jure Countess of Salisbury.

Notes:

Sheriff of Gloucestershire, 1278-79. Sheriff of Herefordshire 1293-94. Knight of the shire for Gloucestershire, 1283. Knight of the shire for Herefordshire, 1290.

Regarding his service at parliament in 1283, a footnote to the article excerpted below observes that "it is singular that this particular return is supposed to be the only existing record of those present at that Parliament, which met at Shrewsbury, 30th Sep. 1283, one of its results being the execution of Prince David." The other significance of the parliament of 1283 is that following the execution of Dafydd, Parliament removed a few miles south to Acton Burnell, home of Edward I's chancellor Robert Burnell, and there the "knights of the shire" made the constitutionally-consequential decision to sit in a separate gathering alongside the town burgesses, and separate from the aristocracy. Many historians point to this as the origin of the modern houses of Commons and Lords. It is perhaps also significant that the law actually passed by this gathering was a measure empowering the mayors of London, York, and Bristol to take actual against defaulting debtors without involving the national government.

From "Harescombe: Fragments of Parochial History" (citation details below):

Sir Roger le Rous (the father of Alianora) appears to have been a personage of considerable influence and activity in the reign of Edward I., which may be the result of his position as one of the knights enfeoffed by the Earl of Hereford, as well as of the King's personal favour, although upon one occasion he seems to have fallen under his displeasure. He held of the King in capite, as of the manor of Berton Regis, three virgates of land at Brockthrop, which he formerly held of Humphrey de Bohun, but the king ousted him, and compelled him to redeem the lands by payment of fifty marks down and half a mark annually.

He was appointed one of the assessors of the subsidy for this county granted in 3 Edw. III. In the same year he performed military service, due from Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex; muster at Worcester in eight days after the Feast of St. John the Baptist. The register of Malmesbury Abbey names him as one of the witnesses of the settlement of a dispute with the abbot concerning common rights in the wood of Flusrugge, claimed by the Earl of Hereford's men at Wockeseye (Oaksey); he also witnesses a release to the abbey of the marriage of the heir of John le Breth, son of Richard le Breth, of Weston, by Alan de Plokenet for 15 marks of silver (40 marks previously received), together with John Giffard, Walter Heliun, Adam de Monte Alto, John Giffard de Twyford, Ralph de Albyniaco, and Robt. de Panes, Knights. The wardship and marriage so released were sold to Ralph de Leycestre, Archdeacon of Wilts, for 70 marcs of silver.

In the Lanthony Register, he witnesses divers grants: viz., from William de Waleys de Husmerley: "Rogo Ruffo de Harscombe," with Will. de Parco, Walter de Salle, and Robt. de Coverle; also from John de Bohun of half an acre, near to the Court at Haresfield, for the soul of his father, Earl Humphrey, and his mother Matilda; also, from Laurence de Chandos of all his Court of Brockworth, with buildings, gardens, curtilages and vineries, and all appurtenances, in the field called Westfield. He witnesses also a grant from Alexander de Mattesdon to Philip de Mattesdon, and Isabel, his wife, of all his rights in that vill, contained in the Abbot's Register. He was Sheriff of Gloucestershire in Edw. I. (1278). In 1283 he was returned as one of the knights for the shire, as "Dominus Rogerus le Rous."

In 1285, in the time of Rich. Swinfield, Bishop of Hereford (whose judicial rights within his fee the turbulent citizens of Hereford had disputed), we meet with him as Commissioner on an Inquisition held on the day of St. Dionysius. In 1290 we find him Knight of the Shire for Hereford. His name is of frequent occurrence in the Registers of St. Peter's Abbey as a witness to grants of lands, &c.

Roger married Eleanor de Avenbury. Eleanor (daughter of Henry de Avenbury) died after 1312. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Sheriff of Northumberland Jan-Nov 1258. Acting Justice of the Forest beyond Trent, June 1258. Heriff of Yorkshire 1263.

Robert married (Unknown first wife of Robert de Neville). (Unknown died before Apr 1273. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Middleham, Yorkshire, England

Ralph married Anastasia de Percy. Anastasia (daughter of William de Percy and Joan Briwerre) died before 28 Apr 1272. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Between 23 and 29 Jun 1249, Normandy, France

Notes:

Also called John de Balliol. Died at a tournament.

Roger married Isabel of Dunbar. Isabel (daughter of Patrick of Dunbar and Euphame de Brus) died after 1269. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Bef 1217, of Ashby de la Zouche, Leicestershire, England
• Alternate birth: Abt 1217, of Ashby de la Zouche, Leicestershire, England
• Alternate death: 12 Aug 1270

Notes:

Constable of the Tower of London.

