1220666. Sir Ralph de Neville , 1st Earl of Westmoreland, KG
Ralph Nevill, son of Maud Percy, 4th Baron, Lord of Raby, Governor of Carlisle 1386, Warden of the Forests north of Trent 1389. Constable of the Tower of London 1398. Created in full Parliament to dignity of Earl of Westmoreland December 21, 1398, by Richard II. He was summoned to Parliament 1389-1396. This nobleman took an active and leading part in the political drama of his day and sustained it with more than ordinary ability. His lordship was of the privy council to King Richard and had much favour from that monarch, yet he was one of the most active in raising Henry of Lancaster to the throne as Henry IV, and was rewarded by the new King in the first of his reign, with a grant of the county and honour of Richmond for life and with the great office of Earl Marshal of England. Soon after this he stoutly resisted the Earl of Northumberland in his rebellion and forced the Percies (who were Earls of Northumberland), who had advanced as far as Durham to fall back upon Prudhoe when the Battle of Shrewsbury ensued, in which the gallant Hotspur (Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland) and his mother's nephew) was killed, sustained so signal a defeat and closed his impetuous career. The only rival of the Nevills in the north were the Percies, whose power was thus broken at Shrewsbury. Ralph Nevill, Earl of Westmoreland, married 1st Margaret, daughter of Hugh Stafford, 2nd Joane de Beaufort, daughter of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford, son of Edward III. Joane was half sister to King Henry IV.
[see Kin of Mellcene Thurman Smith, 834]
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