Baron Cantilupe (properly Cauntelo) was a title created in the
peerage of England
The Peerage of England comprises all peerages created in the Kingdom of England before the Act of Union in 1707. In that year, the Peerages of England and Scotland were replaced by one Peerage of Great Britain. There are five peerages in t ...
by writ on 29 December 1299 addressed to ''Willelmo de Canti Lupo'' or ''Cauntelo'', ( William de Cantilupe (1262-1308) of
Greasley Castle
Greasley is a civil parish north west of Nottingham in Nottinghamshire, England. Although it is thought there was once a village called Greasley, there is no settlement of that name today as it was destroyed by the Earl of Rutland. The built up ...
Ravensthorpe Castle Ravensthorpe may refer to any of the following places.
England
*Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury in West Yorkshire
**Ravensthorpe railway station, Dewsbury
*Ravensthorpe, Northamptonshire
*Ravensthorpe, Peterborough in Cambridgeshire
*Ravensthorpe, an histor ...
The name has numerous variations in spelling (''Canteloupe, Cauntiloue, Cauntelou, Cantiloue, Cauntilieu, Cantelo, Canteloo, Cantelowe, Cantlow'', etc.) with a Latinized form ''de Cantilupo''. The standard spelling used by modern historians is "Cantilupe".
The de Cantilupe family came to England some time after the Norman Conquest of 1066, originating at one of several similarly named manors in Normandy, from which they took their name: Canteloup in Calvados, east of
Caen
Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,Chanteloup in
Bréhal
Bréhal () is a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in northwestern France.
Population
International relations
Bréhal is twinned with Lydney in Gloucestershire.
Heraldry
See also
*Communes of the Manche department
The followi ...
Cherbourg
Cherbourg (; , , ), nrf, Chèrbourg, ) is a former commune and subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It was merged into the commune of Cherbourg-Octeville on 28 Feb ...
on the tip of the Cherbourg Peninsula.
The de Cantilupe family of Greasley was a junior branch of a prominent Anglo-Norman family, descended from Sir Nicholas de Cantilupe (d.1266) who married Eustachia FitzHugh, heiress of Greasley. Sir Nicholas was the 5th and youngest son of
William II de Cantilupe
William II de Cantilupe (died 1251) (anciently ''Cantelow, Cantelou, Canteloupe, etc'', Latinised to ''de Cantilupo''), 2nd feudal baron of Eaton Bray in Bedfordshire, was an Anglo-Norman magnate.
Origins
He was the eldest son and heir of Willi ...
(d.1251), 2nd
feudal baron of Eaton Bray
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...
in Bedfordshire, steward of the household to King Henry III (whose own father
William I de Cantilupe
William I de Cantilupe (c. 1159 - 7 April 1239) (anciently ''Cantelow, Cantelou, Canteloupe, etc.'', Latinised to ''de Cantilupo'') 1st feudal baron of Eaton (Bray) in Bedfordshire, England, was an Anglo-Norman royal administrator who served ...
(died 1239) had been steward of the household to King John, father of Henry III). Sir Nicholas's uncle was Walter de Cantilupe (1195-1266),
Bishop of Worcester
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
Bishop of Hereford
The Bishop of Hereford is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Hereford in the Province of Canterbury.
The episcopal see is centred in the Hereford, City of Hereford where the bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is in the Hereford Cathedr ...
, who was canonised as a saint in 1320. The senior line died out in the male line in 1273 on the death of the 22 year-old George de Cantilupe (1251-1273), 4th feudal baron of Eaton Bray, Lord of Abergavenny, who had inherited vast Welsh estates from his mother Eva de Briouze. In 1349, long after the extinction of the senior line of the family, it was Nicholas de Cantilupe, 3rd Baron Cantilupe (c.1301-1355) of Greasley, who hosted the important ceremony at
Hereford Cathedral
Hereford Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of Hereford in Hereford, England.