"His first taste of high office came in 1250 when he was appointed justice of the county of Chester and the Four Cantrefs (the district of north Wales east of the River Conwy). He paid 1000 marks for the post, allegedly outbidding the current holder of the office. He flaunted the wealth he raised from the district, and boasted that the whole of Wales was now reduced to obedience. But his high-handed and insensitive behaviour provoked royal investigation, and fuelled the resentment in the area against the English, which led to the violent overthrow of English rule in 1256. By then Zouche had entered the service of the Lord Edward (who had been given the royal lands in Wales, Ireland, and Chester in February 1254), and acted as his justiciar in Ireland from June 1256 to October 1258. With the onset of civil discord in England in June 1258, Zouche was given ample opportunity to display his unflinching loyalty to the king." [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]

Subsequent offices include steward of the royal household, Oct 1261 - Jan 1263; sheriff of Northamptonshire 1261-4; justice of the forests south of Trent Jun 1261 onward; constable of Rockingham Castle 1261-4 and Northampton Castle 1261-3; warden of London and constable of the Tower, Jun 1268 - Apr 1268.

"Taken prisoner at the battle of Lewes (14 May 1264), Zouche escaped to Lewes Priory, where he disguised himself as a monk, but he was recaptured and imprisoned. In the aftermath of the king's victory at Evesham (4 August 1265) he played an important part in the pacification of the country: he was one of the twelve arbitrators appointed to arrange the terms of the surrender of Kenilworth Castle in 1266, and was one of the justices appointed to hear the pleas of the disinherited." [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]

"During an altercation in Westminster Hall on 1 July 1270, [John de] Warenne and his men assaulted Zouche and his son in the presence of the royal justice and the chancellor. Zouche suffered wounds from which he died on 10 August 1270." [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]

Alan married Ellen de Quincy before 1242. Ellen (daughter of Roger de Quincy and Helen of Galloway) was born about 1222 in Winchester, Hampshire, England; died before 20 Aug 1296. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Brackley, Northamptonshire, England

Notes:

Also called Helen; Elena; Elene.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 19 Nov 1246

Notes:

Also called Henry de Audley; Aldithlegh.

Sheriff of Shrophsire and Staffordshire 1227-8, 1229-32.

"Henry of Aldithley, 2nd son of Adam of Aldithley, (who d. bet. 1203 and 1211) by Emma, daughter of Ralf fitz Orm, of Darlaston, Staffs; was b. about 1175; with his father, he was witness to a charter of Harvey Bagot in 1194. He bought large estates from Eleanor Malbank in 1214; in 1227 he acquired the manors of Edgmund and Newport, and in 1230 that of Ford, all in Salop, and all held by him direct from the Crown, though not by military or knight service. He was Under Sheriff of Salop and co. Stafford 1217-20, and Sheriff 1227-32; was in command of the Welsh Marches 1223-46. He built the castle of Heligh, co. Stafford; and Red Castle, Salop. In 1223 he founded Hulton Abbey. He was appointed Custodian of Chester and Beeston Castle, 22 June 1237, on the extinction of the the earldom of Chester. He m. in 1217, Bertred, daughter of Ralf Mainwaring, Seneschal of Chester. He d. in 1246, shortly bef. Nov. His widow was living in 1249. She was bur. in Hulton Abbey." [Complete Peerage I:337, as corrected in Volume XIV.]

From A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire:

"That this family of Alditheley, vulgarly called Audley," says Dugdale, "came to be great and eminent, the ensuing discourse will sufficiently manifest: but that the rise thereof was no higher than King John's time, and that the first who assumed this surname was a branch of that ancient and noble family of Verdon, whose chief seat was at Alton Castle in the northern part of Staffordshire, I am very inclined to believe; partly by reason that Henry had the inheritance of Alditheley given him by Nicholas de Verdon, who d. in the 16th Henry III [1232], or near that time; and partly for that he bore for his arms the same ordinary as Vernon did...so that probably the ancestor of this Henry first seated himself at Alditheley: for that there hath been an ancient mansion there, the large moat, northwards from the parish church there (somewhat less than a furlong, and upon the chief part of a fair ascent), do sufficiently manifest."

