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Ranulph "De Gernon" MESCHINES, 4th Earl Of Chester

Ranulph "De Gernon" MESCHINES, 4th Earl Of Chester[1, 2, 3]

Male 1099 - 1153  (54 years)

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  • Name Ranulph "De Gernon" MESCHINES  [3, 4
    Suffix 4th Earl Of Chester 
    Nickname De Gernon 
    Born 1099  Guernon Castle, Normandy, France Find all individuals with events at this location  [5
    Gender Male 
    AFN V9TX-S3 
    Name De Gernon 
    Name Ranulf De GUERNON 
    _UID E1638147FAE84783B7E81424F95B534177AF 
    Died 16 Dec 1153  Chester, Cheshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [5
    Buried St Werburgh, Chester, Cheshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I18686  Carney Wehofer 2024 Genealogy
    Last Modified 5 Feb 2012 

    Married Y  [6, 7
    Family ID F13110  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Maud Fitzrobert De CAEN, [Countess Of Chester,   b. Abt 1117, Gloucestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 29 Jul 1189, Chester, Cheshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 72 years) 
    Married Abt 1141  Gloucestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [5
    Children 
     1. Alice De MESCHINES,   b. Abt 1142, Chester, Cheshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Deceased
     2. Richard De MESCHINES,   b. Abt 1143, Of Chester, Cheshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Deceased
     3. Johanna De GERNON, [Lady Skelton],   b. WFT Est 1143, Chester, Cheshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Dec
     4. Beatrix De Gernons MESCHINES,   b. Abt 1146,   d. Deceased
     5. Hugh "Of Kevelioc" MESCHINES, 5th Earl Of Chester,   b. 1147, Of Kevelioc, Merionethshire, Wales Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 30 Jun 1181, Leek, Staffordshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 34 years)
    Last Modified 29 Aug 2016 
    Family ID F9057  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • Name Suffix: [Viscount d'AvraAncestral File Number: V9TX-S3Ranulph de Meschines (surnamed de Gernons, from being born in Gernon Castle, in Normandy), Earl of Chester. This nobleman, who was a leading military character, took an active part with the Empress Maud, and the young Prince Henry, against King Stephen, in the early part of the contest, and having defeated the king and made him prisoner at the battle of Lincoln, committed him to the castle of Bristol. He subsequently, however, sided with the king, and finally, distrusted by all, died under excommunication in 1155, supposed to have been poisoned by William Peverell, Lord of Nottingham, who being suspected of the crime, is said to have turned monk to avoid its punishment. The earl m. Maud, dau. of Robert, surnamed the Consul, Earl of Gloucester, natural son of King Henry I, and had issue, Hugh, his successor, named Keveliok, from the place of his birth, in Merionethshire; Richard; Beatrix, m. to Ralph de Malpas. His lordship was s. by his elder son, Hugh (Keveliok), 3rd Earl of Chester. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 365, Meschines, Earls of Chester]

      ----------Ranulf II de Gernons, 4th Earl of Chester, VICOMTE (Viscount) DE BAYEUX, VICOMTE D'AVRANCHES, Ranulf also spelled RANDULF, or RALPH (b. c. 1100--d. Dec. 16, 1153), a key participant in the English civil war (from 1139) between King Stephen and the Holy Roman empress Matilda (also a claimant to the throne of England). Ranulf, nicknamed 'aux Gernons' (i.e. moustaches), played a prominent and vacillating part in the civil war of Stephen's reign, his actions, in common with most of his peers, springing from personal grievances rather than dynastic loyalty or principle. Ranulf's father, Ranulf I, had been granted the earldom of Chester in 1121 after his maternal uncle had drowned in the White Ship disaster (1120) but, in return, had been compelled to surrender Cumberland and his patrimony of Carlisle. The restoration of these lost estates was the mainspring of much of Ranulf II's political life. Inheriting the Chester earldom in 1129, he initially supported Stephen as king after 1135. However, successive treaties between Stephen and King David of Scotland in 1136 and 1139 gave the Scots large tracts of land in Cumberland coveted by Ranulf who reacted by seizing the town and besieging the castle. Ranulf now allied with the Empress Matilda in defeating the king at Lincoln in February 1141, capturing and briefly imprisoning Stephen. Ranulf's association with the Angevin party was cemented by his marriage in 1141 to the daughter of Robert of Gloucester. Later (1149) he transferred his allegiance to the king in return for a grant of the city and castle of Lincoln. Coventry received its original charter from him. However, his territorial ambitions were no closer realisation as the king of Scots was also a close ally of Matilda. In 1145, Ranulf was reconciled to Stephen. However, there was no love lost between Ranulf and the king's entourage, many of whom had suffered at his hands. In August, 1146, at Northampton, Ranulf was suddenly arrested and put in chains when he refused the king's demand to restore all lands he had taken. He was only released when he surrendered all former royal property, including Lincoln. Stephen's arrest of Ranulf was a public relations disaster. He had broken his oath of reconciliation of 1145 and his own promise of protection, thus deterring any more defections from the Angevin faction. Stephen had breached a central tenet of effective medieval rule, that of being a good -- i.e. fair -- lord. Ranulf joined Henry FitzEmpress and was reconciled with David of Scotland who, in return for the lavish grant to Ranulf of most of Lancashire, retained Carlisle. But Ranulf was never a party man. His priorities remained centred on his own territorial and dynastic advantage, as shown by his 'conventio' with a leading royalist baron Robert of Leicester (1149/53). Under this treaty, the two magnates, independently of their rival liege-lords Stephen and Henry FitzEmpress, agreed to limit any hostilities forced between them by their masters and to protect their respective tenurial positions. Ranulf's career, notorious for his arrest in 1146, is more significant as evidence that the drama of high politics was played against a dense background of baronial competition for rights, lands, and inheritances which took precedence over any claims of royalty. [Encyclopædia Britannica CD '97, RANULF DE GERNONS, 4TH EARL OF CHESTER]

  • Sources 
    1. [S706] Eileen McKinnon-Suggs, Eileen McKinnon-Suggs.

    2. [S720] The Magna Charta Sureties 1215, Frederick Lewis Weis, a d d i t ions by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr, 5th Edition, 1999, 26 May 2003., line 153 (Reliability: 3).

    3. [S296] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, 7th Edi t i o n , by Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Le e Sh ip pa r d Jr., 1999, 26 May 2003., 132a-27 (Reliability: 3).

    4. [S720] The Magna Charta Sureties 1215, Frederick Lewis Weis, a d d i t ions by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr, 5th Edition, 1999, 26 May 2003., 153-2 (Reliability: 3).

    5. [S296] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, 7th Edi t i o n , by Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Le e Sh ip pa r d Jr., 1999, 26 May 2003., 125-27 (Reliability: 3).

    6. [S296] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, 7th Edi t i o n , by Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Le e Sh ip pa r d Jr., 1999, 26 May 2003., 132a-26 (Reliability: 3).

    7. [S845] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, 7th Edition, by Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Shippard Jr., 1999, 132a-26 (Reliability: 3).