westmoreland

Ralph Neville, the First Earl of Westmoreland, was born around 1364 in Raby County, Durham, the son of John Neville and Maud Percy.  Neville was married first to Margaret Stafford, with whom he had nine children, and then to Joan Beaufort (the daughter of John of Gaunt), with whom he had thirteen more.  Several of his children figured greatly into later English history.  His daughter Cecily married Richard, Duke of York, and became the mother of Kings Edward IV and Richard III, and his grandson Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, is known to history as the "Kingmaker" for his part in bringing the York family to the throne during the Wars of the Roses.

Neville was, like so many others, at one time a loyal subject of Richard II.  He served as a Knight of the Garter under Richard and was created Earl of Westmoreland by the King in 1397 - an action which displeased his chief rival Henry Percy, the Earl of Northumberland.  The Percys and the Nevilles shared domination of the north of England, and though they were sometimes closely allied (repeatedly by marriage), they were all too often the best of rivals.  Nevertheless, Westmoreland joined with the Percys in their support of Henry Bolingbroke.  He lived through that period of political turmoil, as well as the subsequent uprising of the Percys, finally dying peacefully of natural causes at the age of 62 on 21 October 1425.

back