The Legacy of Ranulf de Gernons

In the course of his long and distinguished engagement with the history of Stephen’s reign, Edmund King has had frequent encounters with Ranulf de Gernons, the acquisitive earl of Chester whom he has described as a ‘loose cannon’: ‘no man during the course of the reign had done more to destabilize the North of England and none had proved so unconciliatory’.1 Clearly, Earl Ranulf was widely detested and distrusted,2 yet there was an underlying purpose to his career. As one of the editors of this volume has argued, far from repeatedly ‘changing sides’ during the war between Stephen and the Angevins, as used to be claimed, he pursued a policy of ‘armed neutrality’ for most of the conflict, honourably (from his own perspective) and with some consistency.3 And despite his inability to hold onto and secure for his successors the generous territorial concessions wrested from King Stephen and the future Henry II in turn, it would be wrong to regard him as a ‘failure’ overall. His tenure of the earldom and honour of Chester was of lasting importance.