Palatine earldom of Chester

Who rules

Name

Ranulf III, earl of Chester, called de Blondeville (Ranulf de Blundeville)

Title

Earl of Chester (comes Cestrie); hereditary vicomte of the Avranchin and of the Bessin in Normandy

Since

30 June 1181, on the death of his father Earl Hugh (Hugh of Kevelioc); a royal ward until he was knighted in 1188 or 1189, which gave him his lands

Born

1170 (Wikipedia; the day is not recorded). He is about 29 on 1 January 1200

Family

Son of Hugh, earl of Chester, and Bertrade, daughter of Simon III de Montfort, count of Evreux, a cousin of Henry II. Childless. His heirs are his four sisters: Maud, wife of David, earl of Huntingdon (the king of Scots' brother); Mabel, wife of William d'Aubigny, earl of Arundel; Agnes, wife of William de Ferrers, earl of Derby; and Hawise (unmarried in 1200 as far as checked). Married on 3 February 1188 (Wikipedia: Constance) to Constance, duchess of Brittany and countess of Richmond, widow of Geoffrey Plantagenet and mother of Arthur of Brittany. That marriage is over: see status.

Confidence

high

Birth year, knighting and the Constance marriage from Wikipedia (Ranulf de Blondeville; Constance, Duchess of Brittany) and the Victoria County History (honour of Richmond, which dates the marriage February 1187-88, Old Style). The second marriage, to Clemence of Fougeres, is dated 1200 by Wikipedia: it has not happened on 1 January.

Overlord

King John. The earl holds Cheshire 'by the sword': the king's writ does not run there and the earl keeps the royal pleas; for his lands outside the county he is an ordinary tenant-in-chief

What the realm holds

• The county of Chester with the regalian rights: the pleas of the sword, the county court and exchequer at Chester, the earl's justiciar and sheriff
• Chester castle and the lordship of the city of Chester (see Chester)
• The demesne manors and forests: Macclesfield and its forest, Frodsham, the forests of Delamere (Mara and Mondrem) and Wirral, Shotwick castle on the Dee
• A share of the salt toll of the wiches (Northwich, Middlewich and Nantwich)
• Overlordship of the barons of Cheshire: Halton (the constable, Roger de Lacy), Montalt (the steward), Malpas, Wich Malbank (Nantwich), Shipbrook, Kinderton, Dunham Massey, Stockport and the rest
• Claims on the old Norman conquests west of the Dee: Englefield (Tegeingl) with Rhuddlan, and Ystrad Alun with Mold, now in Welsh hands
• The honour of Chester outside the county: manors in many shires, with the largest concentrations in Lincolnshire (Bolingbroke) and the Midlands (Coventry; see the emd records)
• In Normandy: the vicomtes of the Avranchin and the Bessin with their castles and demesnes (France map)
• Overlordship (through the constable) of the Lacy honours of Pontefract and Clitheroe, as Wikipedia puts it; in practice Roger de Lacy holds them of the king

How it was acquired

By inheritance from the Norman earls: Hugh of Avranches received Chester from William the Conqueror about 1071; the earldom passed to the Meschin line (Ranulf I, 1120) and so to Ranulf III, who succeeded his father in 1181 as a boy of eleven and came into his lands on being knighted in 1188 or 1189.

Allies and rivals

Allies: King John, whom Ranulf served from 1199 (he had opposed John's rising of 1193-94 under Richard); his constable Roger de Lacy; his brothers-in-law the earls of Huntingdon, Arundel and Derby. Rivals: Llywelyn ap Iorwerth and the princes of Gwynedd on the Dee; Constance of Brittany and Guy of Thouars, and through them Arthur and the Bretons, who hate him for the imprisonment of 1196. John watches him: the Breton tie and his size make him suspect, and he will be accused of dealing with the Welsh in the winter of 1204-05.

The realm that morning

Ranulf holds Cheshire firmly on 1 January 1200, with his Norman vicomtes intact (Normandy is still John's). He is out of the Breton marriage and its titles: Constance is Guy of Thouars' wife and on Arthur's side, and the honour of Richmond, which Ranulf held in her right from 1189, is not his (see Richmond). On the west, Mold is Welsh since 1199; Hawarden, the Montalt castle nearer Chester, is still the earl's. The earl owes John nothing he has not paid; he is loyal and well rewarded, but not trusted.

Wealth

Salt from the wiches; the tolls, port and fairs of Chester (the Midsummer fair, the Dee trade with Ireland and Gascony); the Dee mills and the earl's fisheries; the forests (Wirral, Delamere, Macclesfield) with their pannage, timber and hunting; the demesne manors; the profits of the earl's courts; the great English honour outside Cheshire and the Norman vicomtes.

Military

The barons and knights of Cheshire owe service to the earl; by the custom of the county (written down in the Magna Carta of Chester, 1215) their service beyond the Lyme was limited, and the guard of Chester castle fell mainly on the earl's knights from outside the county. The constable leads the host. Castles: Chester; Shotwick and the Dee crossings; the barons' castles at Halton, Dunham, Malpas, Shipbrook, Nantwich, Dodleston, Pulford, Aldford and Hawarden; Mold lost in 1199.

Ranulf has no war record against the Welsh yet; his campaigns against Llywelyn come in 1209-12. No figures are given.

