A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



defeated the High Steward, concentrated such a force on the Scotch centre 

 that David's troops were overwhelmed and he himself was taken prisoner by 

 John Coupland after a desperate struggle.'^" 



The victory of Neville's Cross, coupled with the ravages of the plague 

 in Scotland, helped to secure peace for Durham during the remainder of 

 Hatfield's reign. The bishop's relations with the central government were 

 good. In 1374 the king levied a subsidy in the Palatinate without asking 

 any leave or licence, but he afterwards granted letters patent that the pro- 

 cedure should not be treated as a precedent — a course which the central 

 government generally adopted when it was convenient to ignore the privi- 

 leges of the franchise.^" 



With the degradation of Bishop Fordham (1382-8), Hatfield's 

 successor and one of the principal advisers of Richard II, from the see of 

 Durham to that of Ely we enter on the great struggle between the houses of 

 York and Lancaster, which was to bring into prominence the Durham family 

 of Neville. 



The first member of the family to be connected with the Palatinate was 

 Geoffrey Neville, who in the twelfth century married Emma Bulmer the 

 heiress of Brancepeth. Isabel, their daughter and heiress, married Robert 

 the son of Maldred lord of Raby, and the issue of their marriage, who took 

 the name of Neville, became the lords of Raby and Brancepeth. Robert 

 Neville, who died in 1282, was the first member of the family who comes 

 into prominence as a Border soldier. Though possessed of extensive estates 

 both within and without the Palatinate, it was not till the middle of the 

 fourteenth century that they began to occupy the same position in the 

 Palatinate which the Balliol family did in the thirteenth century. In the 

 Quo Warranto proceedings at the end of the latter century the only franchise 

 belonging to the Nevilles was the comparatively unimportant one of free 

 warren, which stands in striking contrast with those claimed by the Balliols 

 and the Bruces, and also with the numerous privileges which later appertained 

 to the earls of Westmorland. In the fourteenth century three men of 

 exceptional ability successively became head of the family, viz. : (i) Ralph 

 (died 1367), the commander-in-chief at the battle of Neville's Cross ; (2) John 

 his son, who died in 1388, a great soldier and supporter of Edward III ; and 

 (3) Ralph son of John and first earl of Westmorland, the most influential 

 man in the north. At first a supporter of Richard II, who in 1397 created 

 him earl of Westmorland for his assistance when the duke of Gloucester and 

 the other lords appellant were brought to trial, he was one of the first to join 

 Henry IV when he landed in Yorkshire in 1399. Thenceforward he was 



'™ The two principal authorities for the battle of Neville's Cross are the letter from the prior and con- 

 vent to Bishop Hatfield : Letters from Northern Reg. (Rolls Ser.), 387 ; and Chronicon de Lanercost (ed. Maitland 

 Soc), 348. The whole of the evidence has been most carefully considered by Canon Brown in his two 

 articles on the battle in the Ushaiv Mag. i, 213 ; ii, 35. See also in an article by Robert White, Arch. Aeliana, 

 i, 271. It is difficult to estimate the numbers engaged, but taking into consideration that the centre was 

 composed of the bishopric men, the right of the Northumbrians, and that the whole force was able to march 

 from Bishop Auckland to Neville's Cross, some eight miles, including the passage of the Wear, before dawn 

 on 17 October, the numbers cannot have been large. It is to the capture of the Scottish king that the battle 

 owes its celebrity. In regard to the question whether the High Steward retreated with his division before or 

 after the capture of David, it is submitted that the fact that Coupland, his captor, was a Northumbrian and 

 therefore belonged to Percy's division, or possibly to Roos's division, which were engaged with the High 

 Steward's division till it retired, indicates that the High Steward retreated before his king had been captured. 



'*' Script. Ties (Surt. Soc), App. No. cxxv ; Lapsley, op. cit. 298. 



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