Henry de Alditheley, to whom Dugdale alludes above, being in great favour with Ranulph, Earl of Chester and Lincoln (the most powerful subject of England in his time), obtained from that nobleman a grant of Newhall in Cheshire with manors in Staffordshire and other parts--and for his adhesion to King John, in that monarch's struggle with the insurrectionary barons, a royal grant of the lordship o fStorton in Warwickshire, part of the possessions of Roger de Summerville. In the first four years of King Henry III [1216-1220], he executed the office of sheriff for the counties of Salop and Stafford as deputy for his patron, the great Earl Ranulph. In the 10th of Henry III [1226], this Henry de Alditheley was appointed governor of the castles of Carmarthen and Cardigan and made sheriff the next year of the counties of Salop and Stafford and constable of the castles of Salop and Bridgenorth, which sheriffalty he held for five years. Upon his retirement from office, he had a confirmation of all such lands whereof he was then possessed as well those granted to him by Ranulph, Earl of Chester, and Nicholas de Verdon, as those in Ireland given him by Hugh de Lacy, Earl of Ulster, whose constable he was in that province. He subsequently obtained divers other territorial grants from the crown, but, notwithstanding, when Richard Mareschall, Earl of Pembroke, rebelled and made an incursion into Wales, the king, Henry III, thought it prudent to secure the persons of this Henry and all the other barons-marchers. He was afterwards, however, constituted governor of Shrewsbury in place of John de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, and, on the death of John, Earl of Chester, governor of the castle of Chester, and also that of Beeston, then called the "Castle on the Rock," and soon after made governor of Newcastle-under-Lyne. This powerful feudal baron m. Bertred, dau. of Ralph de Meisnil-warin, of Cheshire, and had a son, James, and a dau., Emme, who m. Griffith ap Madoc, Lord of Bromefield, a person of great power in Wales. He d. in 1236, having founded and endowed the Abbey of Hilton near to his castle at Heleigh, in Staffordshire, for Cistercian monks, and was s. by his son, James de Alditheley.

Henry married Bertrade de Mainwaring in 1217. Bertrade (daughter of Ralph Mainwaring and Amicia de Meschines) died after 1248; was buried in Hulton Abbey, Staffordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1249
• Alternate death: Aft 3 Nov 1249

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1208, of Amesbury, Wiltshire, England
• Alternate birth: Abt 1212
• Alternate death: 7 Feb 1250, Mansourah, Egypt
• Alternate death: 8 Feb 1250, Mansourah, Egypt

Notes:

Killed on crusade, at the Battle of Mansourah.

William married Idoine de Camville after Apr 1216. Idoine (daughter of Richard de Camville and Eustache Basset) was born before 1206; died between 1 Jan 1251 and 21 Sep 1251. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 21 Sep 1252

Notes:

Living 1241.

Henry married Hawise. Hawise died after 16 Oct 1268. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 29 Sep 1242

Notes:

Also called Geoffrey Fitz Robert; Geoffrey FitzRobert FitzMaldred.

Sheriff of Northumberland 1258. Justice of the King's Forests.

Geoffrey married Joan. Joan died after Nov 1247. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

CP says: "Possibly a coheir of John de Monmouth."

Notes:

Justice.

Ranulph married Mary le Bigod. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1193, Alnwick, Northumberland, England
• Alternate birth: 1197, of Topcliffe, Yorkshire, England

Notes:

"His heart was buried before the Lady altar in the church or chapel of the Hospital of Sandon, Surrey." [Royal Ancestry]

William married Joan Briwerre about 1226. Joan (daughter of William de Briwerre and Beatrice de Vaux) died before 12 Jun 1233; was buried in Hospital of Sandon, Surrey, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 20 Feb 1241

Notes:

Also called John de Warkworth. Magna Carta surety. Sheriff of Norfolk 1215.

John married Ada de Balliol. Ada (daughter of Hugh de Balliol and Cecily de Fontaines) died on 29 Jul 1251 in Stokesley, Yorkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1186
• Alternate death: Aft 14 Apr 1248, Marseilles, France
• Alternate death: Between May 1248 and Dec 1248, Marseilles, France

Notes:

Earl of Dunbar. Died en route to Palestine.

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says that "He and a number of other Scots died at the (successful) siege of Damietta in Egypt in 1248", but this appears to be an error. Volume III of The Scots Peerage (citation details below) says, on page 256, "[H]e never reached Palestine, as his death at Marseilles is recorded by the chronicler of Lanercost." And while the first portion of the chronicle of Lanercost appears to be online only in its original Latin, I can certainly make out in its 1248 section that "Patricius de Dunbar" "ex hac luce migravit" ("departed this life") in "Marfiliam."

