House of Neville

The male line of the Nevilles was of native origin, and the family may well have been part of the pre-Conquest aristocracy of Northumbria.[1] Following the Norman Conquest, most of the existing Anglo-Saxon aristocracy of England were dispossessed and replaced by a new Norman ruling elite, and although such survivals are very rare, continued landholding by native families was more common in the far north of England, including in County Durham, the area of their earliest recorded landholdings.

The male-line of the family can be traced back to a certain Uhtred, whose identity is unclear, since the ancestors of Robert FitzMaldred first appear in surviving records only decades after the Norman Conquest of England (1066) and Domesday Book (1086), which did not cover County Durham. In the 16th century, the Nevilles claimed that their ancestor Uhtred was descended from Crinan of Dunkeld, ancestor of the Scottish royal House of Dunkeld.[2] As well as prestigious ancient connections with the royal families of both England and Scotland, this claim entailed a line of descent from the Bamburgh dynasty of Earls of Northumbria, attaching the Nevilles' later power in the north to a pedigree of pre-eminence in the region stretching back at least as far as the early 10th century. Modern genealogists have speculated about theories to connect Uhtred with his purported forebears, but none of these is supported by any direct evidence.[1] Meanwhile, Horace Round (1895) suggests that Uhtred may have been identical with the man of that name who was a son of Ligulf, a great Northumbrian thegn killed at Durham in 1080.[3]

Dolfin, called in the records "son of Uhtred", is first attested in 1129, as holding the manor of Staindrop (formerly Stainthorp) in County Durham, from the Prior of Durham. It shared with a vast church estate some limited common land of 14,000 acres (5,700 ha).[4] This locality remained the principal seat of the family until 1569, their chief residence being at Raby in the north of the parish of Staindrop, where in the 14th century they built the present Raby Castle.[5]

Dolfin was succeeded by his son Meldred. He in turn was succeeded by his son Robert FitzMeldred.

Already before the Neville marriage, the FitzMeldred family was a major power in the area: "In the extent of their landed possessions this family, holding on obdurately to native names for a full hundred years after 1066, was pre-eminent among the lay proprietors within the bishopric of Durham during the twelfth century".[6]

The Anglo-Norman Ancient House of de Nevilles traces back to Odo, Count of Penthièvre and his son Ribald.

In 1069, William the Conqueror granted the Lordship of Middleham to his Breton cousin Alan Rufus, son of Odo, who built a wooden motte-and-bailey castle above the town. It has been dubbed the "Windsor of the North". By the time of the 1086 Domesday Book, Alan had passed the castle to his brother Ribald.

The Middleham castle eventually passed to Ribald's descendant Geoffrey de Neville (died 1193), 2nd feudal baron of Ashby in Lincolnshire.[7] At some time before 1176 he married Emma de Bulmer (d.1208), who brought to her husband several estates, including Brancepeth Castle in County Durham and Sheriff Hutton Castle near Bulmer,[8] Raskelf and Sutton-in-the-Forest, all in Yorkshire.

His second child and heiress was Isabel de Neville (d.1248/54),[9] who married Robert FitzMaldred (1170/4-1242/8).

Geoffrey "de Neville" (d. c. 1242) inherited the estates of his mother's family as well as his father's, and adopted his mother's surname, but retained his paternal arms of Gules, a saltire argent.[10] In Norman-ruled England, a Norman surname was more prestigious and socially advantageous[11] than his original English surname FitzRobert.

Geoffrey de Neville's eldest son and heir was Robert de Neville, Sheriff of Yorkshire and Sheriff of Northumberland (1258). Other children include Geoffrey—who was to start a cadet branch of the family in Hornby, Lancashire[12]—John,[12] and Hugh.[13] The identity of the mother, however, is disputed among scholars. A. F. Pollard, for example, writing in the Dictionary of National Biography in 1894 suggested that she was Margaret, daughter of Sir John de Longvillers. However, this Margaret was married until 1285, and there is evidence from a Lincolnshire fine of 1247 which refers to one Robert de Neville, knight, and his mother, Joan.[12][note 1]

Salisbury and Warwick became the most important supporters of Richard, Duke of York during the early stages of the Wars of the Roses. They probably hoped that a Yorkist seizure of power would bring a favourable resolution of major inheritance disputes involving Warwick, and of a sporadically violent struggle for preeminence in the north between Salisbury and the Percys. They were also connected to York by marriage, as he had married Salisbury's sister Cecily; their children included the future kings Edward IV and Richard III. In addition to their own wealth and armed following, the Nevilles' heft in this and subsequent conflicts was enhanced by Warwick's position as Constable of Calais and commissioner for the keeping of the seas. These offices gave him command of England's only significant standing armed force and control of a war-fleet. They also enabled him to develop close ties with the London corporation of the Merchants of the Staple, a major source of financial support, and to gain popularity with the discontented populace of London and the south-east, especially Kent, whom Warwick and his allies repeatedly stirred into revolt. York and Salisbury were both killed at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460, but Warwick helped York's son Edward, Earl of March, to depose Henry VI and gain the throne as Edward IV in 1461.[29]

