TO HOLD BY THE SWORD

THE 7TH NORMAN EARL OF CHESTER - RANULPH BLUNDEVILLE

BY PHILLIP E JONES

Generally associated with the Oswestry area of Shropshire, Ranulph Blundeville succeeded his father Hugh II Keveliok as Earl of Chester in 1181 and retained the title through to his own death in 1232, a period of 51 years. He was thought to have inherited the title when he was only 11 years of age and during his minority his inheritance was reported to have been administered first by Gilbert Pipard and later by Bertram de Verdon on the instructions of the monarch Henry II.

Unlike his two immediate predecessors, his father and grandfather, Ranulph III does not appear to have been involved in any plotting or scheming against the Crown, but rather proved to be a highly pragmatic, politically astute individual who sought to expand his holdings, wealth and influence through amicable and astute relationships, as well as wise counsel. His first marriage, which was almost entirely political for the 20 year old Ranulph, was to Constance of Brittany, the widow of Geoffrey of Plantagenet and mother of Arthur Plantagenet, a future claimant to the English Crown.

This particular union made Ranulph III a son-in-law to the monarch Henry II and to his successor Richard I, later more famously known as the “Lionheart”. The marriage to Constance also entitled him as the Duke of Brittany as well as Earl of Richmond. In 1194, the Earl of Chester was said to have famously opposed King Richard’s younger brother Prince John, who tried to seize control of England while his older sibling was held prisoner abroad. Along with a number of other leading nobles, Blundeville was reported to have besieged John and his supporters at Nottingham Castle, but it was only when Richard finally returned to England later in the same year that the garrison finally surrendered to the royalist forces. At Richard’s second coronation, which took place at Winchester on 17^th April 1194, Ranulph III of Chester was reported to have carried the “Curtana” or the “Sword of Mercy”, one of the 3 swords of state and signifying the young Earl’s high standing within England.

Five years later and following Richard’s death while campaigning in France, his younger brother Prince John finally ascended the English throne. Perhaps due to Ranulph’s earlier treatment of the Prince, the relationship between the two men was reported to have been strained and was certainly not helped by the Earl’s continued relationship with Arthur Plantagenet, John’s counter claimant for the English throne. However, Ranulph’s decision the same year to divorce Constance; effectively ending his role of step-father to Arthur appears to have eased the tensions between the Earl and his monarch, allowing them both to benefit from their mutually shared aims. Throughout the remaining period of John’s reign, his Earl of Chester proved to be his most loyal and faithful servant and remained a staunch supporter to the king through to Magna Carta in 1215 and beyond.

The city of Chester, in Ranulph’s time was described by the monk Lucian in the following terms; “Chester has beneath its walls a beautiful river abundant in fish, with a harbour on its south side where ships from Aquitaine, Spain, Ireland and Germany unload their cargoes of wine and other merchandise. The daily tides provide a flourishing fish trade and its rising and falling makes a wide expanse of both water and sand”.

Around 1200 and having sworn allegiance to King John, along with his brothers in law, the Earls of Derby and Huntington, Ranulph was reported to have married for the second and final time. His new wife was Clemencia, the widow of Alan de Dinan and a sister to Geoffrey of Fougeres who held lands which were adjacent to Blundeville’s estates in France. Although fundamentally a “political” union, this marriage brought Ranulph lands in Lincolnshire which substantially added to his existing estates in England. Whatever the basis for the relationship though, it was obviously very successful as the couple were thought to have remained together for the next 32 years.

For most of the period from 1199 through to 1205, the Earl of Chester was said to have been absent from England, accompanying the king on his various military campaigns on the continent, as well as administering his own family estates. By the end of 1205 however, any of these ancestral possessions had been lost to the French king Philip Augustus, forcing King John to offer Ranulph new estates in England and to exempt him from royal taxes by way of compensation for his French losses.

In common with his Norman ancestors, Ranulph III was in almost constant dispute with the Princes of North Wales, particularly Llewellyn ap Iorwerth who was thought to have ruled eastern Gwynedd from around 1190. Reported to be the son of Iorwerth Drwynchwn and a grandson of the great Welsh ruler Owain Gwynedd, Llewellyn was said to have been raised in the border area between England and Wales following his mother’s remarriage to a Norman Marcher lord.

