Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester
"Ranulf of Chester" redirects here. For the other Earls of Chester named Ranulf, see Earl of Chester. Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester and 1st Earl of Lincoln, known in some references as the 4th Earl of Chester, was one of the "old school" of Anglo-Norman barons whose loyalty to the Angevin dynasty was consistent but contingent on the receipt of lucrative favours, he was described as "almost the last relic of the great feudal aristocracy of the Conquest". Ranulf, born in 1170, was the eldest son of Hugh de Bertrade de Montfort of Evreux, he was said to have been small in physical stature. He succeeded to the earldom of Chester as a minor and was knighted in 1188 or 1189, which gave him control of his estates in England and Normandy. Although he used, not inconsistently, the style Duke of Brittany, he never had the control of the duchy, is not known to have played an important role there. In 1188 or 1189, he was married to the Duchess Constance of Brittany, the widow of Henry II's son Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany, mother of Arthur of Brittany, with whom King John contested the succession to the crown of England.
Richard Coeur de Lion, John's brother, had no known legitimate issue. The King had named Arthur of Brittany as his adopted heir to the crown of England. Henry wanted her married to a magnate whom he could trust; the marriage gave Ranulf control of the earldom of Richmond, but it wasn't a success, they separated. In 1196, King Richard I of England nominated the nine-year-old Arthur as his heir, summoned him and his mother, Duchess Constance, to Normandy. Constance travelled towards Rouen. On the way she was abducted by her estranged husband. Richard, marched to Brittany at the head of an army, intent on rescuing his nephew. Arthur was secretly taken away by his tutor to the French court to be brought up with Louis, son of the French king Philip II. In 1199, Constance escaped from her husband and their marriage was dissolved on the grounds of desertion. In 1200 Ranulf cemented his power in Normandy by marrying Clemence of Fougères, he had opposed John's attempted coup of 1193–4, retained many contacts with partisans of his former stepson Arthur.
He spent most of 1199–1204 in France and his continued loyalty was bought by John with further patronage. However the King was suspicious of the Earl with some reason. In the winter of 1204–5, suspected of dealings with the rebellious Welsh and of contemplating revolt himself, had extensive estates temporarily confiscated by the king; this episode convinced Ranulph to show loyalty in future. Thereafter he was showered with royal favours. In return he fought John's Welsh wars 1209–12. Loyal to the king in 1215–16, he was one of the few magnates to witness the Magna Carta of 1215, which he would adapt to appease his own barons in the form of the Magna Carta of Chester, he played a leading military role in the civil war by virtue of his extensive estates and numerous castles. Ranulf stood with William Marshal and the Earls of Derby and Warwick with the King, whilst the other nobility of the land stood with the enemy or remained aloof from the conflict. Chester was appointed in 1215 Lord of the County of Lancashire with the power to appoint sheriffs.
He was High Sheriff of Lancashire, High Sheriff of Staffordshire and High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1216. On John's death in 1216, Ranulf's influence increased further. There was an expectation at Gloucester that Ranulf would contend the regency for the young Henry III. Events moved at Gloucester, where William Marshal and the young king were, in Ranulph's absence; the Marshal was put forward and offered the regency by the nobility and clerics gathered at Gloucester before the arrival of Ranulph. There was concern that Ranulph might object to the decision, but when he arrived he stated that he did not want to be regent, so any potential conflict vanished. Before John's death, rebel barons had offered the throne of England to the dauphin. Louis had taken Winchester. De Blondeville put his political weight behind re-issuing the Magna Carta in 1216 and 1217. Ranulph was based in the north midlands and was charged with stopping the northern barons linking up with Louis in the south; the Earl chose to combine personal concerns with those of the country by attacking Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester's castle at Mountsorrel in Leicestershire – from which the Earl of Winchester's predecessors had ousted Ranulph's grandfather, Ranulf de Gernon.
