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Birth:          ABT 1070 of Briquessart, Livry, France
Death:          Jan 1129 Chester, Cheshire, England
Burial:         St. Werburgh, Chester, Cheshire, England

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranulf_le_Meschin,_3rd_Earl_of_Chester
Ranulf le Meschin, 3rd Earl of Chester (1070-1129) was a late 11th- and early 12th-
century Norman magnate based in northern and central England. Originating in Bessin 
in Normandy, Ranulf made his career in England thanks to his kinship with Hugh 
d'Avranches - the earl of Chester, the patronage of kings William II Rufus and Henry I 
Beauclerc, and his marriage to Lucy, heiress of the Bolingbroke-Spalding estates in 
Lincolnshire.

Ranulf fought in Normandy on behalf of Henry I, and served the English king as a kind 
of semi-independent governor in the far north-west, in Cumberland and Westmorland, 
founding Wetheral Priory. After the death of his cousin Richard d'Avranches in the 
White Ship Disaster of November 1120, Ranulf became earl of the county of Chester 
on the Anglo-Welsh marches. He held this position for the remainder of his life, and 
passed the title on to his son, Ranulf de Gernon.
Family and origins[edit]

Ranulf le Meschin's father and mother represented two different families of viscounts 
in Normandy, and both of them were strongly tied to Henry, son of William the 
Conqueror.[1] His father was Ranulf de Briquessart, and likely for this reason the 
former Ranulf was styled le Meschin, "the younger".[2] Ranulf's father was viscount of 
the Bessin, the area around Bayeux.[3] Besides Odo, bishop of Bayeux, Ranulf the 
elder was the most powerful magnate in the Bessin region of Normandy.[4] Ranulf le 
Meschin's great-grandmother may even have been from the ducal family of Normandy, 
as le Meschin's paternal great-grandfather viscount Anschitil is known to have married 
a daughter of Duke Richard III.[5]

Ranulf le Meschin's mother, Margaret, was the daughter of Richard le Goz, Viscount 
of Avranches.[1] Richard's father Thurstan Goz had become viscount of the Hiémois 
between 1017 and 1025,[6] while Richard himself became viscount of the Avranchin 
in either 1055 or 1056.[7] Her brother (Richard Goz's son) was Hugh d'Avranches 
"Lupus" ("the Wolf"), viscount of the Avranchin and Earl of Chester (from c. 1070).[8] 
Ranulf was thus, in addition to being heir to the Bessin, the nephew of one of Norman 
England's most powerful and prestigious families.[9]

We know from an entry in the Durham Liber Vitae, c. 1098 x 1120, that Ranulf le 
Meschin had an older brother named Richard (who died in youth), and a younger 
brother named William.[10] He had a sister called Agnes, who later married Robert de 
Grandmesnil (died 1136).[2]

Early career[edit]

Historian C. Warren Hollister thought that Ranulf's father Ranulf de Briquessart was 
one of the early close companions of Prince Henry, the future Henry I.[4] Hollister 
called Ranulf the Elder "a friend from Henry's youthful days in western Normandy",[11] 
and argued that the homeland of the two Ranulfs had been under Henry's overlordship 
since 1088, despite both ducal and royal authority lying with Henry's two brothers.[12] 
Hollister further suggested that Ranulf le Meschin may have had a role in persuading 
Robert Curthose to free Henry from captivity in 1089.[13]

The date of Ranulf senior's death, and succession of Ranulf junior, is unclear, but the 
former's last and the latter's earliest appearance in extant historical records coincides, 
dating to 24 April 1089 in charter of Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy, to Bayeux 
Cathedral.[14] Ranulf le Meschin appears as "Ranulf son of Ranulf the viscount".[14]

In the foundation charter of Chester Abbey granted by his uncle Hugh Lupus, earl of 
Chester, and purportedly issued in 1093, Ranulf le Meschin is listed as a witness.[15] 
His attestation to this grant is written Signum Ranulfi nepotis comitis, "signature of 
Ranulf nephew of the earl".[16] However, the editor of the Chester comital charters, 
Geoffrey Barraclough, thought this charter was forged in the period of Earl Ranulf II.
[17] 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.[18] This acquisition also brought him the 
lordship of Appleby in Westmorland, previously held by Lucy's second husband Ivo 
Taillebois.[2]

Marriage to a great heiress came only with royal patronage, which in turn meant that 
Ranulf had to be respected and trusted by the king. Ranulf was probably, like his 
father, among the earliest and most loyal of Henry's followers, and was noted as such 
by Orderic Vitalis.[19] Ranulf was however not recorded often at the court of Henry I, 
and did not form part of the king's closest group of administrative advisers.[20] He 
witnessed charters only occasionally, though this became more frequent after he 
became earl.[21] In 1106 he is found serving as one of several justiciars at York 
hearing a case about the lordship of Ripon.[22] In 1116 he is recorded in a similar 
context.[2]

Ranulf was, however, one of the king's military companions. When, soon after 
Whitsun 1101 Henry heard news of a planned invasion of England by his brother 
Robert Curthose, he sought promises from his subjects to defend the kingdom.[23] A 
letter to the men of Lincolnshire names Ranulf as one of four figures entrusted with 
collecting these oaths.[24] Ranulf was one of the magnates who accompanied King 
Henry on his invasion of Duke Robert's Norman territory in 1106.[25] Ranulf served 
under Henry as an officer of the royal household when the latter was on campaign; 
Ranulf was in fact one of his three commanders at the Battle of Tinchebrai.[26] The 
first line of Henry's force was led by Ranulf, the second (with the king) by Robert of 
Meulan, and third by William de Warrene, with another thousand knights from Brittany 
and Maine led by Helias, Count of Maine.[27] Ranulf's line consisted of the men of 
Bayeux, Avranches and Coutances.[28]
Earl of Chester[edit]

