Poisoning

Ranulf was not to see the death of Stephen and the succession of Henry II. In 1153 Ranulf survived an attempt at murder by poison by one of his arch-enemies, William Peverel of Nottingham (and possibly also his own wife), when he was guest at Peverel’s house (some say at Peverel Castle). There is an interesting link to a later earl (Ranulph) through William Peverel's cousin Miletta Peveril and her son Fulk FilzWaryn (see here for some background).

Ranulf had seized land from Peverel and Peverel had been one of the Magnates who had worked for Ranulf's imprisonment in 1146. Moreover, in 1153 (that is, before ascending the throne) Henry of Anjou (later Henry II) had granted some of Peverel's lands to Ranulph Earl of Chester. William had allegedly poisoned the wine that Ranulf and his men had drunk. Three of Ranulf’s men died but the Earl "recovered", to die (at Castle Gresley in Derbyshire) on the 16 December 1153. The suggestion has been made that the earl died an excommunicate but just why is not clear. Stephen lasted until 25 October 1154.

William Camden records the poisoning in his history of Nottinghamshire, and mentions the rumour that William Peverel's grandfather was the illegitimate son of William the Conqueror:

* William surnamed the Conqueror appointed over this shire William Peverell his base sonne, not with the title of Earle, but of Lord of Nottingham: who had a sonne that died before his father, and he likewise had a sonne of the same name, whom King Henry the Second disinherited for that hee went about to poison Ranulph Earle of Chester.

One other notable event of 1153, was that Duke Henry granted Ranulf Staffordshire. After his death, the Earl’s son and heir Hugh was allowed to inherit Ranulf’s lands as held in 1135 (that is, before the original fall-out with the King), and other honours bestowed upon Ranulf were revoked. This was to lead to problems in 1173 when the next Earl would revolt against his king. Ranulph wss buried in St Werburg's Abbey, Chester, now the Cathedral.

In 1155, William Peverel, was dispossessed of his estates by the recently crowned King Henry II, for conspiring with Maud, Countess of Chester, to poison the late Earl. Given that William Peverel was a staunch supporter of Henry's old rival Stephen, the charge of poisoning the Earl of Chester (and witchcraft was thrown in) was particularly convenient for Henry. Notably, Henry himself does not specifically charge Peverel with the poisoning, but this cause is given in the Chronicon Roffense, Register of Dunstable, and by Matthew Paris, Matthew of Westminster, and Gervase of Dover. William disappeared — it is said that he first took the cowl and hid himself in a monastery:

* fearing, the severity of, the King for that foul crime, he fled to a Monastery of his own Patronage (which doubtless was Lenton), where he caused himself to be shorn a Monk; but being privily advertised of King Henrie coming that way from York, he quitted his habit, and privily fled away, leaving all his Castles and possessions to the King's Pleasure. (Dugdale)

* that this William PEVEREL, fearing the rigour of the king, betook himself first to the monastery at Lenton, founded by the elder PEVEREL, and not thinking himself safe there, as Henry was on his journey to York, he quitted the habit he had newly taken upon him and fled. The king seized the major part of his possessions, and amongst others of his castles that of Nottingham, which he first granted to Ranulph, Earl of Chester, but soon afterwards had that and the rest of PEVEREL's lands in his own possession again, and kept them in his hands for a considerable number of years. (Gervase of Dover)

— and Henry bestowed the forfeited Peverel estates upon his son, the future King John. William Peverel, is not heard of again after 1155. Curiously, it has been suggested by Anne Gilchrist that Ranulf (or Randal) III of Chester, was a possible source of the "name" in English and Scottish forms of the ballad "Lord Randal" which contains the lines "I fear you are poisoned, Lord Randall, my son",(Journal of the Folk Song Society, vol. III, 1908, pp. 43-4). Unfortunately, there is no evidence that the actual ballad is that old although it was reworked (in 1963) by Bob Dylan into "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall".

https://www.genealogieonline.nl/family-tree-cromer-russell-buck-pratt/P28853.php