4th earl of Chester
Events
Date of Birth: before 1100.
Place of Birth: the castle of Gernon, in Normandy.
The date and place are given by the Complete Peerage (3:166). White (ODNB) states that he was probably born in the first decade of the 12th century.
Date of Death: 17 December 1153.
Place of Death: Gresley, Derbyshire.
The date and place are given by White (ODNB). The Complete Peerage (3:167) gives 16 December. Ranulf is said to have been poisoned by William II Peverel of Nottingham.
Place of Burial: St Werburg’s, Chester.
The place is given by the Complete Peerage (3:167) and by Keats-Rohan (p. 228).
Relationships
Father: Ranulf (I) (died 1129), third earl of Chester.
This relationship is given by White (ODNB), by Johns (p. 120), by Keats-Rohan (p. 228), and by the Complete Peerage (3:166).
Mother: Lucy of Bolingbroke (died about 1138).
This relationship is given by White (ODNB), by Johns (p. 120), by Keats-Rohan (p. 228), and by the Complete Peerage (3:166).
Spouse: Matilda (died 1189), daughter of Robert, earl of Gloucester.
This relationship is given by White (ODNB), and by Johns (p. 120), by Keats-Rohan (p. 228), and by the Complete Peerage (3:167).
Children:
(Complete source citations for the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project.)
Hugh (1147 - 30 June 1181), earl of Chester, married Bertrada, daughter of Simon, count of Évreux.
Richard.
References
Cokayne, George Edward, and Vicary Gibbs; et al. The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant [2nd ed.]. (London: St. Catherine Press, 1910-59).
Crouch, David. The Reign of King Stephen, 1135-1154 (Pearson, 2000).
Johns, Susan. "The Wives and Widows of the Earls of Chester, 1100-1252: the Charter Evidence" in The Haskins Society Journal: Studies in Medieval History Volume 7 (1995) pp. 117 - 132.
Keats-Rohan, Katharine S. B. Domesday Descendants: A Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents 1106 - 1166. (Woodbridge: 2002).
White, Graeme. “Ranulf (II), fourth earl of Chester (d. 1153)”, in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2007).