Ralph Neville, 2nd Baron Neville de Raby

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Coat of arms of the Neville de Raby family

Ralph Neville, 2nd Baron Neville de Raby (according to other counting also 4th Baron Neville ) (* around 1291, † August 5, 1367 ) was an English nobleman and military. He served loyally and with distinction to the English Crown. With him, the Neville family rose to become one of the leading aristocratic families in northern England.

Origin and service in the military in the war with Scotland

Ralph Neville came from the English Neville family . He was the second son of Ranulph Neville, 1st Baron Neville de Raby and his wife Euphemia Clavering . He is first mentioned when serving as a military on the border with Scotland during the War with Scotland in 1318. In June 1319 he made an advance near Berwick with a force that included his brothers Robert , Alexander and John . On June 6th they were captured and beaten by a Scottish force under James Douglas . While the eldest brother Robert was killed, Ralph and his two younger brothers were captured in Scotland. The date of the battle is controversial as the incident, according to other sources, took place during the siege of Berwick in September 1319, but the battle may have occurred in advance of the English campaign or independently of it. The Scots demanded a high ransom of 2,000 marks for Ralph's release  . In view of this sum, Ralph's father asked King Edward II for financial support, but whether the king granted it is unknown.

Role in the fall of Edward II and in the fall of Roger Mortimer

Ralph had been released from Scottish captivity by 1321 at the latest when he was one of the followers of Thomas of Lancaster . The latter rebelled against the king, and Ralph testified to the bargain Lancaster made with several barons of Northern England at Sherburn . He apparently also served as a liaison between Lancaster and the Scottish military James Douglas. Apparently Neville managed to break away from Lancaster before he was decisively defeated in the Battle of Boroughbridge in March 1322 , was captured and executed as a traitor. Neville was again in the service of the king this year as administrator of Warkworth Castle in northern England . In 1325 he was a member of a commission aimed at ensuring compliance with the terms of the 1323 armistice with Scotland. When Queen Isabelle and Roger Mortimer landed with a small army in England in September 1326 to overthrow the tyrannical rule of Edward II, they were supported by Neville and his two younger brothers Alexander and John. Neville also served the new government, dominated by Roger Mortimer, as a military on the border with Scotland. In 1328 he entered the service of the northern English magnate Henry Percy . In October 1330 the young King Edward III overthrew . in a coup d'état Roger Mortimer. Probably related to Ralph Neville, John Neville of Hornby was one of the knights with whom the king invaded Nottingham Castle during the coup . John Neville slew Hugh Turplington , who had served as Steward of the Royal Household under Mortimer . Six days later, on October 25, 1330, Ralph Neville was appointed the new Steward of the Royal Household. In the next few years, Neville was one of the most influential nobles at the court of Edward III. Still, he remained connected to Percy. He renewed his alliance with him in January 1332 and promised to support him both in war and in peace with 20 men-at-arms . For this he received the Newburn Estate in Northumberland from Percy for lifelong use. In addition, after the death of his father in 1331, he inherited his possessions in northern England.

Role in the Second Scottish War of Independence

Support for the disinherited

1332 began with the invasion of the disinherited of the disinherited called the Second Scottish War of Independence . The so-called disinherited were English nobles who had lost their Scottish possessions through the peace made with Scotland in 1328 . The disinherited supported Edward Balliol , who was crowned King of Scots in September 1332. In December 1332 Balliol had to flee from Scotland again. Edward III. had tacitly tolerated the attack of the disinherited, but did not want to openly take part in the war. In February 1333, the king gave Neville 800 marks, other nobles received similar sums. The king made these gifts of money with the intention that the nobles would use the money to finance their own campaigns to Scotland. In March 1333 Neville joined together with William Montagu , the Earl of Arundel and Henry of Grosmont Edward Balliol, who moved with a new army through Roxburghshire to Berwick and began the siege of the city . At the beginning of May 1333 the English king finally appeared before the city with an army. It is unclear whether Neville took part in the Battle of Halidon Hill on July 19 , in which the Scottish relief army was defeated.