Louis was persuaded by the Earl of Winchester to send a relief force to the castle. When they arrived, de Blondeville and the Royalist force were gone. In fact they had headed to Lincoln to deal with a French force besieging the castle there. William Marshal with his main army at Northampton made for the city, at Lincoln a battle was fought between the Royalists headed by William Marshal and de Blondeville and the French forces and their allies; the battle went in favour of the Royalists, they captured forty-six Barons and the Earls of Winchester and Hereford and the Earl of Lincoln created by Louis the French King. Following the battle in recognition of his support Ranulf was created Earl of Lincoln by King Henry III of England on 23 May 1217. In 1218, de Blondevil
Lancaster Castle
Lancaster Castle is a medieval castle in Lancaster in the English county of Lancashire. Its early history is unclear, but may have been founded in the 11th century on the site of a Roman fort overlooking a crossing of the River Lune. In 1164, the Honour of Lancaster, including the castle, came under royal control. In 1322 and 1389 the Scots invaded England, damaging the castle, it was not to see military action again until the English Civil War. The castle was first used as a prison in 1196 although this aspect became more important during the English Civil War; the castle buildings are owned by the British sovereign as Duke of Lancaster, which leases part of the structure to Lancashire County Council who operate a Crown Court in part of the building. Until 2011, the majority of the buildings were leased to the Ministry of Justice as Her Majesty's Prison Lancaster; the Castle was returned to the Duchy's ownership by the Ministry of Justice in 2011. The Castle is now open to the public seven days a week and is undergoing a large-scale refurbishment to allow access to more areas.
In 79 AD, a Roman fort was built at Lancaster on a hill commanding a crossing over the River Lune. Little is known about Lancaster between the end of the Roman occupation of England in the early 5th century and the Norman Conquest in the late 11th century; the layout of the town was influenced by the associated civilian settlement. After the Norman Conquest in the second half of the 11th century, Lancaster was part of the Earldom of Northumbria. In 1092, William II established a permanent border with Scotland further to the north by capturing Carlisle, it is thought that Lancaster Castle was founded in the 1090s on the site of the Roman fort in a strategic location. The castle is one of the most important; the history of the structure is uncertain. This is due to its former use as a prison, which has prevented extensive archaeological investigation; as there are no contemporary documents recording the foundation of the castle, it is uncertain when and by whom it was started, but it is supposed that Roger de Poitou, the Norman lord in control of the Honour of Lancaster, was responsible.
If it was Roger who began construction, the structure would have been built of timber incorporating the earthworks of the Roman fort into its defences. The form of the original castle is unknown. There is no trace of a motte, so it may have been a ringwork – a circular defended enclosure. Roger de Poitou fled England in 1102 after participating in a failed rebellion against the new king, Henry I; as a result, the king confiscated the Honour of Lancaster. The Honour changed hands several times. Henry granted it to Stephen of Blois, his nephew and king; when the Anarchy erupted in 1139 – a civil war between Stephen and Empress Matilda for the English throne – the area was in turmoil. Stephen secured his northern frontier by allowing David I of Scotland to occupy the Honour in 1141, it is possible. Due to a lack of investigation, there is little evidence to suggest additions to Lancaster in the mid-12th century. However, the uncertain construction date of the keep means that the King of Scotland could have been responsible for building it.
The war came to an end in 1153. It was agreed that after Stephen died, he would be succeeded by Matilda's son. Part of the agreement was that the King of Scotland would relinquish the Honour of Lancaster, which would be held by William, Stephen's son. After William's death in 1164, the Honour of Lancaster again came under royal control when Henry II gained possession of the Honour. On the death of Henry II, the Honour passed to his son, Richard the Lionheart, who gave it to his brother, Prince John, in the hope of securing his loyalty. One of the functions castles served. Since the 12th century, the monarch appointed a sheriff to maintain the peace in Lancashire, a role filled by the duke and based at the castle. In the late 12th and early 13th century, many timber castles founded during the Norman Conquest were rebuilt in stone. Lancaster was one such castle. Building in stone was time-consuming. For example, the late 12th-century stone keep at Peveril Castle in Derbyshire cost around £200, although something on a much larger scale, such as the vast Château Gaillard cost an estimated £15,000 to £20,000 and took several years to complete.
