Hugh of Chester 5th Earl of Chester, Vicomte d'Avranches ^{2 3 4 5 6 7}

   Another name for Hugh was Hugh de Kevelioc.

  General Notes:

HUGH "of Kevelioc" (Kevelioc, co. Monmouth 1147-Leek, Staffordshire 30 Jun 1181, bur Chester, Abbey of St Werburgh). Robert of Torigny names "Hugonem filium suum" as successor of "Ranulfus comes Cestriæ". He succeeded his father in 1153 as Earl of Chester, Vicomte d'Avranches, as a minor coming of age in 1158. "Hugo comes Cestrie" confirmed a donation of land in Thoresby donated by "Willelmus filius Othuer" to Greenfield priory, Lincolnshire, for the soul of "patris mei Randulfi", by charter dated to [1155] witnessed by "Matilla matre sua…". He joined the rebellion of Henry "the Young King" against Henry II King of England and was taken prisoner at Alnwick 13 Jul 1174. He was deprived of the earldom but restored in Jan 1177. A manuscript narrating the descent of Hugh Earl of Chester to Alice Ctss of Lincoln records the death "II Kal Jul" of "Hugo", son of "Ranulfus de Gernons", and his burial at St Werburgh´s, Chester.

m (1169) BERTRADE de Montfort, daughter of SIMON de Montfort Comte d'Evreux & his wife Mahaut --- ([1155]-1227). Robert of Torigny records the marriage arranged by Henry II King of England in 1170 of "Hugoni comiti Cestriæ cognate suo" and "filiam comitis Ebroicensis cognatam suam ex parte patris sui". The Rotuli de Dominabus of 1185 records property "Beltesford et Hemmingebi et Dunintone" held by "Bertia comitissa, filia comitis de Evereros, uxor Hugonis comitis Cestrie". The Annals of Burton record the death in 1227 of "Bertrudis comitissa Cestriæ".

Earl Hugh & his wife had six children: Matilda, Ranulf, Richard, Mabel, Agnes and Hawise.

Earl Hugh had one illegitimate child by an unknown mistress: Amicia.

[FMG/Medieval Lands]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------

EARLDOM OF CHESTER (VI, 3)

Hugh, styled "OF KEVELIOC," EARL OF CHESTER, also VICOMTE D'AVRANCHES, &c., in Normandy, son and heir born at Kevelioc [?Machynlleth], co. Merioneth. He joined in the rebellion against King Henry II, set on foot by Henry, the son of that King, and was taken prisoner at Alnwick, 13 July 1174. He was deprived of his Earldom, and was again in rebellion both in England and Normandy, but, in January 1177, was restored. He married, in 1169, Bertrade, then aged 14 (the King giving her away in marriage "because she was his own cousin "), daughter of Simon de Montfort, Count D'EVREUX by his 1st wife, Maud. He died at Leek, co. Stafford, 30 June 1181, aged about 34 and was buried at St. Werburg's, Chester. His widow died 1227, aged about 7I. [Complete Peerage III:167, XIV:170, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------

This nobleman, Hugh (Keveliok), 3rd Earl of Chester, joined in the rebellion of the Earl of Lancaster and the King of Scots against King Henry II, and in support of that monarch's son, Prince Henry's pretensions to the crown. In which proceeding he was taken prisoner with the Earl of Leicester at Alnwick, but obtained his freedom soon afterwards upon the king's reconciliation with the young prince. Again, however, hoisting the standard of revolt both in England and Normandy, with as little success, he was again seized and then detained a prisoner for some years. He eventually, however, obtained his liberty and restoration of his lands when public tranquility became completely reestablished some time about the 23rd year of the king's reign. His lordship m. Bertred, dau. of Simon, Earl of Evereux, in Normandy, and had issue, I. Ranulph, his successor; I. Maud, m. to David, Earl of Huntingdon, brother of William, King of Scotland, and had one son and four daus., viz., 1. John, surnamed le Scot, who s. to the Earldom of Chester, d. s. p. 7 June, 1237; 1. Margaret, m. to Alan de Galloway, and had a dau., Devorguilla, m. to John de Baliol, and was mother of John de Baliol, declared King of Scotland in the reign of Edward I; 2. Isabel, m. to Robert de Brus, and was mother of Robert de Brus, who contended for the crown of Scotland, temp. Edward I; 3. Maud, d. unm.; Ada, m. to Henry de Hastings, one of the competitors for the Scottish crown, temp. Edward I; II. Mabill, m. to William de Albini, Earl of Arundel; III. Agnes, m. to William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby; IV. Hawise, m. to Robert, son of Sayer de Quincy, Earl of Winchester.

The earl had another dau., whose legitimacy is questionable, namely, Amicia,* m. to Ralph de Mesnilwarin, justice of Chester, "a person," says Dugdale, "of very ancient family," from which union the Mainwarings, of Over Peover, in the co. Chester, derive. Dugdale considers Amicia to be a dau. of the earl by a former wife. But Sir Peter Leicester, in his Antiquities of Chester, totally denies her legitimacy. "I cannot but mislike," says he, "the boldness and ignorance of that herald who gave to Mainwaring (late of Peover), the elder, the quartering of the Earl of Chester's arms; for if he ought of right to quarter that coat, then must he be descended from a co-heir to the Earl of Chester; but he was not; for the co-heirs of Earl Hugh married four of the greatest peers in the kingdom."

The earl d. at Leeke, in Staffordshire, in 1181, and was s. by his only son, Ranulph, surnamed Blundevil (or rather Blandevil) from the place of his birth, the town of Album Monasterium, modern Oswestry, in Powys), as 4th Earl of Chester.

* Upon the question of this lady's legitimacy there was a long paper war between Sir Peter Leicester and Sir Thomas Mainwaring---and eventually the matter was referred to the judges, of whose decision Wood says, "at an assize held at Chester, 1675, the controversy was decided by the justices itinerant, who, as I have heard, adjudged the right of the matter to Mainwaring." [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, pp. 365-6, Meschines, Earls of Chester]

Hugh married Bertrade de Montfort, daughter of Simon [III] de Montfort Comte d'Évreux, Seigneur de Montfort l'Amaury and Mathilde, in 1169.^{1 2 3 4} (Bertrade de Montfort was born about 1155 ^{1 2 4} and died on 12 Jul 1227 ^{1 2 4}.)

Hugh next married.