Service to the King in Scotland

After Halidon Hill won, Balliol took control of Scotland again. Edward III. sent Neville as English representative to the Scottish parliaments in Scone in October 1333 and in Edinburgh in February 1334. He should insist that Balliol keep the agreement concluded in November 1332 with the English king. According to this agreement, Balliol was to pay homage to the English king as the Scottish king and cede large parts of southern Scotland to England. But despite all the successes, Balliol's rule was not secured and the Scottish resistance was not completely broken. The English king therefore tried a series of campaigns to finally defeat the Scots. Neville and Henry Percy were founded by Edward III in August 1334. Appointed Defenders of the Scottish Marches and the Royal Lands of Southern Scotland. In autumn 1334 he was appointed banneret , and from November 1334 to February 1335 he took part in the campaign of Edward III with a retinue of 60 men-at-arms and 40 mounted archers. to Roxburgh. From June to September 1335 he took part with 85 men-at-arms in the English campaign in which Edward III. as far as Perth . On August 29, 1335 he was given lifelong supervision of Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland. According to the chronicler Robert de Graystanes , Neville was one of the English king's closest confidants at the time. This rewarded Neville appropriately for his services. 1333 appointed Edward III. Neville during the vacancy following the death of Bishop Louis de Beaumont as Administrator of the Temples of the Diocese of Durham . Perhaps Neville gained so much influence in the diocese that his younger brother Thomas Neville was named Archdeacon of Durham in March 1334 . In 1336 he was eligible for the Bywell Barony in Northumberland. Hereby he laid the foundation stone for the later extensive property of the Neville family in the south of the county. Neville served the king not only in northern England and in the war with Scotland. Although he resigned as steward of the Household on March 24, 1336, he kept good contacts with the royal court. When the king set out for campaigns in the war with France in the Netherlands in July 1338 and June 1340 , Neville was a member of the Regency Council during the king's absence. Together with Percy, he was particularly responsible for the defense of the border with Scotland. In 1338 and 1339 he took part in further campaigns to Scotland. The King thanked him with the bestowal of lands in Berwickshire and Roxburghshire . However, given the increasing success of the Scots in the fight against the English, Neville will have held these southern Scottish possessions with difficulty. Neville may also have hoped to receive the Barony of Warkworth after the death of his maternal uncle, John Fitz-Robert de Clavering . Edward III. but awarded this to Henry Percy. Although Neville and Percy were on good terms and worked closely together during the war in Scotland, the king's gifts to Percy and Neville at the beginning of the war contained the seeds of what would later become the rivalry between the Neville and Percy families.

The remains of Neville's Cross supposedly built by Neville (2008)

Victory in the Battle of Neville's Cross

When, during a campaign by the English king in northern France, the Scottish King David II invaded northern England with an army in 1346, Neville was one of the three commanders of the English army that was deployed to defend against the Scots. On October 17th, the English army was able to decisively defeat the Scots in the battle of Neville's Cross . After numerous Scottish magnates had fallen and the Scottish king was taken prisoner by the English, Neville led a campaign with Gilbert Umfraville to southern Scotland. The legend according to which he built Neville's Cross on Brancepeth Road west of Durham to commemorate the English victory is probably unfounded. According to the Anonimalle Chronicle , the site of the battle was previously named la Nevyle Croice . With the victory at Neville's Cross and the continued imprisonment of the Scottish King, the threat to northern England from Scottish attacks diminished. The rest of Neville's life now proceeded without major events. But he kept his position as defender of the Scottish Marches and was appointed governor of Berwick in 1355. According to the Chronicle of Froissart , he is said to have participated in the victory in the naval battle of Winchelsea against a Castilian fleet in August 1350 , but this is not documented.

Burial in Durham Cathedral

In old age Neville devoted himself increasingly to his salvation. In 1355 he donated a red velvet chasuble embroidered with images of saints to Durham Cathedral , which he had received from the executors of Bishop Richard de Bury as security for debts of £ 100. At the same time he is said to have asked the prior of the cathedral priory that he and his wife may be buried in the nave of the cathedral after their death . Neville's gifts and fame as one of the winners of Neville's Cross, a victory supposedly won with the aid of the relics of Saint Cuthbert, a particularly venerated Durham community, evidently convinced the prior and monks of the cathedral priory to honor Neville as the first non-cleric prove. Shortly after his death in 1367, he was buried at the eastern end of the nave. After her death, his wife was buried next to him.

Funerary memorial to Neville and his wife in Durham Cathedral

Marriage and offspring

Neville had married Alice Audley (around 1300-1374), a daughter of Hugh Audley and Isolt de Balun , in January 1327 . She was the widow of Ralph de Greystock, 1st Baron Greystock . With her he had five sons and four daughters:

Neville's wife had a son, William Greystock , from her first marriage to Ralph Greystock . This initially became a ward of Neville. After he came of age, he married, but the marriage remained childless. Neville then hoped to transfer his stepson's possessions to his own youngest son, William. In doing so, William should take the name and coat of arms of Greystock. Greystock's wife died, after which he remarried and had a son in 1353. Neville's plans thus became irrelevant. Neville was able to marry three of his daughters to members of respected northern English noble families. His youngest daughter Eleanor entered the Convent of the Poor Clares in Aldgate , London , as a nun . His heir became his eldest son, John.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John Robert Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322. A Study in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970, p. 55.
  2. ↑ John Robert Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322. A Study in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970, p. 302.
  3. ^ Ranald Nicholson: Edward III and the Scots. The formative Years of a Military Career . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1965, p. 189.
  4. ^ GL Harriss: King, parliament and public finance in medieval England to 1369 . Clarendon, Oxford 1975, ISBN 0-19-822435-4 , p. 285.
personal data
SURNAME Neville, Ralph, 2nd Baron Neville de Raby
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Neville, Ralph, 4th Baron Neville de Raby
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English nobleman
DATE OF BIRTH around 1291
DATE OF DEATH August 5, 1367