Alan de Neville

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Alan de Neville († around 1176) was the chief forest officer of the English King Henry II.

Alan de Neville probably named himself after Neuville in Normandy . Whether the Nevilles , who lived in Lincolnshire during the reign of Henry II , or the Neville family, mentioned in 1086 as vassals of the Abbot of Peterborough at Walcot , Somerset , were related to him is unknown. Alan de Neville is first mentioned in 1138 in the entourage of Count Waleran von Meulan . He later served as his cupbearer , for which he received 100 shillings a year . Around this time he married the daughter of a baron in the Pont-Audemer rulership . Like his master, he remained on the side of King Stephen during the anarchy in England until he switched to the service of the new King Henry II around 1153 . Before 1156 he had acquired property in Lincolnshire, presumably mostly in Lindsey , for which he was fined between 1168 and 1171.

In 1158 the King gave him property in Marlborough , from which he had an annual income of £ 32, and in 1159 he received a gift from the King from the proceeds of Savernake Forest in Wiltshire . This suggests that he was already working as a forest clerk in Wiltshire at the time. Before 1170 he expanded his property to include estates in Bedwyn , Homington and Grafton . In 1163 he is mentioned for the first time as a judge, presumably for the royal forest sovereignty , in Wiltshire. In the dispute between the king and Archbishop Thomas Becket , he was on the side of the king, which is why he was excommunicated by Becket in 1166 and 1168 . By 1166 he had been appointed the king's chief forest officer. As the chief forest officer, Neville vigorously implemented the royal forest sovereignty. In numerous counties he chaired court sessions for forest crime in 1166 and 1167 , imposing high penalties and severely punishing poaching, illegal logging or unauthorized clearing. Neville took no account of the rank or status of the accused and took action against barons and clergymen. This strict enforcement of forest sovereignty was unfamiliar to the entire population, which is why Neville was extremely unpopular and hated. Even the Justiciar Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester had to be granted a privilege by the King that protected him from investigations by Neville's officials.

According to the chronicler Roger von Hoveden , Neville remained chief forest officer until his death. Since Thomas son of Bernard became the new chief forest officer in 1176, Neville must have died before that. During the reign of Henry III. Trials broke out in the first half of the 13th century over the unjustified expansion of the royal forests during Neville's tenure.

Thomas and Ivo de Neville, who owned estates in Grafton in 1178, were arguably his heirs. Geoffrey de Neville († 1225), a courtier under King John Ohneland , is said to have been a younger son of him. Hugh de Neville , Henry III's chief forest judge, was believed to be Neville's grandson.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ AF Pollard, SD Church: Neville, Geoffrey de (d. 1225). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
personal data
SURNAME Neville, Alan de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Forest clerk in England under Henry II.
DATE OF BIRTH 12th Century
DATE OF DEATH around 1176