1120 was a fateful year for both Henry I and Ranulf. Richard, earl of Chester, like 
Henry's son and heir William Adeling, died in the White Ship Disaster near Barfleur on 
25 November.[2] Only four days before the disaster, Ranulf and his cousin Richard 
had witnessed a charter together at Cerisy.[2]

Henry probably could not wait long to replace Richard, as the Welsh were resurgent 
under the charismatic leadership of Gruffudd ap Cynan. According to the Historia 
Regum, Richard's death prompted the Welsh to raid Cheshire, looting, killing, and 
burning two castles.[45] Perhaps because of his recognised military ability and social 
strength, because he was loyal and because he was the closest male relation to Earl 
Richard, Henry recognized Ranulf as Richard's successor to the county of Chester.
[46]

In 1123, Henry sent Ranulf to Normandy with a large number of knights and with his 
bastard son, Robert, Earl of Gloucester, to strengthen the garrisons there.[47] Ranulf 
commanded the king's garrison at Évreux and governed the county of Évreux during 
the 1123-1124 war with William Clito, Robert Curthose's son and heir.[48] In March 
1124 Ranulf assisted in the capture of Waleran, Count of Meulan.[49] Scouts informed 
Ranulf that Waleran's forces were planning an expedition to Vatteville, and Ranulf 
planned an to intercept them, a plan carried out by Henry de Pommeroy, Odo Borleng 
and William de Pont-Authou, with 300 knights.[50] A battle followed, perhaps at 
Rougemontier (or Bourgthéroulde), in which Waleran was captured.[51]

Although Ranulf bore the title "earl of Chester", the honour (i.e., group of estates) 
which formed the holdings of the earl of Chester were scattered throughout England, 
and during the rule of his predecessors included the cantref of Tegeingl in 
Perfeddwlad in north-western Wales.[52] Around 1100, only a quarter of the value of 
the honour actually lay in Cheshire, which was one of England's poorest and least 
developed counties.[53] The estates elsewhere were probably given to the earls in 
compensation for Cheshire's poverty, in order to strengthen its vulnerable position on 
the Anglo-Welsh border.[54] The possibility of conquest and booty in Wales should 
have supplemented the lordship's wealth and attractiveness, but for much of Henry's 
reign the English king tried to keep the neighboring Welsh princes under his peace.
[55]

Ranulf's accession may have involved him giving up many of his other lands, including 
much of his wife's Lincolnshire lands as well as his lands in Cumbria, though direct 
evidence for this beyond convenient timing is lacking.[56] That Cumberland was given 
up at this point is likely, as King Henry visited Carlisle in December 1122, where, 
according to the Historia Regum, he ordered the strengthening of the castle.[57]

Hollister believed that Ranulf offered the Bolingbroke lands to Henry in exchange for 
Henry's bestowal of the earldom.[13] The historian A. T. Thacker believed that Henry I 
forced Ranulf to give up most of the Bolingbroke lands through fear that Ranulf would 
become too powerful, dominating both Cheshire and the richer county of Lincoln.[58] 
Sharpe, however, suggested that Ranulf may have had to sell a great deal of land in 
order to pay the king for the county of Chester, though it could not have covered the 
whole fee, as Ranulf's son Ranulf de Gernon, when he succeeded his father to 
Chester in 1129, owed the king £1000 "from his father's debt for the land of Earl 
Hugh".[59] Hollister thought this debt was merely the normal feudal relief expected to 
be paid on a large honour, and suggested that Ranulf's partial non-payment, or 
Henry's forgiveness for non-payment, was a form of royal patronage.[60]

Ranulf died in January 1129, and was buried in Chester Abbey.[2] He was survived by 
his wife and countess, Lucy, and succeeded by his son Ranulf de Gernon.[2] A 
daughter, Alicia, married Richard de Clare, a lord in the Anglo-Welsh marches.[2] One 
of his offspring, his fifth son, participated in the Siege of Lisbon, and for this aid was 
granted the Lordship of Azambuja by King Afonso I of Portugal.[2]

That his career had some claim on the popular imagination may be inferred from lines 
in William Langland's Piers Plowman (c. 1362–c. 1386) in which Sloth, the lazy priest, 
confesses: "I kan [know] not parfitly [perfectly] my Paternoster as the preest it 
singeth,/ But I kan rymes of Robyn Hood and Randolf Erl of Chestre."[61]

Parents
DE BRIQUESSART Ranulf (ABT 1050 - 1129)
D'AVRANCHES Maud (or Margaret) (ABT 1054 - )

Siblings
LE MESCHIN Maud (Matilda) (ABT 1069 - )
LE MESCHIN Ranulph "De Briquessart" (ABT 1070 - Jan 1129)
LE MESCHIN William (ABT 1078 - 1130)

Marriage To OF MERCIA Lucy (Lucia) (ABT 1071 - 1141)
    m.  

Notes

Parents
____ Turold (ABT 1020 - BEF 1079)
MALET Alvarissa (ABT 1048 - )

Children by OF MERCIA Lucy (Lucia) ABT 1071 - 1141
LE MESCHIN Alice (Adeliza) (ABT 1094 - AFT 1142)
LE MESCHIN Ranulph "de Gernon" (1099 - 16 Dec 1153)
DE ST. PIERRE William (ABT 1103 - )

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