Ranulph de Neville

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]

1. Ralph de Neville was born about 1291 in of Raby, Durham, England; died on 5 Aug 1367; was buried in Durham Cathedral, Durham, Durham, England.

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.)

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: 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]