Having gained control of eastern Gwynedd in 1190, ten years later he was said to have launched a military takeover of the adjoining western region, following the death of its ruler, Gruffudd ab Owain. Late in 1201 Llewellyn was reported to have agreed a peace treaty with King John, which fundamentally secured his lands and guaranteed a cessation of hostilities between the two countries. Four years later, in 1205 this peace agreement was further cemented by the marriage of the Welsh Prince to King John’s illegitimate daughter Joanna. As part of his new wife’s dowry Llewellyn was thought to have been granted the area of Ellesmere in Shropshire and was said to have accompanied the English monarch in his military campaigns against the Scots, an unprecedented act of loyalty.

Despite this new relationship between the two rulers, the region itself remained tense and the decision by Earl Ranulph of Chester to rebuild Deganwy Castle sometime around 1210 was seen locally as a threatening gesture by the native population who almost immediately began ravaging the Norman settlements which lay on the Welsh side of the border and leaving King John with little option but to act against them. By 1211, a large English force had been assembled to launch a military campaign against Llewellyn and his rebels, a force which was said to have included Earl Ranulph and two former allies of Llewellyn, Madog ap Gruffudd Maelor and Hywel ap Gruffudd ap Cynan. Over subsequent months this enormous military force was able to press Llewellyn’s army further west and back towards the mountainous region of Snowdonia, until finally the Welsh Prince was forced to capitulate to the English monarch.

Unfortunately for King John and his allies, the terms imposed by the monarch on Llewellyn and his people were so severe that within two years the region was once again in open rebellion with their English overseers, during which a large number of royal castles and civilian settlements were captured, destroyed or both. This second more serious uprising unhappily happened to coincide with a dispute within the English aristocracy, which saw the king at odds with a number of his leading Earls, Barons and landowners. Because of these troubles, John was either unwilling or unable to deal with Llewellyn’s uprising, allowing the Welsh leader to regain possession of the lands and estates which had previously been sequestered by the Crown.

It was during this unsettled and perilous period that the almost legendary tale of Blundeville’s rescue by a rag-tag army of musicians from Chester is thought to date. The story relates that the Earl was visiting the Norman castle of Rhuddlan when local Welsh forces became aware of his presence there and immediately besieged the fort, preventing Ranulph from leaving. Realising his predicament, he arranged for a messenger to break the siege and carry an urgent request for aid to his constable at Chester.

The constable, Roger de Lacy, on receiving Ranulph’s communication rushed to Chester’s busy market square, where the midsummer fair was underway and summoned the men of the city to answer the call of their besieged Earl. Perhaps typically, most of the Chester men attending the annual fair were the worse for drink and many stepped forward to volunteer their service without considering the consequences. In a short time De Lacy had a large, highly irregular force at his command, made up mainly it has to be said, of musicians, itinerants, travellers and riotous drunks, all of whom were looking for a fight with their troublesome Welsh neighbours. Having managed to get his “musical irregulars” mustered, De Lacy began the long march to the castle at Rhuddlan, no doubt accompanied by the raucousness of musical instruments, drunken revellers and the clamour that generally attaches itself to a good humoured but boisterous party.

Had the Welsh forces besieging Rhuddlan actually bothered to investigate the source of the noise which was approaching their position, then no doubt they would have been bemused by the caravan of alcohol fuelled citizens that was travelling towards them, intent on confrontation. Instead, it was reported that the Welshmen assumed that a large military force was on its way to rescue the Earl Ranulph and decided to withdraw from their positions. With the Welsh besiegers dispersed, Blundeville was then able to escape the castle and return to Chester at the head of his “victorious” army.

As a reward to the citizens that had helped release him, Ranulph was thought to have granted numerous privileges to Chester’s annual fairs, so that each person might benefit from his gratitude. As for his loyal constable, De Lacy, the Earl was said to have established and then granted Roger the exclusive custody and licensing of the city’s minstrel guilds, which were later ceded by the constable to his son-in-law Ralph Dutton, who passed them on to his successors. These rights were thought to have remained in the Dutton family through to the reign of King George II, when they were finally rescinded.