From The Scots Peerage:

"The same writer [presumably the Lanercost chronicler] tells also two stories which give us a very favorable view of the Earl's character. One is that the Earl had issued invitations for a feast, but many more guests arrived than preparation had been made for. When his steward informed him of the lack of provision thus caused, the Earl ordered the kitchen be set on fire, risking rather the loss of his house than the tarnishing of his reputation for hospitality. The other story, for which the narrator vouches, concerns his forgiving and lenient conduct to a robber whom he had rescued from the gallows and placed in a position of trust, but who tried to murder his master. The Earl, however, made light of it, and gave the rascal money to escape."

Patrick married Euphame de Brus before 1213. Euphame (daughter of William de Brus and Christian) died about 1267. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Notwithstanding The Scots Peerage, CP, and Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, she was a granddaughter, not a daughter, of Walter Fitz Alan, third high steward of Scotland. See Andrew B. W. MacEwen, "A Clarification of the Dunbar Pedigree," citation details below.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Bef 1178, of Ashby de la Zouche, Leicestershire, England

Notes:

Sheriff of Devonshire 1228-31. A witness to Henry III's confirmation of Magna Carta.

Roger married Margaret Biset. Margaret (daughter of Henry Biset and (Unknown first wife of Henry Biset)) was born in of Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England; died after 15 Aug 1232. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 1232
• Alternate death: Bef 14 May 1238

Notes:

Earl of Winchester. In right of his first wife, hereditary Constable of Scotland. "At his death he was probably the greatest Anglo-Scottish landowner of his day" [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography].

From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:

"Little is known of Roger de Quincy before 1219. He was probably the son whom Saer delivered to King John in 1213 as a Scottish hostage for the security of the Anglo-Scottish treaty of 1212. He emerged onto the political stage in 1215 when, along with Saer and the leaders of the baronial rebellion against John, he was excommunicated by Innocent III (r. 1198–1216), but did not figure prominently in the civil war that followed the king's death. [...]

"Roger de Quincy did not hold the prominence in politics that his father had commanded in England [...] but his wealth secured him an important role. In 1239 and 1246 he joined in written remonstrances from the English nobility to Gregory IX (r. 1227–41) and Innocent IV (r. 1243–54) concerning papal interference in English affairs. Association with the stirrings of dissatisfaction with the government of Henry III expressed in the parliaments of 1248 and 1254 led to identification with the baronial opposition in 1258. At the Oxford parliament Quincy was elected by the barons to the twelve-member commission charged with attendance at the three annual parliaments provided for under the provisions of Oxford, and was appointed also to the committee that arranged the financial aid promised to Henry. In 1259 he led a delegation to St Omer to intercept Richard, earl of Cornwall (d. 1272), and forbid him to return to England until he had sworn to observe the provisions of Oxford. This appears to have been Roger de Quincy's last major act, for he played little part in subsequent events which culminated in open conflict between the king and his baronial opponents, and died on 25 April 1264, eighteen days after Henry had precipitated the country into civil war."

Roger married Helen of Galloway. Helen (daughter of Alan fitz Roland and (Unknown daughter of Roger de Lacy)) died after 21 Nov 1245; was buried in Brackley, Northamptonshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Ellen.

Alan Fitz Roland, often called Alan of Galloway, married three times. His first wife was a daughter of Roger of Chester, who is often called Roger de Lacy. His second wife was Margaret of Scotland, daughter of David, Earl of Huntington. His third wife was a daughter of Hugh de Lacy, 1st Earl of Ulster.

The presence of two marriages to daughters of men called de Lacy, both of which daughters' names have been lost, has created understandable confusion. Many online sources show Alan Fitz Roland's daughter Ellen as a daughter of his third marriage. In fact she was a daughter of his first; her maternal grandfather was Roger of Chester, also called Roger de Lacy -- not Hugh de Lacy. To the best of our knowledge, Alan Fitz Roland's third marriage was without issue.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Between 1201 and 1211

Adam married Emma fitz Ralph about 1170. Emma (daughter of Ralph fitz Orm) was born in of Darlaston, Staffordshire, England; died before Nov 1246. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 1201

Notes:

Also called Ralph Mesnilwarin; Ralph de Mednil War.

Justice of Chester. Seneschal of Chester.

Ralph married Amicia de Meschines about 1179. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Amice of Chester. Her legitimacy was the subject of a lengthy seventeenth-century controversy which can be read, in all its magnificently florid language, here.

