Ranulf de Glanville

[Raymond Phair]

On 1 Sep 1998 Richard Borthwick asked about Ranulf de Glanville.

Ranulf de Glanville's ancestry has been examined by Moriarty [1], Falls
[2], and Mortimer [3]. These differ from Dugdale's version [4] and from
each other. All three emphasized their versions are tentative. Moriarty's
version has already been presented. Falls assumed, without any evidence,
that Ranulf's father Hervey de Glanville was the son of the Domesday tenant
Robert de Glanville (#8 below). Mortimer discovered the identity of
Ranulf's grandfather (#4).

Mortimer did not attempt to estimate birth dates for any of the Glanvilles.
His version follows:
1. Ranulf, the justiciar.
2. Hervey, the Lisbon crusader 1147 and shire-moot speaker c.1150 [1, 2,
5], possibly living in 1166 [6]. Ranulf was probably his oldest son.
3. Mabel -- [no source was cited].
4. Robert, died c.1140-c.1150.
6. Roger.
Almost certainly Mortimer erred in his identification of #4 Robert's
father. See below.
8. Robert de Glanville, Domesday tenant of Robert Malet's honor of Eye in
Suffolk. Children: probably William, perhaps #6 Roger. William was
succeeded by his son Barthololmew (d.1180) to the Glanville lands in Eye
by the 1140s.

Mortimer proposed that Ranulf's great-grandfather was the Roger de
Glanville who with his son Robert witnessed a 1140-5 charter of St.
Benet of Holme abbey, Norfolk [7], and that he was Bartholomew's uncle
(avunculus) and tenant Roger de Bertune in Bartholomew's c.1150
confirmation charter for Bromholm priory, Norfolk [8]. Mortimer, however,
overlooked the occurrence of Roger de Glanville and his son Robert in the
witness list of Bartholomew's charter, immediately following Hervey de
Glanville and his son Ranulf de Glanville. The two charters apparently
refer to the same Roger and son Robert. Hervey was born c.1090 or earlier
[5, 1] and assuming a minimal 20 years between generations, then #6 Roger
must have been born c.1050 or earlier. Thus if Mortimer's version is
correct, Roger would have been 100 years old, or older, and listed after
his then obscure great-grandson Ranulf. A more plausible explanation for
him is that he was Hervey's younger brother Roger who is known to have a
son Robert [9]. Roger de Bertune may have been, as described in the
charter, Bartholomew's mother's brother and not a Glanville.

As a result, Ranulf's great-grandfather remains unidentified and the
connection, if any, to the main Glanville family is unknown. The paired
occurrence of the names Ranulf and Hervey de Glanville in the 1086-1105/6
Eye priory foundation charter [10] suggests that they might be the
ancestors, or at least earlier relatives, of the justiciar, but no proof
has been discovered. Keats-Rohan's recent study of the Robert Malet's
Domesday tenants unfortunately didn't shed any new light on the Glanvilles
[11]. It is likely that the family took their name from Glanville,
Calvados, near the Malet fief in Normandy [12, 13, 1, 2, and see 14].

Clay estimated Ranulf was born perhaps c.1120-30 because his grandson
Waleran was born c.1170 [15, 16]. He was an adult by c.1144-54 [17],
which was his earliest appearance. Two contemporary chroniclers called
Ranulf very old when he retired in 1189 and in 1185 he had a niece
described as 60 or older [18], which suggests he was born probably
c.1120 or earlier. He was born in Stratford St. Andrew, Suffolk [19],
near Parham, Suffolk, and died during the siege of Acre, probably
before 21 Oct 1190 [13, 4].

Ranulf married Bertha, daughter of his neighbor Theobald de Valeines
(or Valognes) [19, 15, 4]. Children [19, 15, 4, 3]:
Matilda, probably the eldest [20], mar. William d'Auberville
(d.1195-6) and had a son Hugh.
Helewise, mar. Robert fitz Ralph (d. 1184-5), lord of Middleham,
Yorkshire, and had 3 sons: Waleran (b. c.1170 [16]), Ralph,
Ranulf. Helewise was said to have d. 1 Mar 1194/5, bur. Swainby
abbey, Yorks. (her foundation, later moved to Coverham, Yorks.).
Amabel, mar. Ralph d'Arderne (d. c.1210), and had a son Thomas.

Theobald de Valeines (fl. 1135), a tenant of the count of Brittany
(honor of Richmond) in Parham, as well as co. Norfolk and Yorkshire,
married Helewise -- [15, 3]. He was probably a son of Hamo de Valenis
who held Parham as the Domesday tenant of count Alan Rufus [15].

[1] G.A. Moriarty, NEHGR 102:292-300 (1948).
[2] J.S. Falls, Medieval Studies 40:312-327 (1978).
[3] R. Mortimer, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research
54:1-16 (1981).
[4] W. Dugdale, "The baronage of England", repr. 1977, 1:423-4.
[5] H. Cam, English Historical Review 39:568-571 (1924).
[6] "Red Book of the Exchequer", ed. H. Hall, 1896-9, 1:365.
This evidence is not conclusive that #2 Hervey was still alive in
1166. Mortimer did not notice that William de Glanville (son of
#8 Robert) was listed as the holder of the fee in the honor of Eye,
despite his son Bartholomew having succeeded many years earlier.
[7] Norfolk Record Soc. 2:no.161 (1932), ed. J.R. West,
[8] W. Dugdale, "Monasticon Anglicanum", 1817-30, 5:63; "The Crawford
Collection of early charters and documents", ed. A.S. Napier and
W.H. Stevenson, 1895, no.16, who dated it c.1150. Moriarty dated
it 1147/53-1175/6, "probably about 1169". Neither explained their
dating method. Mortimer gave it no date.
[9] Mortimer cited S.J. Bailey, Cambridge Law Journal, 10:101-3
(1948-50). Roger's second wife was countess Gundreda.
[10] "Eye Priory cartulary and charters", ed. V. Brown, 1992-94,
1:12-6, 2:88-90, who convincingly dated Robert Malet's Eye Priory
foundation as 1086-1105/6.
[11] K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, Nottingham Medieval Studies 41:34 (1997).
[12] C. Hart, Anglo-Norman Studies 19:157, 140 (1996).
[13] F.W. Maitland, in "Dictionary of National Biography", 22v,
1921-2, 7:1292-4.
[14] L.C. Loyd, "The origins of some Anglo-Norman families", repr.
1975, p.46.
[15] "Early Yorkshire Charters" (EYC), ed. W. Farrer and C.T. Clay,
1914-65, 5:234-7, 302-3.
[16] Pipe Roll Soc. 35:49 (1913), ed. J.H. Round.
[17] "Liber Eliensis", ed. E.O. Blake, 1962, pp.381, 408-9.
[18] J.C. Russell, Speculum 45:69-79 (1970); PRS 35:83 (her reported
age was probably a rough approximation -- see Round's introduction).
[19] H.G. Evelyn-White, The East Anglian, 3rd ser., 11:30 (1905).
[20] Surtees Soc. 83:61-2 (1899), ed. J.C. Atkinson; EYC 2:118-9.

After further reseach, a version of this article may be published.
Ray Phair