9691 Individuals
in our Database | |  | | | 1ST/4TH EARL OF CHESTER
Ranulph De Gernon le Meschines III Sex: Male | | | |  | | Birth Date | 1070 | | Death Date | 1153 DEC 16 St Werburgh, Chester, Cheshire, England (Supposedly poisoned by his wife and William Peverell, Lord of Nottingham.) | | Father | Ranulph II Vicomte of BAYEUX Lord of CUMBERLAND (& Carlilse) DE MESCHINES | Born: 1050 Normandy | Died: 1128 | | Mother | | Born: | | | Ranulph De Gernon le Meschines
Notes: | Chester was also Vicomte de Bayeux. He was also known as Ranulph de Briquessart. He succeeded to the title of Vicomte dAvranches on 25 November 1120 and was created Earl of Chester in 1121. He was Commander of the Royal forces in Normandy in 1124. He died either on 17 or 27 January 1128 at Chester and is buried at St. Werburgs, Chester. His wife Lucy survived him, and in 1130 paid 500 marks to King Henry for license to remain unmarried for 5 years. * Parents: \Ranulph Meschines, Viscount of Bayeux\ and \Maud (Margaret dAvranches)\ sister of Earl Hugh of Avranches - Gherbod II has beeen suggested as a father but this is very unlikely * Spouse: Lucy Countess of Chester. Ranulf DE BRIQUESSART "Le Meschin", Earl of Chester and Lucy Countess of Chester were married about 1098. * Children: Adelize/Alice DE GERNON, Ranulf de Gernon Viscount dAvranches, Earl of Chester. Ranulf de Meschines has arms which are, on the Queens Park Suspension Bridge, a white lion on a red ground and, in the stained glass of the Town Hall, possibly a red lion on a gold ground. To add further confusion some versions of the arms of his son Ranulf de Gernon (shown in the church window on his page) and that shown on the bridge also differ - the window shows a metallic lion on a red field, while the bridge shows the opposite. Could it be that one or the other has got the arms of the father and son mixed up? The arms on the lodge in Grosvenor Park don help much as they also show that the father and son had oppositely coloured arms, but in this case they have become blue and gold!
| | Notes: | Ranulf only became earl at the rather advanced age of 51 (in 1120). Prior to this Ranulf served the English king as a kind of semi-independent governor in Cumberland and Westmorland, though he lacked the formal status of being called such. A contemporary illustration of this authority is one charter in the records of Wetheral Priory, which recorded Ranulf addressing his own sheriff, "Richer" (probably Richard de Boivill). A source from 1212 attests that the jurors of Cumberland remembered Ranulf as quondam dominus Cumberland ("sometime Lord of Cumberland"). Ranulfs earliest appearance in surviving historical records was 24 April 1089, the date of a charter of Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy, to Bayeux Cathedral. Ranulf, as "Ranulf son of Ranulf the viscount", was one of the charters witnesses. He appears again c. 1093/4, as a witness to the foundation charter of Chester Abbey, granted by his uncle Hugh of Avranches. Between 1098 and 1101, probably in 1098, Ranulf became a major English landowner in his own right when he became the third husband of Lucy, heiress of the honour of Bolingbroke in Lincolnshire. This brought him the lordship of Appleby in Cumberland, previously held by Lucys second husband. He promptly constructed Appleby Castle. Originally this would have been an earth ringwork and bailey fortress. The square stone keep of Appleby is one of the best preserved examples of its type and was added in 1170 (by Hugh de Morville). It is known as "Caesars Tower" - this is similar to the Agricola Tower at Chester Castle neither of which had anything to do with the Romans. Ranulf ceded Appleby to the crown when he became earl of Chester. Ranulfs family (his brother William) also constructed Egremont Castle. He had an older brother (Richard) who died in youth. In 1106 that Ranulf founded Wetheral Priory, a Benedictine monastic house.
| | Notes: | An indirect claim In 1121, following the loss of the White Ship, the earldom passed through the First Earl Hughs sister Maud to the drowned Richard of Avranchess first cousin Ranulf. Merely four days before the disaster, Ranulf and cousin Richard had witnessed a charter together at Cerisy. Ranulf was not simply given the earldom, but had to surrender the bulk of the lands of his wife, Lucy and his own lands at Carlisle. Chesters annual fair was reorganized by Ranulf, who provided new regulations governing its hours of opening. St Giles Hospital was founded in the time of Ranulf, for lepers - it had a burial ground St_Giles_Cemetery, in which the heads of Welshmen killed in battle with Hugh_of_Cyfeiliog were reputed to have been buried in 1170. The Wirral De Meschines was keen on hunting. He created Alan Sylvester chief forester of the forest of Wirral and granted to him the manors of Hooton, Storeton and Puddington to hold, upon condition that he performed the duties of forester and in addition that he blew or caused to be blown a horn at the Gloverstone in Chester on the morning of every fair day. The "Wirral Horn" has apparently survived to the present day, and carries the following inscription, believed to have been added in the 17th Century: * In the year 1120,Randal de Meschines, Earl of Chester,created Alan Sylvester chief forester of the forest of Wirral and granted to him the manors of Hooton, Storeton and Puddington to hold upon condition that he performed the duties of forester and in addition that he blew or caused to be blown a horn at the Gloverstone in Chester on the morning of every fair day, to indicate that the tolls on all goods bought or sold in the city or within the sound of that horn belonged to the Earl or his tenants. Alan Sylvester was succeeded by his son, Ralph, on whose death, without issue, Hugh Cyveliac, Earl of Chester, granted the same manors with the forestership to Alexander de Storeton on his marriage with Annabella, the daughter of Alan Sylvester. Alexander de Storeton again had only female issue and the forestership passed next to Sir Thomas Bamville, who married Agnes de Storeton,daughter of Alexander. Sir Philip Bamville, the heir of Sir Thomas, also left issue, three daughters only, the eldest of whom, Jane, married Sir William de Stanley, and brought the forestership as part of her dower, the title of her son, John Stanley, having been proved in 1346 before Jordan de Macclesfield, justice in Eyre to the Earl of Chester. In this family it remained until disafforested by King Edward 111 on the complaint of the citizens of Chester who represented that they were grievous sufferers from the freebooters who lurked in the forest. The Stanleys petitioned the king for renumeration for the loss of the profits attached to the office of chief forester, and were granted an annuity of twenty marks, which however seems to have been indifferently paid. The horn, however, which was the symbol of their tenure, has remained in the possession of the Stanley family ever since. While the inscription on the horn blames the "disafforestation" of the Stanleys on the inhabitants of Wirral, the complaints, were actually by the residents of the Wirral about the wildness of the area and oppression by the Stanleys. A charter confirming the disafforestation of Wirral was issued by King Edward III on July 20, 1376. While the horn was displayed for a short while at the Wirral Museum it has since been returned to its permanent home at the Stanley ancestral seat in Drayton, Somerset. The forest of Wirral turns up in Arthurian legend - Sir Gawain spent Christmas on Wirral before his confrontation with the Green Knight. The wilderness of Wirral: few lived there Who loved with a good heart either God or man
| |  | | Birth Date | 1074 | | Death Date | 1136 | | Father | | Born: | Died: | | Mother | | Born: | | | Lucy Thoroldsdottir of Lincoln Countess of Chester Notes: | | | Individual Notes: | | | More Notes: | | | |
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