It seems to us entirely plausible that Amicia was Hugh's legitimate daughter by an unknown earlier wife. The Earl's behavior toward Amicia, and the attitude shown by all their contemporaries -- to say nothing of the illustrious guests recorded as having attended Amicia's wedding to Ralph Mainwairing -- are all consistent with Amicia being legitimate. It's far from impossible that history should have lost track of the identity of a twelfth-century magnate's short-lived first wife. We don't even have firm knowledge of the birth dates of some post-Conquest English kings.

A summary of the issues, from Burke's Dormant and Extinct Peerages:

The earl had another dau., whose legitimacy is questionable, namely Amicia,* m. to Ralph de Mesnilwarin, justice of Chester, "a person," says Dugdale, "of very ancient family," from which union the Mainwarings, of Over Peover, in the co. Chester, derive. Dugdale considers Amicia to be a dau. of the earl by a former wife. But Sir Peter Leicester, in his Antiquities of Chester, totally denies her legitimacy. "I cannot but mislike," says he, "the boldness and ignorance of that herald who gave to Mainwaring (late of Peover), the elder, the quartering of the Earl of Chester's arms; for if he ought of right to quarter that coat, then must he be descended from a co-heir to the Earl of Chester; but he was not; for the co-heirs of Earl Hugh married four of the greatest peers in the kingdom."

(*) Upon the question of this lady's legitimacy there was a long paper war between Sir Peter Leicester and Sir Thomas Mainwaring -- and eventually the matter was referred to the judges, of whose decision Wood says, "at an assize held at Chester, 1675, the controversy was decided by the justices itinerant, who, as I have heard, adjudged the right of the matter to Mainwaring."

The passage from Dugdale that evidently occasioned Sir Peter Leycester's astonishment and disbelief, from his Baronage of England, 1675, reprinted by Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim & New York, 1977; Earls of Chester, pp. 40-41:

[I]t is certain that [Sir Hugh] had another Daughter called Amicia, married to Raphe de Mesnilwarin (a person of a very ancient Family, and Justice of Chester, in those days) whose Legitimacy is doubted by some; the cheif reason they give for it, being, that they find no Memorial, that Earl Hugh her Father had a former Wife.

That she was his Daughter, sufficiently appeareth, not only from his Grant of two Knight Fees with her in Frank-marriage, unto Raphe de Mesnilwarin before mentioned, where he so termeth her. But by another Deed of Roger de Mesnilwarin her Son, wherein he calls Ranulph, Earl of Chester, (Son to this Earl) his Uncle.

As to her Legitimacy, therefore I do not well understand how there can be any question, it being known Maxim in Law, that nothing can be given in Frank-marriage to a Bastard.

The Point being then thus briefly cleared, I shall not need to raise further Arguments from Probabilities to back it, then to desire it may be observed, that Bertra (whom I conclude to have been his second Wife) was married to him, when he was in years, and she, herself, very young, as is evident from what I have before instanced. So that he having been Earl no less then twenty eight years, it must necessarily follow, that this Bertra was not born, till four years after he came to the Earldom. Nor is it any marvel he should then take such a young Wife, having at that time no Issue-male to succeed him in this he great Inheritance."

From Palatine Anthology: A Collection of Ancient Poems and Ballads Relating to Lancashire and Chester ed. James Orchard Halliwell (London: 1850):

The following old ballad relates to a famous dispute between two Cheshire knights, Sir Peter Leycester and Sir Thomas Mainwaring, about the legitimacy of Amicia, daughter of Hugh Lupus. The worthy knights were related by marriage, and the controversy agitated the county for many years, and was hardly settled by the death of one of the principal controversialists. Communicated to me by Mr. W. H. BLACK.

A new Ballad, made of a high and mighty Controversy between two Cheshire Knights, 1673.

(From the ASHMOLEAN MSS. No. 860, iii, art. 1, and No. 836, art. 183.)

Two famous wights, both Cheshire Knights,
Thomas yclep'd and Petre,
A quarrel had, which was too bad
As bad as is my metre.

Neere kinsmen were they, yet had a great fray,
Concerning things done quondam;
I think as long since as Will Rufus was Prince,
E'en about their Great-great-grandame.

Sir Peter (good man) this quarell began:
Whilst he tumbles ore ancient deedes,
Old women can't have quiet rest in their graves,
So loud he proclaims what he reades.

When in reading he found (as he thought) good ground
To judge his Grannam a bastard;
Though he blemisht her name, yet it to proclaim
He resolv'd hee'd be no dastard.

But boldly durst say, that AMICIA
Daughter of Hugh Earle of Chester
For certaine was bore to him . . . .
As sure as his name was Leycester.

To this good intent he us'd much argument
The which all such as are willing
Fully to know, let them quickly bestow
Upon his Booke sixteene shilling.

