Ranulf Peverel

Born [date unknown] in Normandy, France

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Ranulph Peverel was a member of the aristocracy in British Isles.

Biography

According to Keats-Rohan, Ranulf Peverel the Domesday baron was a Norman who kept a french lordship in Vengeons in Normandy (modern postcode 50150).^[1]

In England he had substantial holdings in East Anglia and Essex, including at Hatfield. (See below for links to more detailed listings and online maps.)

Keats-Rohan also points out that his wife, based on contemporary records, was named Athelida. She was a confrater at St Albans. Other stories about his wife will be discussed below.

There is no record of when exactly he died. Keats-Rohan proposes that he died about 1091, by which time his son William had succeeded.^[2]Charles Cawley on the MedLands website points out that it was in any case after 1085.^[3]

Although he had a son and daughter, by 1129/30, his known son William died without issue and his holdings were held by the crown.^[1]

Keats-Rohan, like Complete Peerage,^[4] also explains that there is no direct evidence of the link, if any, with Ranulf's contemporary, William Peverel "of Nottingham", whose French lordship was probably near Barfleur.^[5] Charles Cawley does make a link, combining Ranulf's son William with William of Nottingham, but note that there is no evidence showing a link between the possessions of the two men, nor suggesting that Ranulf was older or senior to William in any respect.

Neither Keats-Rohan nor Cawley propose any knowable link between Ranulf or William, and the Peverel family who held Dover and Bourne.

Ranulf's real children according to Keats-Rohan:^[1]

• William, dead before 1129/30. His heir was his sister.
• Matilda, wife of Robert fitz Martin.
• Others? Matilda had at least 3 Peverel nephews, named Richard, Hugh and Ranulf.

1086 Domesday Land Holdings

• PASE profile: http://domesday.pase.ac.uk/Domesday?op=5&personkey=40736
• OpenDomesday.org profile: https://opendomesday.org/name/ranulf-peverel/

Research notes

Wife. See Ingelrica-2 which has been disconnected. Cawley summarizes the history:

Dugdale records that Ingelrica, wife of Ranulf Peverell "who had been mistress to King William the Conqueror…is stated to have founded…in the time of King William Rufus a college of secular canons dedicated to St Mary Magdalen" at Hatfield Peverell which she entered and stayed until her death "about the year 1100" [Dugdale Monasticon III, Hatfield Peverell Priory, p. 294.]. He does not reproduce the primary source which provides the basis for this information. Eyton says that, according to Dugdale, her relationship with William (then Duke of Normandy) predated her marriage and that Duke William was the father of her son William Peverel [Eyton, R. W. (1855) Antiquities of Shropshire (London), Vol. II, p. 104.].

In a scholarly article, Pamela Taylor wrote that the story "was floated by Robert Glover in Dugdale's Baronage but blown out of the water by E.A. Freeman, The History of the Norman Conquest iii, Oxford 1869, 656."^[6]

Keats-Rohan is "to the point" about this:^[1]

The spurious account of this marriage with Ranulf's wife [Athelida] converted into an Ingelrica, mistress of William I, as printed in Mon. Ang. iii, is unworthy of repetition.

(Also see notes concerning William Peverel of Nottingham below who was also linked to this story.)

Children. Online genealogies and older books often name more children for Ranulf, presuming that other Peverels in England can be connected.

Nottingham family:

• William Peverel, another great Domesday baron. He and his son were already described as being "of Nottingham" in contemporary documents. He was a senior baron of William the conqueror and received the castle of Nottingham already in 1168. G.W. Watson, in a special appendix about him in Complete Peerage, noted that "He is usually said to have been an illegitimate son of the Conqueror, but as this statement cannot be traced farther back than to the time of the Tudors, it is worth little or nothing."^[4]

Bourne/Dover family. This begins with at least three brothers.

• William Peverel of Dover. His heir was William the son of his brother Pain.
• Pagan (Pain) Peverel, of Bourn in Cambridgeshire.
• Robert Peverel, named in one document for Thorney in Cambridgeshire where his genealogy is made clear and makes him identical to Pain. [Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum Vol.2, p.601, charter viii.]
• Hamon Peverel. A brother of Pain of Bourn and William of Dover.
• ?Emma Peverel. Speculative. Cawley suggests she might be a sister of Pagan, Robert and their brother William, because her son had an uncle named William Peverel.^[3] We know there were many Peverels active in England though, including Williams in all three of the more important families (Hatfield, Bourn, Nottingham).

Maybe just the last record of Ranulf as an old man?

• ?Ranulf Peverel. Speculative. He witnessed a royal charter dated 27 Jan 1091 concerning Bath abbey [Dugdale Monasticon II, Bath Cathedral, IX, p. 266.]. Cawley proposes that this might be a son of Ranulf, because 1091 seems too late to be the Domesday baron.^[3] This seems unconvincing because 1086 is not so long before 1091, and we have no exact ages for these men.

There are also legends about Ranulf Peverell's Welsh ancestry, none of which have been proven, and all are from a much later date. See the profile of

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Keats-Rohan, "Ranulf Peuerel", in: Domesday People, p.355.
2. ↑ Keats-Rohan, "Peverel Londoniensis, Willelm", in: Domesday Descendants, p.1069.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Charles Cawley. Foundation for Medieval Genealogy. Medieval Lands Database. PEVEREL FAMILIES of HATFIELD, ESSEX and NOTTINGHAM
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Complete Peerage, 2nd ed., Vol.4, App.I.
5. ↑ Keats-Rohan, "Willelm Peurel De Nottingeham", in: Domesday People, p.494.
6. ↑ Pamela Taylor, "Ingelric, Count Eustace and the Foundation of St Martin-le-Grand", in: Anglo-Norman Studies XXIV: Proceedings of the Battle Conference 2001, John Gillingham ed., p.223.