Threats

• Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, master of Gwynedd east of the Conwy and holder of Mold since 1199, pressing on Hawarden and the Dee
• John's suspicion: the earl's Breton past and his reach on both sides of the Channel
• Constance, Guy of Thouars and the Bretons, who may try to use the Richmond claim or the Avranchin border against him
• No son: his inheritance would be split among four sisters
• If Normandy falls to Philip, the Avranchin and Bessin vicomtes go with it (they are lost in 1204)

Officers

• Constable of Chester: Roger de Lacy, baron of Halton, hereditary since his father John FitzRichard died at Tyre in 1190 (see Lacy (Pontefract, Clitheroe))
• Steward (dapifer) of Chester: the baron of Montalt, hereditary: Ralph de Montalt, who died about 1200, or his son Roger, who was steward in 1215 (Magna Carta of Chester, clause 12); which of them held the office on 1 January 1200 is not pinned (see Montalt)
• Justiciar of Chester: not pinned for 1 January 1200. Philip of Orby (Philip Orreby) is justiciar from 1202 to 1229 (Wikipedia list of the justices of Chester); his predecessor is not named in the sources checked
• Sheriff of Cheshire: Lidulph de Twemlow, named for 1199 and 1200 in the county list (Wikipedia, High Sheriff of Cheshire, drawn from Ormerod); thin
• Chamberlain of Chester: not pinned

Court winter 1199 in 1200

Not pinned. Wikipedia says Ranulf spent most of 1199 to 1204 in France; John himself is in Normandy that winter and does not cross to England until late February 1200. The earl is most likely in Normandy, on his own vicomtes or with the king; the county is run from Chester castle by his justiciar and sheriff.

Treaties and truces

No written truce with the Welsh is known for the winter of 1199-1200. Llywelyn ap Iorwerth took Mold in 1199 (Brut y Tywysogion) and holds it; the earl has not retaken it. The settlement between Llywelyn and John's ministers is 11 July 1201, not yet (wal records).

Marriages

The marriage to Constance of Brittany (3 February 1188) has ended: after her release from the earl's custody (1197 or 1198; sources differ) she had it dissolved for desertion (Wikipedia; the infobox says annulled 1199), and in September or October 1199 she married Guy of Thouars (first linked with him at Angers in October 1199). Ranulf is free to remarry; his marriage to Clemence of Fougeres, daughter of William of Fougeres, is dated 1200 by Wikipedia, so it lies in the year ahead.

Coinage

No coinage of his own: the king's Short Cross pennies (since 1180) circulate. Whether the old royal mint at Chester was striking in 1199 is not pinned.

Rome and the Church

No dispute with Rome on record. The see of Coventry and Lichfield (Bishop Geoffrey Muschamp, since 1198) covers Cheshire; Chester's minster of St Werburgh is a Benedictine abbey under the earl's patronage.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 24 February 1200 and afterJohn lands in England and goes north to York in March to meet William the Lion, who does not come. The earl's presence at court is not pinned.Depends on: John's crossing and the Scottish talks Stopped by: A renewed war in Normandy keeping John abroad
2. 22 May 1200Treaty of Le Goulet: Philip recognises John as Richard's heir; Arthur is to hold Brittany of John. This ends Constance's and Guy's hope of using Philip against John for a time, and closes the question of the earl's former Breton titles.Depends on: John and Philip both willing to settle Stopped by: A break in the talks or a successful Breton campaign
3. 1200, date not pinnedRanulf marries Clemence of Fougeres, daughter of William of Fougeres, tying him to the Fougeres family on the Norman-Breton border (Wikipedia: 'In 1200 Ranulf cemented his power in Normandy by marrying Clemence of Fougeres').Depends on: The settlement of the marriage with the Fougeres family and the king's licence Stopped by: John's refusal, or a better match offered by the king
4. 1200, date not pinnedAlix, daughter of Constance and Guy of Thouars, is born; the Breton succession moves further from the earl.Depends on: Natural course Stopped by: Nothing likely
5. Through 1200Llywelyn ap Iorwerth consolidates Gwynedd (his cousin Gruffudd ap Cynan dies in 1200) and keeps Mold; raids across the Dee are possible but none is pinned for 1200.Depends on: Llywelyn's ambitions and the earl's absence in Normandy Stopped by: A royal or comital campaign to retake Mold, or an early settlement with the crown

Places of note

• Chester castle: The earl's castle, exchequer and county court
• Shotwick castle: The earl's castle on the Dee estuary, guarding the crossing to Wales
• Hawarden castle: The steward's castle west of the Dee, still held in 1200
• Mold (Bailey Hill): The steward's castle, taken by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth in 1199
• Macclesfield: The earl's demesne manor and forest in the east of the county

Where the sources disagree

• Ranulf's knighting is 1188 or 1189 (Wikipedia). The marriage to Constance is 3 February 1188 in the Constance article and February 1187-88 in the VCH (Old Style year), but '1188 or 1189' in the Ranulf article.
• Constance's release: 1198 in the Ranulf and Constance articles, 1197 in the VCH (honour of Richmond). The dissolution is undated in the text; the Ranulf infobox says 1199.
• The second marriage: 1200 in Wikipedia; some genealogies give October 1199. If the campaign prefers 1199, Clemence is countess on 1 January.

Evidence: The earl, his marriages and his lands are well recorded; the officers of the palatinate for 1199-1200 (justiciar, sheriff, steward) are poorly pinned and the Cheshire sheriff list is late antiquarian work.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Charter Rolls of King John (1199 to 1216, at the royal chancery). The enrolled charters of John's first years, beginning with his accession in 1199: confirmations to towns, bishoprics and abbeys, grants of land and office, and the great grants to men like William Marshal and the king's new allies in Poitou. Read online
• The Great Rolls of the Pipe for 1199 and Michaelmas 1200 (1199 and 1200, at the Exchequer). The audited accounts of every sheriff and farmer for the Exchequer year ending Michaelmas 1200: county farms, the scutage of 1199, the carucage of 1200, debts of magnates and towns, wardships, and the fines offered to the new king.