Neville–Neville feud

Neville family feud
Part of fifteenth-century England
Neville family coat of arms; this was worn by the senior branch, whilst Salisbury's—as a younger son—would have been differenced.
Date c. 1428–1443 Location Northern England Result Political, dynastic, and financial victory for the Earl of Salisbury
Belligerents
Senior branch of the House of Neville	Cadet branch of the House of Neville
Commanders and leaders
Ralph Neville, 2nd Earl of Westmorland	Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury

The Neville–Neville feud was an inheritance dispute which took place in the North of England during the early fifteenth century between two branches of the Neville family. After the death of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland in 1425, the feud continued through the 1430s, until 1443. It was caused by the transfer of lands and titles to the earl of Westmorland's second wife, Joan Beaufort, and her children. Many of the Neville family holdings were transferred through legal means to Joan's eldest son Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, in effect disinheriting Westmorland's issue from his first wife. The title earl of Westmorland passed to the issue of Ralph's first marriage for legal reasons, but many holdings, particularly those of the Neville patrimony in Yorkshire and Raby Castle in Durham were transferred to Joan and her children. The Nevilles had many estates, but their main residence seems to have been Raby Castle. The House of Beaufort was able to consolidate their control over the County Palatine of Durham when Joan's youngest son, Robert Neville, assumed office as Bishop of Durham in 1437.

The first Earl of Westmorland's eldest son, John Neville, had died before his father. John Neville's son, also named Ralph, became the second earl of Westmorland when his grandfather died in 1425. The senior branch disputed their disinheritance — both legally and by force of arms — but Joan's eldest son, who had also become Earl of Salisbury by his marriage to Alice Montacute, prevailed due to his family's greater political connections. The dispute between the senior and junior branches of the Neville family continued into the Wars of the Roses. During the prolonged civil war, the senior branch sided with the Lancastrians, while their cousins sided with the Yorkists. Margaret Stafford's sons gave Salisbury no support during the conflict and he was captured fighting for Richard of York at the Battle of Wakefield. Rather than being ransomed according to the usual custom of the time, Salisbury was beheaded by the common people "who loved him not."

Background and causes

Ancestors of Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury Source: DNB

Disputes over divided inheritances were not uncommon in later medieval England; apart from the dispute between branches of the Neville family, there were similar disputes within the Talbot and Mountford families. Historian Michael Hicks described these three disputes, where property was transferred from a senior line to a junior line, as "particularly large scale and high profile".^[1]

Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland (c. 1364–1425) was married twice. His first wife, Margaret Stafford, daughter of the Earl of Stafford, died in 1396. Their eldest son John, who died in 1420, was survived by his three sons: Ralph, John and Thomas.^{[lower-roman 1][2]}

Five months after Margaret's death, Ralph married Joan Beaufort, the legitimised daughter of John of Gaunt and his mistress Katherine Swynford.^[3] This second marriage was of far greater political significance. In the words of historian Anthony Tuck, this marriage "was to have major consequences both for the Neville family and for the English nobility" in general, through the next century.^[4] Joan was a cousin of King Richard II. Joan and Westmorland had 9 sons and 5 daughters together: Richard, who became Earl of of Salisbury; her second son William, the Earl of Kent and Baron Fauconberg; and her younger sons, Baron Latimer, Baron Abergavenny and Robert Neville.^[5][2]

Westmorland's new proximity to the royal family, and his loyalty to the Crown during the crisis of July 1397 led to his elevation to the peerage as Earl of Westmorland in 1397, and his family rose from knighthood to the nobility.^[6][7] Although King Richard had created Ralph as the first Earl of Westmorland, Ralph sided with Joan's half-brother Henry Bolingbroke when Bolingbroke deposed Richard in 1399 and assumed the throne as King Henry IV.^[8] Joan and Ralph were granted numerous offices, lands, wardships and pensions. They continued to enjoy royal favour until Henry IV's death in 1413.^[9]

Charles Ross has suggested that whilst it is indeed unlikely that the Earl of Westmorland had either "strong character or ability" this need not, he says, automatically mean that Joan was motivated by "deliberate malevolence" towards the elder branch, or that she was even particularly dominating. It was, he says, all the same "very much in his interests" to conform to her policies. He also suggests that perhaps the first earl even recognised something "ineffective and colourless" in his son and grandson, which could account for him turning towards the stronger characters produced by his second wife.^[10] A curious feature of the disinheritance is the behaviour of Ralph's eldest son, who was alive whilst it happened: not only does he not seem to have attempted to stop his father or prevent his son's disinheritance, but may even have assisted with some of the transfers.^[2][10] K.B. McFarlane has suggested that the earl of Westmorland yielded to pressure from his second wife, and possibly also from her Beaufort siblings.^[11]

The Neville Inheritance

English: Neville holdings in Yorkshire, Cumberland, Northumberland, Westmorland and Durham in the 15th c.