For many castles, the expenditure is unknown. However, work on royal castles was documented in Pipe Rolls, which began in 1155; the Rolls show that John spent over £630 on digging a ditch outside Lancaster's south and west walls, for the construction of "the King's lodgings". This referred to what is now known as Adrian's Tower, his successor, Henry III spent large sums on Lancaster: £200 in 1243 and £250 in 1254 for work on the gatehouse and creating a stone curtain wall. For the next 150 years, there is no record of building work; the Well Tower is thought to date from the early 14th century. If there was no work on the castle, this may indicate that it was not important enough to warrant expenditure beyond upkeep, as Lancaster was not near a border. Though the region was peaceful, the Scots invaded in 1322 and 1389, reaching Lancaster and damaging the castle; the holdings of the Duchy of Lancaster extended beyond the county, Lancaster was not especi
Salwick
Salwick is a village between Kirkham and Preston in Lancashire, England. The village is rural and is an extension of the smaller Clifton to the south, it is in the borough of Fylde, in the Parliamentary Constituency of Fylde, forms part of the civil parish of Newton-with-Clifton. It is at grid reference SD466320, is served by Salwick railway station; the area of "Clifton With Salwick" was in the Archdeaconry of Richmond in the Diocese of Chester. The etymology of Salwick is unclear; the "wick" may come from Old English wic, meaning an earlier Romano-British settlement specialised in farming. Salwick is the home of the Springfields nuclear fuel manufacturing plant operated by Westinghouse Electric Company, which dominates the village. Listed buildings in Newton-with-Clifton Genealogy of Salwick
English Heritage
English Heritage is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments and places. These include medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses; the charity states that it uses these properties to ‘bring the story of England to life for over 10 million people each year’. Within its portfolio are Stonehenge, Dover Castle, Tintagel Castle and the best preserved parts of Hadrian's Wall. English Heritage manages the London Blue Plaque scheme, which links influential historical figures to particular buildings; when formed in 1983, English Heritage was the operating name of an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government titled the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, that ran the national system of heritage protection and managed a range of historic properties. It was created to combine the roles of existing bodies that had emerged from a long period of state involvement in heritage protection. In 1999 the organisation merged with the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England and the National Monuments Record, bringing together resources for the identification and survey of England's historic environment.
On 1 April 2015, English Heritage was divided into two parts: Historic England, which inherited the statutory and protection functions of the old organisation, the new English Heritage Trust, a charity that would operate the historic properties, which took on the English Heritage operating name and logo. The British government gave the new charity an £80 million grant to help establish it as an independent trust, although the historic properties remained in the ownership of the state. Over the centuries, what is now called'Heritage' has been the responsibility of a series of state departments. There was the'Kings Works' after the Norman Conquest. Responsibility subsequently transferred to the Ministry of Public Building and Works to the Department of the Environment and now the Department for Culture and Sport; the state's legal responsibility for the historic environment goes back to the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882. Central government subsequently developed several systems of heritage protection for different types of'assets', introducing listing for buildings after WW2 and conservation areas in the 1960s.
In 1983 Secretary of State for the Environment Michael Heseltine gave national responsibility for the historic environment to a semi‑autonomous agency to operate under ministerial guidelines and to government policy. The Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission was formed under the terms of the National Heritage Act 1983 on 1 April 1984; the 1983 Act dissolved the bodies that had provided independent advice – the Ancient Monuments Board for England and the Historic Buildings Council for England and incorporated these functions in the new body. Soon after, the commission gained the operating name of English Heritage by its first Chairman, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu. A national register of historic parks and gardens, was set up in 1984, a register for historic battlefields was created in March 1995.'Registration' is a material consideration in the planning process. In April 1999 English Heritage merged with the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England and the National Monuments Record, bringing together resources for the identification and survey of England's historic environment.