Roger de Lacy, the 7^th Baron of Halton became almost as distinguished as the Earl that he served at Chester, most notably through his command of Chateau Gaillard in Normandy during the reign of King John. His ancestor, Walter Ilbert de Lacy, was thought to have been a leading figure at the Battle of Hastings and served with William the Conqueror in his subsequent subjugation of the English people. Roger’s father John de Lacy was also reported to have held the post of Constable of Chester and was the 6^th Baron of Halton and Baron of Pontefract, who had married Alice de Vere.

Chateau Gaillard was built in the Normandy on the orders of King Richard I in order to protect his holdings as the Duke of that region. Said to have been built in almost record time, it was thought to have been started in 1197 and virtually completed by 1198, although Richard was reported to have died shortly before it was finished. King John, Richard’s successor, then decided to modify the fortress’ design, a decision that would ultimately prove to have fatal consequences. He was said to have instructed his builders to add an extra window to the outside wall of the castle’s chapel, as well as installing an additional toilet within the chapel itself.

King Philip II of France was thought to have besieged Chateau Gaillard for a considerable period of time around 1203, but had been unable to overcome its formidable defences. Finally, he was said to have instructed his commanders to look for weaknesses within the castle that his army might exploit and almost inevitably the structural alterations ordered by King John came to the attacker’s attention. Quickly realising that a small group of men could gain access to the Chateau by way of the toilet chute and new chapel window, Philip instructed his generals to penetrate the English defence. Once inside Gaillard, the small French force was reported to have overcome the guards and released the drawbridge, allowing the main body of the French army to enter the fortress. Most of the English garrison were said to have been massacred, apart from those leading Barons and Knights who could later be ransomed back to their family’s or held as hostages. Roger de Lacy was reported to have been held by the French King until such time as an exorbitant ransom was paid for his release, much of which was met by Roger’s ally Earl Ranulph of Chester.    

It is also thought that Ranulph III was the first Norman Earl to officially recognise the townspeople’s Guilds which were said to have existed in the city for decades. These Craft Guilds were reported to have started as Merchants Guilds, but had later separated in order to promote and protect the wages and conditions of the workers involved in them. Local statutes and ordinances were also introduced which set out appropriate standards for workers benefits and training.       

By 1215 Llewellyn and his allies were said to have recovered the bulk of their estates and were even thought to have added additional English possessions to their lands, including the vitally important border town of Shrewsbury. Within 12 months Llewellyn was thought to have been widely acclaimed as the pre-eminent ruler in Wales and was regarded as having such authority that following John’s death at Newark in 1216, the agents of his 9 year old son and successor Henry III almost immediately set out to arrange a formal peace agreement with the Welsh Prince, which was finally signed in 1218.

As part of this agreement and in order to underpin future relationships between the two nations, around 1222 a union was arranged between Llewellyn’s daughter Helen and the Earl of Chester’s nephew John Scot, who would later become the eighth and final Norman Earl of Chester. A second daughter of the Welsh ruler was also said to have betrothed to another of Henry’s leading nobles, William de Lacy, who was a major landowner in Ireland and the Welsh Marches.

With this peace treaty in place, both Llewellyn and Ranulph III benefited from the security that each offered the other and with their respective borders guaranteed, the Earl of Chester was able to concentrate more fully on the English political scene which had been in almost permanent crisis both before and after John’s death from dysentery at Newark on the 18^th October 1216. As one of the king’s leading retainers, Ranulph was known to have attended John’s later interment at Worcester and to have been named as one of the 3 executors of the king’s last will and testament, which dictated John’s legacy and final wishes.

Although the young Henry III was the legitimate heir of the late King John, his succession to the English throne had not gone completely unchallenged. Despite John’s signing of the Magna Carta, or Great Charter in 1215 at Runnymede, there remained a body of Barons and landowners that chose to support an alternative candidate to the 9 year old Henry, the French Prince Louis, who was the husband of John’s niece, Blanche de Castile, who had landed in England in 1216 in order to pursue his claim.