The Neville patrimony included lands in Yorkshire, Durham, Westmorland and Cumberland.^[12] Not long after he married Joan, the Earl of Westmorland began the process of disinheriting the children from his first marriage through a legal process called enfeoffment.^{[lower-roman 2]} John Neville had previously agreed to a settlement in which he would inherit only Raby Castle and Brancepeth castle in Durham.^[14] When Ralph died in 1425, his grandson Ralph II inherited the title earl of Westmorland "in tail male".^{[lower-roman 3][2]} Only some estates in Brancepeth, Northumberland, Lincolnshire, two inns in London and Newcastle upon Tyne, Bywell Castle and property in Ripon were left for the senior Neville inheritance.^[16]

The Yorkshire properties of Middleham Castle, Sherriff Hutton Castle and Wensleydale went to Richard Neville.^[17] Richard also became Warden of the West March when he inherited the Honour of Penrith in Cumberland.^[14] Joan also held Raby Castle in Durham as part of her dower until her death in 1440.

The transfer of lands and titles to the junior branch was done legally and left the senior Nevilles with no legal recourse.^[18] This transfer of property to Joan's children resulted in the "virtual disinheritance" of the senior branch of the family.^[2]

Course of the dispute

Drawing of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland's tomb

By 1421, Joan's eldest son Richard had married 15-year-old Alice Montagu, adding her lands to his own lordships in Yorkshire and Richmondshire.^[19][20] Alice was the daughter of Eleanor Holland^[21] and the sole heir of the late Earl of Salisbury.^[22] Thus, Richard became Earl of Salisbury when Alice's father was killed during the Hundred Years War in 1428.^[23]

When Ralph Neville died in 1425 Joan immediately took possession of Middleham Castle, Penrith Castle and Sheriff Hutton Castle for her son Richard.^[24] The title Earl of Westmorland descended to his grandson and namesake, Ralph II, whose father, John Neville had died in France in 1420.^[2] A modern historian has said that Ralph II was as "poor in land as an Earl as his father had been in early life as a baron."^[25] Ralph II spent much of life trying to recover the properties at Middleham, Sheriff Hutton, Penrith and Raby, but he was largely unsuccessful, because Joan had powerful allies amongst the nobility including Thomas Langley, the Bishop of Durham, and her brother Cardinal Beaufort.^[26].

In 1430, Ralph II entered into recognisances^{[lower-roman 4]} with the Beaufort-Nevilles, after Salisbury brought the matter before the King's council, in order to protect himself and his tenants from illegal seizure of his estates through violence. with Joan and Salisbury.

Thus, when Salisbury departed for royal service in France the following year, Ralph II was bound over not to attack Joan or her property. In 1435, he Ralph attempted to gain a copy of his father's first will, but was denied the opportunity by Thomas Langley, who was allied with Joan. In 1436, Salisbury returned to France, and Ralph was bound over on the same terms.^[28] Langley's partisanship, Tuck has suggested, had already been demonstrated to Ralph by the fact that he withheld the patronage of the Palatinate from him, and denied him any available official offices or positions under the bishop's grant.^[4]

Durham

Ralph II was not mentioned in his father's will^[29] and Joan was able to convince Thomas Langley, who was still bishop at the time, to give her the surviving copy of the late Earl's earlier will, which may have been more favourable to the children from his first marriage.^[2] There were a number of attempts to arbitrate a settlement in the royal council, and between 1441 and 1443 both parties were constrained by bonds not to enter each other's estates except with permission. Given Salisbury's significant position in the council, R. L. Storey has questioned whether Ralph II would have had "much faith in its impartiality."^[30]

In 1433, during the reign of King Henry VI, Sir William Eure challenged Thomas Langley, who was the Bishop of Durham and Joan's ally. A royal commission headed by the Earl of Northumberland (and Ralph II's brother-in-law)^[31] accused Langley of acting against the interests of the Crown. Langley countered that as earl palatine, the Bishop of Durham enjoyed the "liberty of a county palatine"^{[lower-roman 5]} Sir William Eure denied that bishops of Durham had historically enjoyed the "liberty of a county palatine." The King's council found in favor of Bishop Langley.^[35] Pollard has suggested that Ralph II was behind Sir William's machinations against Langley. In 1435, Richard Neville sealed an indenture of retainer with Sir William's brother, Robert Eure, who might be of "consail and helping" during the legal dispute in Durham.^[36]

Joan's brother Cardinal Beaufort was one of the most powerful men in the country. He used his influence on the king's council to help Robert Neville's appointment to the bishopric of Durham after Langley's death in 1437. Pollard writes that "the real reason was to protect the interests in the palatinate of his mother, the dowager countess of Westmorland, and his family against her stepson, the second Earl."

