Ranulf De Gernons, Earl of Chester, 1129–1153

It is with the greatest diffidence that I venture to present a paper upon a subject which has attracted the attention of a line of eminent historians and genealogists, but still remains one of the most obscure in twelfth-century history. No subject could be more tantalising for an historian than the career of Ranulf de Gernons, fourth earl of Chester. Its importance is manifest in the history of the palatine earldom; in the history of a great Welsh resurgence; in the history of Stephen's England, where the extent of the earl's hereditary possessions and his policy of self-aggrandisement and consistent inconstancy made him a dominating factor in the political and military situation; and above all it is of absorbing interest to the student of feudalism.