His Grannam's his friend; yet truth hee'l defend
And little dirt he throws on her,
For as now, so then, among your great men,
A bastard is small dishonour.

Another grandchild, hearing this was stark wild,
The affront he could not digest;
But takes pen in hand, the same to withstand,
As scorning to fowl his own nest.

His Grannam hee'l right, against the erring Knight,
That slander'd her without warrant:
Who does not his best, to free ladies opprest,
Is not a true Knight Errant.

Hist'ry and lawes he cites for his cause,
With Judges and Heraldes; what more?
With these hee'l defy the scandalous lye
That made him . . . . .

They us'd not their swords, but their pens and fowl words,
Which noyse with other folks laughter,
Could not chuse to awake (to clere this mistake)
The jolly old Earl and his daughter.

Then up start[s] Earl Hughe, and sayes "Is it true--
That I, brave Chester's Earle,
Am summon'd to appear before Justices here,
As charg'd with a by-blow girle?"

Not another word, but clapt hand on his sword;
While she (gentle AMICIA)
For feare of some slaughter that might come after,
Besought him in patience to stay.

But she told her Grandson, "'Twas uncivilly done
Such a hideous pudder to keep:
Whilst he dreams that folks soules do snort in dark holes
To awake us out of our sleep.

"Should it have been true, that's suspected by you,
Its father was able to nourish
The barne he had got, and sure I should not
Have been any charge to the parish.

"But you, dear Sir Thomas, (much honor to your domus)
That my cause you have so well defended;
Henceforth leave AMICIA, both keepe Amicitia;
And so let the quarell be ended."

All this said, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography also notes that "[t]he feud, however, was not merely a dispute over genealogical and legal niceties, but reflected the division on the Cheshire bench between those like Leycester who sought a rigorous enforcement of the Act of Uniformity and the Conventicle Acts and those such as Mainwaring who opposed this policy."

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1175
• Alternate birth: Between 1175 and 1180
• Alternate birth: Abt 1176
• Alternate death: 7 Mar 1226, Salisbury, Wiltshire, England

Notes:

Earl of Salisbury. Among the advisors to King John at Runnymede.

Lieutenant of Gascony 1202; Seneschal of Avranches 1203; Constable of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports 1204-6; Sheriff of Wiltshire 1204-7, 1213-26; Lord of the Honour and Castle of Eye 1205; Cheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire 1212-21; Sheriff of Shropshire and Staffordshire 1223-4; Constable of Portchester, Southampton, and Winchester Castle 1224; Keeper of the March of Wales.

Yes, there really were two Ida de Longespees, and they were sisters. SGM post:

From: Douglas Richardson Subject: Parentage of Ida Longespée, wife of Walter Fitz Robert Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 08:51:45 -0700 (PDT)

There has been discussion in the past on the newsgroup regarding the placement of Ida Longespée, wife of Walter Fitz Robert, in the Longespée family tree. Complete Peerage, 5 (1926): 472 (sub FitzWalter) identifies Ida as "daughter of William (Longespée), Earl of Salisbury." The William Longespée intended here is presumably William Longespée I who died in 1226, not his son, William II, who died in 1250. If so, this would give Earl William Longespée I and his wife, Ela, two adult daughters named Ida, one of whom married Walter Fitz Robert, and the other who married William de Beauchamp. Curiously Complete Peerage, 11 (1949): 381-382 footnote k (sub Salisbury) confuses Walter Fitz Robert's wife Ida with her sister of the same name who married William de Beauchamp; it also misidentifies Walter Fitz Robert's parentage.

The identification of Ida, wife of Walter Fitz Robert, as a Longespée has traditionally rested on a pedigree of the Longespée family found in Lacock Priory cartulary. This pedigree lists the various children of William Longespée I, Earl of Salisbury, and his wife, Ela of Salisbury, including:

"Idam de Camyle, quam duxit in uxorem Walterus fil. Roberti, de qua genuit Catherinam et Loricam, quæ velatæ erant apud Lacok; Elam, quam duxit primo Guillelmus de Dodingeseles, de qua genuit Robertum") [Reference: Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, 6(1) (1830): 501].

It is not known exactly why Ida Longespée is here styled Ida de Camyle in this record. I've assumed, however, that Ida may have had a brief Camville marriage previous to her known marriage to Walter Fitz Robert. If so, a previous Camvillle marriage would explain her use of the Camville surname as a grown adult. Ida's older brother, William Longespée II, is known, for example, to have married a member of the Camville family.