Perhaps in normal circumstances the young Henry might have been swept aside by the tide of unrest that had washed over England, but fortunately for the young king he had the loyalty and presence of two of England’s greatest knights of the age, Ranulph III of Chester and Earl William Marshall. Following the young Henry’s coronation at Gloucester on the 28^th October 1216, both Ranulph and William were said to have been the first of his subjects to pay homage to the new king, as was their right as the leading knights of the kingdom.

In view of the new monarch’s minority, a council was said to have been formed, which would act on the young king’s behalf and also elect a Regent as guardian for Henry. Legend suggests that Earl Ranulph was initially offered this role, but he chose to defer in favour of Earl William, who he believed was a more suitable and better qualified candidate for this vitally important role. Instead, Ranulph chose to simply remain as an advisor to and protector of the young prince, a role he was more than qualified to play. In May 1217 he was reported to have been granted the Earldom of Lincolnshire, which was in addition to his appointment as Sheriff of Lancashire, Staffordshire and Shropshire which had been awarded to Ranulph in April 1216, some 5 months before King John’s death.

The same year, 1217, also saw a final resolution of the ongoing dispute between those noblemen that were loyal to King Henry III and the rebel Barons that had chosen to support the cause of the French candidate Prince Louis. In May 1217, a royalist force, thought to have been commanded by Earl Ranulph besieged the castle at Montsorel, which was reported to have been held by men loyal to the French Prince. A relief force, headed by some of Louis’ leading French knights and rebel English Barons was then thought to have begun a march towards the blockaded position, intent on raising the siege and engaging Ranulph’s force.

However, rather than meeting these foreign forces on their own terms, the Earl was said to have lifted the siege and withdrawn his forces to Nottingham Castle, where he could safely watch the approach of his enemies. Shortly afterwards, the Anglo-French troops of Louis arrived at Montsorel, only to find that the blockade had been lifted and their enemy’s forces vanished. Having secured the castle, they were then said to have moved towards the castle at Lincoln and along the way destroying and seizing everything of value that they came across. Finally reaching their objective, the rebels were reported to have laid siege to the royal castle, but were unable to capture the position, due to the valour of its garrison, who were said to have rained missiles and stones down on top of the attackers.

Meanwhile, the king’s guardian William Marshall ordered that all loyal Englishmen should muster at Newark in order to relieve both the castle garrison and citizens of Lincoln. When his army was finally assembled, Marshall was reported to have gathered together over 400 knights, 300 crossbow men and thousands of foot soldiers who had all answered his call to arms in support of the young Henry III. Marshall the Elder, along with his son, also called William and known as the Younger, as well a number of England’s leading aristocrats, foremost of which was Ranulph of Chester, William of Salisbury, William of Ferrars and William of Abermarle were said to have stood at the head of this enormous military force.

For three days this army were thought to have gathered and rested at Newark, taking communion and receiving the blessings of their religious leaders. Finally, when all was ready, the army of the young king moved forward to meet their enemies, ready to repudiate the claims of the French Prince, Louis, by their force of arms.

There is a legendary tale, which tells of a meeting between Earl Ranulph and one of Louis’ leading retainers, the Count of Perche, shortly before the second Battle of Lincoln commenced on the 20^th May 1217. Being aware that a large English force was approaching their position, the Count and a number of his peers were thought to have moved forward to a spot close to a local church, to watch the arrival of Henry’s army and the leading knights that were in its vanguard. On spotting the diminutive Earl Ranulph in the forefront of the royalist ranks, the Count of Perche was reported to have publicly slighted Blundeville by calling aloud to his companions; “Have we stayed all this time for such a little man, such a dwarf?”

Outraged by this insult, Ranulph was said to have forewarned the French noble of the fate which awaited him and his comrades by replying; “I vow to God and Our Lady whose church this is, that before tomorrow evening, I will seem to thee to be greater and stronger than that church steeple”. It proved to be a prophetic warning, as the Count of Perche was later reported to have been slain during the ensuing battle, having been stabbed through the eye by Sir Reginald Crocus, whose sword thrust killed the French knight instantly.