By adoption this included responsibility for the national record of archaeological sites from the Ordnance Survey. These, together with other nationally important external acquisitions, meant that English Heritage was one of the largest publicly accessible archives in the UK: 2.53 million records are available online, including more than 426,000 images. In 2010–2011 it recorded 4.3 million unique online user sessions and over 110,000 people visited NMR exhibitions held around the country in 2009/10. In 2012 the section responsible for archive collections was renamed the English Heritage Archive; as a result of the National Heritage Act 2002, English Heritage acquired administrative responsibility for historic wrecks and submerged landscapes within 12 miles of the English coast. The administration of the listed building system was transferred from DCMS to English Heritage in 2006. However, actual listing decisions still remained the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Culture and Sport, required by the Planning Act 1990 to approve a list of buildings of special architectural or historic interest.
Following the Public Bodies Reform in 2010, English Heritage was confirmed as the government's statutory adviser on the historic environment, the largest source of non-lottery grant funding for heritage assets. It was retained on grounds of "performing a technical function which should remain independent from Government"; however the department suffered from budget cuts during the recession of the 2010s resulting in a repairs deficit of £100 million. In June 2013 the British Government announced plans to provide an £80 million grant to enable English Heritage to become a self-financing charity; the national portfolio of historic properties remain in public ownership, but the new English Heritage will be licensed to manage them. The change occu
Henry IV of England
Henry IV known as Henry Bolingbroke, was King of England from 1399 to 1413, asserted the claim of his grandfather, Edward III, to the Kingdom of France. Henry was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, his father, John of Gaunt, was the fourth son of King Edward III and enjoyed a position of considerable influence during much of the reign of his nephew King Richard II whom Henry deposed. Henry's mother was Blanche of Lancaster, heiress to the great Lancashire estates of her father Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster. Henry, having succeeded his father as 2nd Duke of Lancaster, when he became king thus founded the Lancaster branch of the Plantagenet English monarchy, he was the first King of England since the Norman Conquest whose mother tongue was English rather than French. One of Henry's elder sisters, Philippa of Lancaster, married King John I of Portugal, the other, Elizabeth of Lancaster, was the mother of John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter, his younger half-sister Katherine of Lancaster, the daughter of his father's second wife, Constance of Castile, was queen consort of the King of Castile.
He had four natural half-siblings born of Katherine Swynford his sisters' governess his father's longstanding mistress and third wife. These four illegitimate children were given the surname Beaufort from their birthplace at the Château de Beaufort in Champagne, France. Henry's relationship with his stepmother, Katherine Swynford, was a positive one, but his relationship with the Beauforts varied. In youth he seems to have been close to all of them, but rivalries with Henry and Thomas Beaufort proved problematic after 1406. Ralph Neville, who had married Henry's half-sister Joan Beaufort, remained one of his strongest supporters, so did his eldest half-brother John Beaufort though Henry revoked Richard II's grant to John of a marquessate. Thomas Swynford, a son from Katherine's first marriage to Sir Hugh Swynford, was another loyal companion. Thomas was Constable of Pontefract Castle. Henry's half-sister Joan Beaufort was the grandmother of Edward IV and Richard III. Joan's daughter Cecily married Richard, Duke of York and had several offspring, including Edward IV and Richard III, making Joan the grandmother of two Yorkist kings of England.
Henry experienced a rather more inconsistent relationship with King Richard II. First cousins and childhood playmates, they were admitted together to the Order of the Garter in 1377, but Henry participated in the Lords Appellants' rebellion against the king in 1387. After regaining power, Richard did not punish Henry, although he did execute or exile many of the other rebellious barons. In fact, Richard elevated Henry from Earl of Derby to Duke of Hereford. Henry spent the full year of 1390 supporting the unsuccessful siege of Vilnius by Teutonic Knights with 70 to 80 household knights. During this campaign he bought captured Lithuanian women and children and took them back to Königsberg to be converted. Henry's second expedition to Lithuania in 1392 illustrates the financial benefits to the Order of these guest crusaders, his small army consisted of over 100 men, including longbow archers and six minstrels, at a total cost to the Lancastrian purse of £4,360. Despite the efforts of Henry and his English crusaders, two years of attacks on Vilnius proved fruitless.