There are two contemporary records which prove that Ida, wife of Walter Fitz Robert, was in fact a Longespée. The first record comes from List of Ancient Correspondence of the Chancery and Exchequer, which source contains an abstract of a letter dated 1261-1263 from Ida, widow of Walter Fitz Robert, written to Walter de Merton, the king's chancellor, in which Ida specifically styles herself Ida Longespée:

"152. Ida Longespée, widow of Walter Fitz Robert, to the same [Walter de Merton, Chancellor]: to bail two of her men appealed of homicide. [1261-1263]." [Reference: List of Ancient Correspondence of the Chancery and Exchequer (PRO Lists and Indexes 15) (1902): 107-108].

Elsewhere I find that Calendar of Liberate Rolls 5 (1961): 93 likewise refers to Ida, widow of Walter Fitz Robert, as "Ida Lungespee:"

Date: 11 May 1162 -- "Liberate to Geoffrey de Lezinan, the king's brother, 40l. in recompense of a like sum received there of the issues of the manor of Henham [Essex] by the hands of Ida Lungespee." END OF QUOTE.

To date to my knowledge no one has discovered Ida Longespée's maritagium, although she certainly had one in marriage. Recently I encountered a record which evidently concerns her maritagium. The record in question is a Wiltshire pleading which dates from 1249:

"Walter son of Robert and Ida his wife, by Ida's attorney by writ of the present king, who brought an assize of novel disseisin against William Lungepeie for holdings in Scepperingge and Heniton, Farlegh' and Bidinham, have come and withdrawn by licence. It is agreed between them that Walter and Ida had put themselves utterly in William's grace for those holdings." [Reference: Clanchy, Civil Pleas of the Wiltshire Eyre 1249 (Wiltshire Rec. Soc. 26) (1971): 152].

The lands involved in this lawsuit can be identified as Sheepbridge (in Swallowfield), Hinton (in Hurst), Farley [Hill] (in Swallowfield), and Diddenham (in Shinfield), all in modern Berkshire but formerly in Wiltshire. These lands were apparently held by William Longespée I and his wife, Countess Ela.

VCH Berkshire 3 (1923): 267-274 states that Sheepbridge "belonged with Hinton in 1236 to Ela, Countess of Salisbury." Countess Ela named here was the widow of William Longespée I. VCH's statement regarding Countess Ela's holding of these lands is based on a charter found in Calendar of Charter Rolls 1226 - 57, page 221, whereby the king confirmed a grant of Countess Ela of various lands to Lacock Abbey, in exchange for "10 l. yearly receivable ...... .of the manors of Shiperige and Henton, and the advowson of the church of Winterburn Shyreveton."

The above record may be viewed at the following weblink:

http://books.google.com/books?id=1dELAQA AIAAJ&pg=PP1&dq=Calendar+Charter+Rolls+1226&hl=en&ei=M-U4TrbTFYvXiALj163DDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=r esult&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Calendar%20Charter%20Rolls%201226&f=false

Countess Ela's charter is undated but surely must date from around 1236. My files notes show the following information:

"In Feb. 1236 her son and heir, William Longespée, guaranteed her gifts to Lacock Abbey, while she agreed to surrender all her lands, rents and rights to him on 1 Nov. following. On 25 Oct. 1236 Ela, Countess of Salisbury, reached agreement with William Longespée, her first born son, that she may grant a moiety of the manor of Heddington, Wiltshire to Lacock Priory, which property fell to her on the death of Maud de Mandeville, Countess of Essex and Hereford. In the winter 1236 - 7 she resigned her custody of the county of Wiltshire. She subsequently entered her religious foundation at Lacock, where she took the veil before spring 1238." END OF QUOTE FROM MY FILE NOTES.

Following Countess Ela's surrender of her lands to her son, William Longespée II, he in turn granted the four properties in question, namely Sheepbridge, Hinton, Farley, and Diddenham, to his seneschal, Sir Henry de la Mare. The date of this grant is sometime before 1239-40.

In that year Sir Henry de la Mare was involved in a legal action concerning these four properties. A reference to this lawsuit may be found in Maitland, Bracton's Note Book 3 (1887): 286 - 287. This may be viewed at the following weblink:

http://books.google.com/books?id=DtcQAAA AYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:LtFTiI1NIsEC&hl=en&ei=nmw5TsSXK42IsAKv3OEg&sa=X&oi=book_result &ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

So the question arises: When did Walter Fitz Robert and his wife, Ida Longespée, acquire their interest in the four properties? The answer to that question is not exact but surely it must have dated from the time that Countess Ela of Salisbury was holding these properties and before 1 Nov. 1236 when Countess Ela surrendered all her lands, rents, and rights to her son, William Longespée II. Walter and Ida can't have acquired their interest from William Longespée II, as once his mother released her lands to him, he almost immediately conveyed these four properties to his seneschal, Sir Henry de la Mare. One of these properties, Hinton, subsequently descended to Sir Henry de la Mare's daughter and heiress, Maud, wife of Peter de Montfort, and thence to her descendants [see VCH Berkshire 3 (1923): 247 - 260].