As the day of the battle dawned, Earl Ranulph was said to have declared that he would not fight the French, unless he could have the privilege of launching the first attack on Louis’s Anglo-Norman forces. Although he was thought to have been prevented from leading the first charge individually, the Earl was known to have accompanied the two William Marshall’s as their army advanced inexorably towards Louis’ forces, who had largely remained close to or within the fortified city of Lincoln itself.

As the main part of the king’s army engaged the Anglo-French troops of Louis, a separate division was reported to have made straight for the northern gate of Lincoln’s historic castle, in order to reinforce the loyal garrison that lay within and to fully employ the position against the rebels. Having successfully managed to gain entry to the still besieged castle, the royalist commander was said to have placed his troops and more importantly his crossbow men in positions where they could effectively target the attackers from above. So effective were the English bowmen that within a short time, a large number of French knights and rebel Barons were either dead or captured, having been caught beneath the bodies of their dead horses.

With great numbers of their commanders either dead or imprisoned by the royal forces, the foot soldiers and retainers of the rebel lords began to flee the city, only to be cut down by the English soldiers that were outside of Lincoln. For those that did manage to evade capture or death at the hands of Henry’s battalions, their escape route to London proved to be equally treacherous, with many of them falling foul of the numerous outraged loyal subjects who lived along the way. Of the hundreds of leading knights and Barons who had constituted his army at Lincoln, barely 300 survived the battle and subsequent journey back to report their defeat to the French Prince Louis. The second Battle of Lincoln proved to be a turning point for the French leader and perhaps realising that the young King Henry was now totally secure on the throne, within months Louis was said to have left England and relinquished his claim to Henry’s crown.

With the country and the king now secured, Ranulph was now able to concentrate his mind and efforts on maintaining and administering his vast lands and titles. Having received the honour of Leicester in 1215, the honour of Lancaster in 1216 and been granted the Earldom of Lincolnshire in 1217, there were few but the king and his regent William Marshall that could rival him for power and influence. In 1218 though, Ranulph decided to honour an earlier pledge to visit the Holy Lands and the city of Jerusalem, a journey that would unexpectedly bring him even greater fame and renown as a leading Christian knight.

Taking part in the 5^th Crusade which began in 1218, Ranulph was thought to have been accompanied by the Earl’s of Arundel and Winchester, as well as John de Lacy. Pope Innocent III, who had authorised the campaign, put a Spanish legate called Pelagius in command of the Crusader forces, despite the fact that he was a poor military leader, who was autocratic and singularly failed to take the advice of his more experienced commanders. Often described as a religious zealot, Pelagius believed that God was guiding his actions and as a consequence he did not need to employ either sound military tactics or any sort of commonsense. It must have been a deeply frustrating experience for highly pragmatic and battle hardened soldiers such as Ranulph and his companions to have their tactics simply dictated by pure chance or some sort of divine intervention, but they were said to have accepted the legate’s unorthodox approach nonetheless.

These crusader forces under Pelagius were reported to have got involved in the siege of the Egyptian city of Damietta in May of 1218, although the blockade itself was said to have been initiated some months earlier. Despite having taken the outskirts of the city, the inner defensive core of Damietta remained in the hands of its Moslem defenders, who were thought to be anxious to reach a negotiated settlement with the Christian attackers led by Pelagius. The sultan was said to have offered the legate, the return of the city of Jerusalem to Christian hands, providing that the Crusader army would leave Egypt. Unfortunately, Pelagius, no doubt guided by some sort of spiritual guidance refused the offer, consequently causing many more men on either side to die needlessly.

In later misguided military manoeuvres against the city, Pelagius was only saved the loss of more of his men by the timely interference of Earl Ranulph and his companions, who were said to have snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. On two later occasions the Pontiff’s agent was offered the opportunity to negotiate a settlement with the besieged Sultan, but both times refused to bargain with the Moslem leader. Finally, in the November of 1218, the city’s defenders, no doubt worn down by months of fighting and siege were said to have been unable to resist the Crusaders repeated attempts to take their city and Damietta finally fell to Pelagius and his forces. For their part, Ranulph and his companions were said to have remained in Holy Land well beyond the fall of Damietta and were not thought to have returned home to England until 1220.