A place of worship has existed on the site of the present building since the 8th century or earlier. The present building was begun in 1079. S ...
required to translate the relics of his great-uncle Saint Thomas de Cantilupe over to the new shrine prepared for them.
The 1st Baron signed and sealed the Barons' Letter of 1301 to the pope (as ''Dominus de Ravensthorpe'', " lord (of the manor) of Ravensthorpe") and was present at the Siege of
Caerlaverock Castle
Caerlaverock Castle is a moated triangular castle first built in the 13th century. It is located on the southern coast of Scotland, south of Dumfries, on the edge of the Caerlaverock National Nature Reserve. Caerlaverock was a stronghold of th ...
in Scotland in 1300, when his armorials, a version of the arms of the senior line differenced by a fess vair (as seen on his surviving 1301 seal), were blazoned in verse in the Caerlaverock Roll. He married Eve de Boltby, heiress of Boltby and of Ravensthorpe Castle within that manor, and is believed to be represented by the heavily restored recumbent effigy of a knight in Felixkirk Church, adjacent to Ravensthorpe Castle in Yorkshire (alternately interpreted as John de Walkyngham (d.1284)).
He was succeeded by his eldest son by Eve de Boltby, William de Cantilupe, 2nd Baron Cantilupe (1293-c.1321), who was involved in the murder of Piers Gaveston, favourite of King Edward II. In 1313, William begged king Edward on bended knee for forgiveness, after which he relinquished his estates to his younger brother, Nicholas. William died at the age of 28, unmarried. His younger brother Nicholas succeeded him as the 3rd Baron Cantilupe (c.1301-1355). In 1343, Nicholas founded Beauvale Priory within his deer park at Greasley, with the consent of his distant cousin William La Zouche, Archbishop of York (one of the two co-heirs of the de Cantilupe senior line was a member of the Zouche family, descended from one of Archbishop William's two sisters) on the death of George de Cantilupe (1251-1273), 4th feudal baron of Eaton Bray, Lord of Abergavenny.
Amongst the many Cantilupe manors they inherited was
Harringworth
Harringworth is a village and civil parish in North Northamptonshire, England. It is located close to the border with Rutland, on the southern bank of the River Welland, and around north of Corby. At the 2001 Census, the population of the pa ...
which they made their seat. (See
Baron Zouche
Baron Zouche is a title which has been created three times, all in the Peerage of England.
Genealogy
The la Zouche family descended from Alan la Zouche (d. 1190), lord of the manor of North Molton in North Devon, England, originally called ...
"of Haryngworth")). He served as Governor of Berwick from 1335. He was buried in
Lincoln Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral, Lincoln Minster, or the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln and sometimes St Mary's Cathedral, in Lincoln, England, is a Grade I listed cathedral and is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Lincoln. Constructio ...
, where his severely mutilated recumbent effigy still survives atop a chest tomb displaying the arms of Cantilupe of Greasley. He disinherited his son (by his first wife "Tiphane") William de Cantilupe, 4th Baron Cantilupe (1325-c.1375), last in the male line who was predeceased by his two sons, Nicholas de Cantilupe (1342-1371) of Greasley, eldest son and heir of his grandfather, slain at
Avignon
Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region of So ...
petitioning the pope to reverse the annulment of his marriage obtained by his wife (Katherine Paynel), supposedly on the grounds of impotence. He died without issue, his younger brother William de Cantilupe (1344-1375) becoming his heir, but he was murdered by his cook and squire, possibly at the behest of his wife Maud Neville. The murder became a much-celebrated criminal lawsuit, see Murder of William de Cantilupe.see also 2012 youtube video of Frederik Pedersen (Senior Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen) discussing the cas /ref>
*G. E. Cokayne, '' The Complete Peerage'', n.s.¶, vol.3, pp. 111–116
*Sanders, I.J. English Baronies: A Study of their Origin and Descent 1086–1327, Oxford, 1960, pp. 39–40