Escalation

Around this time, complaints from the North reached the Lord Chancellor that the dispute between the elder and junior branches of the Neville family had resulted in the assembling "by manner of war and insurrection, [of] great routs and companies upon the field, which have done all manner of great offences as well in slaughter and destruction..." ^[37] R.A. Griffiths called this "a state of war".^[38] J.R. Lander wrote that there was "widespread violence in the north" alongside continual legal proceedings.^[39]

Raby Castle, seat of the Neville Earls of Westmorland, until it was inherited by Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmoreland who held the Durham property in dower until her death in 1440.^[31]

Durham was part of Joan's dower and she was gradually able to consolidate the House of Beaufort's control over the holding.^[4] In 1437, Joan's younger son Robert Neville succeeded Langley as the Bishop of Durham. The new Bishop retained his elder brother Richard, effectively ending any hopes Ralph may have had of holding office in the Palatinate of Durham.^[4] Salisbury reinforced the involvement of the Cardinal on his side by enfeooffing Salisbury's northern estates to him after Joan's death in 1440. The parties had not yet reached a settlement. ^[28] By 1441, Salisbury's younger brother Lord Fauconberg was steward and military commander of Durham.^[40]

Ralph II had powerful allies of his own, but this was not enough to overcome Joan Beaufort and her sons. Knighted in 1426,^[26] Ralph II's first marriage was to Elizabeth Percy, daughter of Henry 'Hotspur' Percy.^[41] The House of Percy was one of the great Northern houses whose rivalry with the Nevilles resulted in the Percy–Neville feud and later the Wars of the Roses.^[42] After Lady Percy's death in 1437 he married Margaret Cobham, who was the sister of Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, but the Duchess' witchcraft conviction in 1441 neutralized any advantage Ralph II might have gained from his Cobham marriage.^[43][20]G.L Harriss believes the Beaufort's were able to maintain their control of the lands due to their greater combined political power.^[44] In the meantime, says historian Lander has described Salisbury's strength as being "a combination of influence at the Lancastrian court and outright violence".^[45]

Aftermath and consequences

Middleham Castle, seat of Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland and later her son the Earl of Salisbury.

A peace was finally agreed between Salisbury and Ralph II on 26 August 1443.^[46] Pollard writes that the "settlement" signified a "crushing defeat" for Ralph II ^[26] and that the "odds had been heavily stacked" against him from the start.^[47] True, he was confirmed in his right to the Lordship of Raby Castle, but had to surrender everything else he had previously claimed from Salisbury back to him. He was also placed in bonds of £400 to keep to the agreement in the future, not just to Salisbury, but to his four brothers as well.^[26] Ralph II had to renounce all claims to the Neville lands in County Durham, and had to pay annual rents to Salisbury for various Northumberland manors.^[48] Thus, says Pollard, "did Ralph II bow to the superior might of his step-uncle".^[26] Salisbury was not subject to similar constraints, merely having to agree to not claim the £400 pension while Ralph adhered to their agreement.^[49]

J.R. Lander described the Neville–Neville feud as illustrating how the Neville family "never could and never did work together".^[50] This was probably the most significant consequence of the feud that Tuck referred to above—the family's inability to work together, particularly in the descent into civil war at the end of the 1450s. For example, when commissions of oyer and Terminer were launched in 1453, during the later Percy-Neville feud, Sir Henry Neville was condemned as a leading rioter.^[51] Likewise, when Edmund Tudor died three years later, the stewardship of the Honour of Richmond was granted to Humphrey Neville of the Raby Nevilles. ^[52] Storey described the appointment as an intentionally direct challenge to him and possibly, due to the factional political situation that had evolved, a "deliberate attempt to reopen an old wound".^[53]

The dispute between the senior and junior branches of the Neville family continued into the Wars of the Roses.^[54] Ralph II gave Salisbury no support at all, and indeed, Ralph's younger brother, Lord John Neville fought for the Lancastrian Henry VI, and died fighting for him at the Battle of Towton in 1461.^[55] Lander also suggested that if had been united as a family behind Salisbury, who supported Richard of York during the Wars of the Roses, York's "power in the land would have been overwhelming".^[56] Salisbury was captured at the Battle of Wakefield and instead of being ransomed, he was beheaded by the common people, who "loved him not."^[57]

See also

• Bonville–Courtenay feud
• Berkeley-Lisle feud
• Viscount Lisle
• Warwick the Kingmaker
• Alice Chaucer

Notes

References

Bibliography

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