Ralph fitzStephen
Ralph fitzStephen | |
|---|---|
| Sheriff of Gloucestershire | |
| In office 1171–75 | |
| Monarch | Henry II of England |
Ralph fitzStephen (sometimes Ralf fitzStephen;[1] died either 25 July 1202 or c. 1204) was an English nobleman and royal official.
Origins
Ralph had brothers named
Career
Ralph was a royal chamberlain for King Henry II of England and King Richard I of England, serving in that office until at least 1191.[2] His work would have involved not just household duties, but the financial aspects of the office, both accepting monies owed to the royal household and paying salaries and other expenses of the king's chamber.[1] In 1170 he was appointed as one of the "tutors" to the eldest living son of the king, Henry. Ralph was a frequent witness on royal charters, and during the last years of Henry's reign was also responsible for the maintenance of Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was incarcerated in house arrest by the king.[3]
Ralph was Sheriff of Gloucestershire,[2] from 1171 to 1175, succeeded by his brother William.[a] Ralph served as a royal justice for the southwest in 1176 and continued as a justice in other counties until 1190. He assessed the tallage, a tax, from 1176 to 1190 also.[3] In 1184, Henry II summoned Ralph as a Serjeant-at-law, one of the first identifiable members of that order in the historical record.[4][b]
King Henry gave Ralph the manors of Wapley and Winterbourne in Gloucestershire. In the feudal inquest of 1166, Ralph listed him as holding half a knight's fee at the honour of Totnes, one fee from the bishop of Exeter, and two fees at Crich in Derbyshire that were part of Hubert fitzRalph's honour there. At some point, he held a fee at Blackwell, Derbyshire from Robert fitzRandulf, as he gave that fee as a marriage portion to his niece Idonea when she married William fitzRandulf.[3] Sometime between 1186 and 1190, Ralph granted a third of a knight's fee at Potterspury in Northamptonshire to Geoffrey fitzPeter, another royal official.[5]
Family and death
Ralph married Maud or Matilda,
According to Keats-Rohan, Ralph died around 1204 and had no issue from his marriage.
Notes
- ^ William held office until 1189.[3]
- William fitzStephen 1176: William Basset, Roger fitzReinfrid 1177: Hugh de Cressy 1179: Hugh de Gaerst, Ranulf de Glanvill, Hugh Murdac 1182: William de Auberville, Osbert fitzHervey.[4]
Citations
- ^ a b Richardson and Sayles Governance of Mediaeval England p. 231 and footnote 5
- ^ a b c d e f Keats-Rohan Domesday Descendants p. 959
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Boorman "Ralph fitz Stephen" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- ^ a b Warren "Serjeants-at-Law" Virginia Law Review p. 919 and footnote 18
- ^ Turner Men Raised from the Dust p. 42
References
- Boorman, Julia (2004). "Ralph fitz Stephen (d. 1202)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/48113. Retrieved 14 January 2016. (subscription or UK public library membershiprequired)
- ISBN 0-85115-863-3.
- Richardson, H. G.; OCLC 504298.
- Turner, Ralph V. (1988). Men Raised from the Dust: Administrative Service and Upward Mobility in Angevin England. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-8129-2.
- Warren, Edward H. (May 1942). "Serjeants-at-Law: The Order of the Coif". Virginia Law Review. 28 (7): 911–950. S2CID 158404423.