It was while they were returning home, that yet another legend attached itself to the Earl of Chester which further added to his personal reputation and general standing in England. The tale relates that the ship which was carrying Ranulph and his companions was caught in a violent storm which threatened to capsize the ship, causing the whole company to be lost. The ship’s captain was even said to have advised the Earl to make his peace with God, so sure was he that all would be drowned. Instead, Ranulph was said to have retired to his quarters in the company of his monks and within a short time the storm began to abate and their journey continued uneventfully. On his return to Chester in 1220, the Earl and his party were said to have been received with great honour and joy and throughout England generally was reported to have been venerated by poets and minstrels who related his exploits in both words and music.

However, in spite of his joy at being restored safely to his family and friends, the Earl was immediately aware that England was not the same country that he had left two years earlier. William Marshall the elder, who had acted so successfully as the young kings guardian was reported to have died while Ranulph was away and been replaced by a less worthy and honourable character called Hubert de Burgh. Under his guidance, the teenage Henry III had initiated moves to take control of the castles and fortresses which were in the hands of England’s leading Barons and Earls and held on behalf of the young monarch. Despite their consternation at these proposed moves, at King Henry’s second Coronation which took place in May 1220, the nobles agreed to surrender these defences “as and when it pleased the king”. The matter continued to remain a sensitive issue for some time, with the king and his agents opposed by the Barons and Earls, many of whom believed that their personal control of these castles and fortresses was safer and more effective for the country. However, by the December of 1224 and said to be under the threat of excommunication by the church, Ranulph and his fellow lords were thought to have finally surrendered these positions to the Crown. Ranulph himself was reported to have been ordered to surrender control of his castles at Bridgenorth, Shrewsbury and Lancaster, although Chester itself does not appear to have been specifically mentioned, suggesting that only the royal castles of the king were demanded by Henry.

Regardless of any perceived loss of control on his own part, or any personal antipathy that Ranulph may have felt towards Henry’s new advisors, notably de Burgh, the Earl of Chester does not appear to have harboured any resentment towards the king himself. He continued to offer both his loyalty and obedience to the monarch and remained so highly thought of by Henry, that Ranulph was often able to act as surety for other noblemen who were less trusted and was known to have interceded with Henry on behalf of those that had offended the young king.

Ranulph was not without resolve however, and the recovery of the royal castles at Bridgenorth, Shrewsbury and Lancaster by Henry remained a slight on their relationship. Perhaps to reinforce the point with the young monarch, the Earl was thought to have begun construction of Beeston Castle in 1224, the same year that he lost control of the three royal possessions. A number of historians have suggested that there was little practical purpose for this castle, either in terms of its actual location or its military use, which only points to the fact that it was built as a public rebuff, both to the king and his advisors. Having completed the castle by around 1225, the Earl was also thought to have withdrawn from the national stage and concentrated instead on consolidating his family estates and holdings.

Two years later, Ranulph was recalled to the centre of court politics to act as an arbitrator in a dispute between King Henry III and his younger brother Richard, the Duke of Cornwall. Richard was reported to have illegally seized a manor in Cornwall which had been granted to a nobleman called Waleran by their father King John and which the young Duke refused to return, even on the orders of his brother, King Henry. Refusing to accept the king’s authority, Richard demanded that the matter should be resolved by the magnates, including Ranulph III of Chester, who perhaps surprisingly upheld Richards claim, forcing the king to withdraw his royal command for the return the manor to its original owner.

In 1229 the Earl was once again at odds with the monarch, following Henry’s introduction of a Papal Tax which was commonly known throughout England as “Peter’s Pence”. Not only did Ranulph refuse to pay the tax, but was reported to have threatened the arrest of any revenue collector who tried to gather the levy within his jurisdiction. Despite these problems though, relations with the king were thought to have remained intact and later the same year Earl Ranulph was said to have been ready to accompany Henry on his military campaigns against the French. Due to unforeseen delays however, the expedition was thought to have been delayed until 1230, when Henry’s army finally left England.