In 1392–93 Henry undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where he made offerings at the Holy Sepulchre and at the Mount of Olives. He vowed to lead a crusade to'free Jerusalem from the infidel,' but he died before this could be accomplished; the relationship between Henry Bolingbroke and the king met with a second crisis. In 1398, a remark by Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk regarding Richard II's rule was interpreted as treason by Henry and Henry reported it to the king; the two dukes agreed to undergo a duel of honour at Gosford Green near Caludon Castle, Mowbray's home in Coventry. Yet before the duel could take place, Richard II decided to banish Henry from the kingdom to avoid further bloodshed. Mowbray himself was exiled for life. John of Gaunt died in February 1399. Without explanation, Richard cancelled the legal documents that would have allowed Henry to inherit Gaunt's land automatically. Instead, Henry would be required to ask for the lands from Richard. After some hesitation, Henry met with the exiled Thomas Arundel, former Archbishop of Canterbury, who had lost his position because of his involvement with the Lords Appellant.
Henry and Arundel returned to England. With Arundel as his advisor, Henry began a military campaign, confiscating land from those who opposed him and ordering his soldiers to destroy much of Cheshire. Henry announced that his intention was to reclaim his rights as Duke of Lancaster, though he gained enough power and support to have himself declared King Henry IV, imprison King Richard and bypass Richard's 7-year-old heir-presumptive, Edmund de Mortimer. Henry's coronation, on 13 October 1399 at Westminster Abbey, may have marked the first time since the Norman Conquest when the monarch made an address in English. Henry consulted with Parliament but was sometimes at odds with the members over ecclesiastical matters. On Arundel's advice, Henry obtained from Parliament the enactment of De heretico comburendo in 1401, w
Greensand
Greensand or green sand is a sand or sandstone which has a greenish color. This term is applied to shallow marine sediment, that contains noticeable quantities of rounded greenish grains; these grains are called glauconies and consist of a mixture of mixed-layer clay minerals, such as smectite and glauconite mica. Greensand is loosely applied to any glauconitic sediment. Greensand forms in anoxic marine environments that are rich in organic detritus and low in sedimentary input. Having accumulated in marine environments, greensands can be fossil-rich, such as in the late-Cretaceous deposits of New Jersey. Important exposures are known from both northern and western Europe, North America, southeastern Brazil and north Africa. Well known and important greensands are the Upper and Lower Greensands of England and occur within Eocene and Cretaceous sedimentary strata underlying the coastal plains of New Jersey and Delaware. Although greensand has been found throughout Phanerozoic and Late Precambrian sedimentary deposits, it appears to be most common in Eocene and Cretaceous sedimentary deposits.
In Brazil, greensand refers to a fertilizer produced from glauconitic siltstone unit belonging to the Serra da Saudade Formation, Bambuí Group, of Neoproterozoic/Ediacaran age. The outcrops occur in Alto Paranaíba region, Minas Gerais, it is a silt-clay sedimentary rock, bluish-green, composed of glauconite, potassium feldspar, quartz and minor quantities of biotite, goethite and manganese oxides, barium phosphate and rare-earth elements phosphates. Enriched levels of potash have K2O grades between 8% and 12%, thickness up to 50 m and are associated to the glauconitic levels, dark green in color. Glauconite is authigenic and mature; the high concentration of this mineral is related to a depositional environment with a low sedimentation rate. The glauconitic siltstone has resulted from a high level flooding event in the Bambuí Basin; the sedimentary provenance is from supracrustal feldsic elements on a continental margin environment with an acidic magmatic arc. In Great Britain, greensand refers to specific rock strata of Early Cretaceous age.