Among the family's rewards for their support was the elevation of Salisbury's brother, the veteran soldier William Neville, Lord Fauconberg, as Earl of Kent. He, Warwick, and Salisbury's younger son John Neville, now ennobled as Baron Montagu, directed the suppression of lingering Lancastrian resistance in the north, where the ousted dynasty clung on for three years after their decisive defeat at the Battle of Towton in 1461. The Percys were among the principal supporters of the Lancastrian cause, and following the death at Towton of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and the final elimination of resistance in the north in 1464, the Nevilles secured their greatest triumph over their rivals, acquiring the earldom of Northumberland for John Neville in 1465.[30]

Warwick, now the richest man in England after the king, was the power behind the throne in Edward's regime during its early years, but the two men later fell out. Their estrangement was due in large part to the king's secret marriage in 1464 to Elizabeth Woodville. This humiliated Warwick, who had negotiated an agreement with Louis XI of France for Edward to marry the French king's sister-in-law. Relations were further aggravated by the subsequent influence of the Woodvilles, who successfully opposed Warwick over foreign policy.[31]

In 1469 Warwick seized control of government, in conjunction with his brother George Neville, Archbishop of York, and Edward's own brother George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence. Their alliance had been sealed by Clarence's marriage to Warwick's daughter Isabel. Warwick and Clarence imprisoned the king and sought to rule in his name, but the new regime was unable to impose its authority, and Edward was released. The king refrained from punishing the rebels, but sought to reestablish a northern counterweight to the Nevilles by restoring the earldom of Northumberland to the dispossessed heir, Henry Percy. This meant depriving John Neville, who had remained loyal to the king when his brothers rebelled, of his title, lands and offices. Edward sought to retain John's allegiance by compensating him with estates in the south-west, the new title of Marquess of Montagu, and the betrothal of his young son George Neville to the king's eldest daughter and current heir, Elizabeth of York. George was made Duke of Bedford in recognition of his future prospects. All this, however, evidently failed to mollify Montagu.

Warwick and Clarence again rebelled in 1470, apparently aiming to put Clarence on the throne. Defeated, they fled abroad, where they made common cause with the exiled Lancastrians, marrying Warwick's daughter Anne to Henry VI's only son Edward of Westminster. When Warwick and other leaders of this alliance landed in England to raise revolt once more, they were backed by leading nobles still in England, including Montagu, who turned the troops he had nominally raised for Edward IV against the king. Edward fled the country and Henry VI was briefly restored to the throne, but Edward soon counter-attacked successfully, and Warwick and Montagu were killed at the Battle of Barnet in 1471.[32]

Warwick and Montagu were never formally attainted, which would have meant the forfeiture of their property. Nonetheless, the victorious Yorkists did not allow the process of inheritance to follow its normal legal course. Montagu's estates should have passed to his son George Neville, Duke of Bedford, along with the considerable portion of Warwick's inherited possessions which had been entailed to heirs male, giving Bedford precedence over Warwick's daughters. However, in practice Bedford was denied his inheritance, while his engagement to Elizabeth of York was cancelled. He would eventually be deprived of his title by Act of Parliament in 1478, ostensibly on the grounds that he lacked the wealth required to maintain the standing of a duke.

The legacy of the Middleham Nevilles instead became the object of dispute between King Edward's brothers: Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and Clarence, who had returned to the family fold before the Battle of Barnet. Clarence, whose claim was founded on his marriage to Isabel Neville, gained the earldoms of Warwick and Salisbury. Gloucester acquired the old Neville estates in the north, establishing his claim by marrying Anne Neville, who had been widowed by Prince Edward's death in the final Lancastrian defeat at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. The northern lands and clientage inherited from the Nevilles became Gloucester's main powerbase, and he adopted Middleham Castle as his principal residence until his usurpation of the throne as Richard III in 1483.

Reflecting the estrangement between the two branches of the family, the Nevilles of Raby, headed by Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland, had sided with the Lancastrians from the outset. Westmorland's brother John Neville, Lord of Raby was killed in the defeat at Towton. The line of the Earls of Westmorland survived the wars, but the loss of most of the ancestral estates through their inheritance by the Nevilles of Middleham and their subsequent downfall left the family a much diminished force.[33]

Junior lines of the Middleham Nevilles also survived, including the holders of the Latimer and Bergavenny baronies, based, respectively, at Snape and at Abergavenny Castle. Edward Neville, Lord Bergavenny had for many years been forcibly deprived of his inheritance by his nephew the Earl of Warwick. During the wars, each of these lines of the family had fought sometimes alongside and sometimes against the core group of Middleham Nevilles led by Salisbury and Warwick.[34]

• Sir Thomas Neville (d. 1387)[39] of Hornby