By June of the same year and having departed from Henry’s main force, Earl Ranulph was reported to have recovered and refortified his family’s ancestral castle at Avranches, a possession he had lost during the unsuccessful campaigns of King John some years earlier. John had compensated the Earl for the loss of his ancestral lands by granting him properties in Lincolnshire, but with his French possessions recovered King Henry now relieved Ranulph of his Lincolnshire estates and granted them instead to one of his leading retainers Peter of Dreux.

For the remainder of 1230 Ranulph was said to have been ransacking and raiding along the borders of the Anjou region of France, but in 1231 was thought to have been elevated to overall commander of the English army, following the death of William Marshall the younger. It was Ranulph that was reported to have ordered the wholesale destruction and burning of French settlements throughout the Normandy and Anjou regions. However, time was beginning to run out for the valiant and steadfast Earl and by the July of 1231 he was said to have returned home to England.

Even though he only had a little over 12 months to live, his combative and righteous nature remained undimmed, with Ranulph reportedly quarrelling with the king over the continued unrest in Wales which was said to have been instigated by the Welsh Prince Llewellyn ap Iorwerth. The following year and just months before his own death Ranulph was said to have interceded with Henry on behalf of Hubert de Burgh, the king’s former counsellor, who had himself fallen foul of newer, more powerful enemies who were lobbying against him. The Earl rather unselfishly reminded King Henry of de Burgh’s fidelity and service to the Crown in earlier years, an intervention that perhaps typified Blundeville’s general nature which was often both forgiving and generous to his former enemies.

As his life drew towards a conclusion and being a practical man, Ranulph was said to have begun to put his worldly affairs in order and prepared his estates for those that would inevitably follow him. As he had no legitimate heirs of his own, he began to make provision for those people within his extended family that would succeed him. He was thought to have bequeathed his estates and titles in Lincolnshire to his sister Hawise, the widow of the late Robert de Quency and who was later said to have ceded the title of Earl of Lincolnshire to John de Lacy, her son in law and the son of the famous Constable of Chester, Roger de Lacy.

When he died at Wallingford in Berkshire in October 1232, Ranulph’s final wishes were to have his body buried at Chester’s magnificent Norman Abbey, with the exception of his heart, which was to be interred at Dieulacres, the Cistercian Abbey he had founded on the Cheshire/Staffordshire border. Historical records suggest that this religious centre was inhabited by the monks who had previously occupied the earlier Cistercian Abbey at Poulton near Chester, which subsequently disappeared following the brothers relocation to the new Abbey at Leek.

Throughout his tenure as the Earl of Chester, Ranulph was said to have been fairly generous to the religious houses that lay within his authority and in addition to Dieulacres, had founded two separate charities in the city. St John’s without the Northgate had been founded by Blundeville in 1191 when he was still Duke of Brittany and Earl of Richmond, for the sustenance of the poor and silly people. In later years and during the reign of Edward III the charity was said to have been required to house 13 “poore and feeble” people, each of which was entitled to a loaf of bread, a dish of pottage, half a gallon of competent ale and a piece of fish or flesh, depending on the day.

His second charity was St Giles’ Leper Hospital at Boughton, a home for those afflicted by the highly contagious disease, as well as operating as an Alms House for the poor. The inhabitants of St Giles’ were reported to have been entitled to levy tolls against goods coming into the city and to demand a proportion of each merchants cargo as they made their way into Chester.

The hospital’s cemetery was known to have become the final resting place for many notable and infamous individuals, notably the Lancashire preacher George Marsh who was burnt at the stake in the mid 16^th Century for his heretical beliefs. The chapels close proximity to the site of the city’s public gallows also ensured that many of Chester’s condemned felons, who breathed their last in Boughton, were finally laid to rest in the grounds of St Giles’ ancient precincts. During the English Civil War siege of Chester, the church and hospital were said to have been demolished by the city’s royalist defenders, thereby ensuring that the buildings could not be used by the Parliamentarian forces that were blockading Chester.  

DOES YOUR LAND OR PROPERTY CONTAIN HIDDEN, LOST OR UNDISCOVERED TREASURES? CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

Produced and maintained by Phillip E Jones @ Mobile 07756 693258 Text: 07914 189032

Mail Contact: 3 Riverside Park, Sealand, Deeside, Flintshire, CH5 2JR