A distinction is made between the Upper Lower Greensand. The term greensand was applied by William Smith to glauconitic sandstones in the west of England and subsequently used for the similar deposits of the Weald, before it was appreciated that the latter are two distinct formations separated by the Gault Clay; the Upper Greensand was once known as either the "Malm" or "Malm Rock Of Western Sussex"Both Upper and Lower Greensand outcrops appear in the scarp slopes surrounding the London Basin and the Weald. Prominent seams are to be found in the Vale of White Horse, in Bedfordshire, in Kent, the South Downs National Park, elsewhere in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, the Jurassic Coast in Dorset; the soil of the greensand is quite varied, ranging from fertile to sterile. On the fertile soils chestnut and stands of hazel and oak are common, while Scots pine and birch colonise the poorer soils; these Greensand Ridges are popular long distance walking routes, for instance the Greensand Way in Kent.
The Lower Greensand is of Aptian age. In the Weald the Lower Greensand consists of four deposits which are diachronous: the Atherfield Clay 5–15 m thick, the Folkestone Beds 20–80 m thick. Although it appears both north and south of the London Basin it is not present everywhere beneath the Chalk Group which underlies the basin; the Upper Greensand is of Albian age. It represents. Like the Lower Greensand it is not present beneath the whole of the London Basin passing laterally into Gault clay east of a line between Dunstable and Tatsfield and of uncertain extent to the east of London. Outcrops of the Upper Greensand occur in the southwest of England including the Blackdown Hills and East Devon Plateau and the Haldon Hills, remnants of a once much wider extent; the green colour of greensand is due to variable amounts of the mineral glauconite, an iron potassium silicate with low weathering resistance. It is a common ingredient as a source of potassium in organic farming fertilisers. Greensand glauconite is used as a water softener for its chemical-exchange properties.
Greensand coated with manganese oxide is used in well water treatment systems to remove dissolved iron and manganese with the addition of an oxidant potassium permanganate, under controlled pH conditions. It is used as a type of rock for stone walls in areas where greensand is common. In Roman times in Britain, coarse grits derived from the lower greensand were used to line the inner surface of mortars produced in Oxfordshire pottery kilns. Glauconitic greensand has become a popular organic soil amendment; the porous properties of glauconite greensand allows for the absorption of water and minerals, making irrigation and nutrient delivery much more efficient. Greensand can be used to absorb excess water in clay-rich soils and to prevent water loss in sandy soils. Glauconite The dictionary definition of greensand at Wiktionary Super Greensand website Arkansas Geological Commission, "Greensand". Howe, John Allen. "Greensand". Encyclopædia Britannica
Pickering Castle
Pickering Castle is a motte-and-bailey fortification in Pickering, North Yorkshire, England. Pickering Castle was a timber and earth motte and bailey castle, it was developed into a stone bailey castle which had a stone shell keep. The current inner ward was the bailey, was built between 1180 and 1187; the keep was developed into a stone shell keep sometime during the years 1216 to 1236 along with the chapel – there is a reconstruction of the chapel at the site. Between the years 1323 and 1326 there was an outer ward and curtain wall built, along with three towers. There were two ditches, one situated outside of the curtain wall and one in the outer ward. After this a gatehouse, ovens and the storehouses were built; the castle is situated in the Vale of Pickering and has a steep cliff on the west side which would have been a great defensive attribute. The original structure was built by the Normans under William the Conqueror in 1069–1070; this early building included the large, central mound, the outer palisades and internal buildings, notably the keep on top of the motte.
Ditches were dug to make assault on the walls difficult. The main purpose of the castle at this time was to maintain control of the area after the Harrying of the North, its remains are well-preserved because it is one of only a few castles which were unaffected by the 15th-century Wars of the Roses and the English Civil War of the 17th century. In 1926, the Ministry of Works took possession of the castle, it open to the public. Castles in Great Britain and Ireland List of castles in England Teachers' resource pack: English Heritage Official page: English Heritage