So besides knowing that Walter Fitz Robert and Ida Longespée obtained their interest in the properties before 1236, what else can we know? More specifically, why would Ida claim these lands, if her brother had granted them to his seneschal?

The answer to this question is not clear but a reasonable guess would be that these four properties were put up as Ida's maritagium when she was contracted to marry a Camville and that when the contracted Camville marriage failed to materialize or produced no issue, by the terms of the marriage contract, the lands returned to Ida's family. At that point, Ida's claim to the lands was essentially voided. This in turn would explain why Ida's brother, William Longespée II, felt free to grant these lands elsewhere to Sir Henry de la Mare.

In summary, adequate evidence has been located which indicates that Ida, wife of Walter Fitz Robert, was a Longespée. In 1249 Walter Fitz Robert and his wife, Ida, sued William Longespée II regarding four properties then in Wiltshire, but now in Berkshire. The four properties in question were apparently part of the inheritance of Ida's mother, Countess Ela, who appears to have controlled the lands until 1236, when she released her lands to her son, William Longespée II. Ida's rights must predate 1236, as William Longespée II almost immediately conveyed these properties before 1239-40 to his seneschal, Sir Henry de la Mare. Thus William Longespée II can not have offered them as Ida's maritagium. This in turn implies that Ida Longespée was the daughter of William Longespée I and his wife, Countess Ela, and not William Longespée II.

For interest's sake, the following is a list of the numerous 17th Century New World immigrants that descend from Ida Longespée, wife of Walter Fitz Robert:

Robert Abell, Dannett Abney, Elizabeth Alsop, William Asfordby, Walter Aston, Christopher Batt, Henry, Thomas & William Batte, Essex Beville, William Bladen, George & Nehemiah Blakiston, Thomas Booth, Elizabeth Bosvile, Mary Bourchier, George & Robert Brent, Thomas Bressey, Edward Bromfield, Nathaniel Browne, Obadiah Bruen, Stephen Bull, Elizabeth, John, and Thomas Butler, Charles Calvert, Edward Carleton, Kenelm Cheseldine, Grace Chetwode, Jeremy Clarke, Matthew Clarkson, St. Leger Codd, Henry Corbin, Francis Dade, Humphrey Davie, Frances, Jane & Katherine Deighton, Edward Digges, Thomas Dudley, William Farrer, John Fenwick, John Fisher, Muriel Gurdon, Katherine Hamby, Elizabeth & John Harleston, Warham Horsmanden, Anne Humphrey, Mary Launce, Hannah, Samuel & Sarah Levis, Nathaniel Littleton, Henry, Jane & Nicholas Lowe, Symon Lynde, Agnes Mackworth, Roger & Thomas Mallory, Anne, Elizabeth & John Mansfield, Anne & Katherine Marbury, Anne Mauleverer, Richard More, Joseph & Mary Need, John and Margaret Nelson, Philip & Thomas Nelson, Ellen Newton, Thomas Owsley, John Oxenbridge, Herbert Pelham, Robert Peyton, George Reade, Thomas Rudyard, Katherine Saint Leger, Richard Saltonstall, William Skepper, Diana & Grey Skipwith, Mary Johanna Somerset, John Stratton, James Taylor, Samuel & William Torrey, Margaret Touteville, Olive Welby, John West, Thomas Yale.

Best always, Douglas Richardson, Salt Lake City, Utah

William married Ela of Salisbury before Sep 1197. Ela (daughter of William fitz Patrick and Eleanor de Vitré) was born about 1191 in Amesbury, Wiltshire, England; died on 24 Aug 1261 in Lacock, Wiltshire, England; was buried in 1261 in Lacock Abbey, Lacock, Wiltshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Ela fitz William. Founded the abbey at Laycock, 1238; abbess, 1240-57. Buried "in the convent choir beneath the altar." [Royal Ancestry]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 1230

Richard married Eustache Basset in 1200. Eustache (daughter of Gilbert Basset and Egeline de Courtenay) died before 1215. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1216