Neville family
| House of Neville | |
|---|---|
 Armorial of Neville: Gules, a saltire argent |
|
| Country | Kingdom of England, United Kingdom |
| Titles | |
| Founder | Uhtred |
| Current head | Christopher Nevill, 6th Marquess of Abergavenny |
The House of Neville (also the House of Nevill) is a noble house of early medieval origin, which was a leading force in English politics in the later Middle Ages. The family became one of the two major powers in northern England along with the House of Percy and played a central role in the Wars of the Roses.
The Neville family is first attested decades after the Norman conquest of England and Domesday Book, which did not cover County Durham, the area of their earliest recorded landholdings. Following the conquest most of the existing aristocracy of England were dispossessed and replaced by a new Norman ruling elite, but the male line of the Nevilles was of native origin, and the family may well have been part of the pre-conquest aristocracy of Northumbria. The continuation of landowning among such native families was more common in the far north of England than further south.
The family can be traced back to one Uhtred, whose son Dolfin is first attested in 1129, holding the manor of Staindrop (formerly Stainthorp) in County Durham, which shared with a vast church estate and some limited common in 14,000 acres (5,700 ha). This locality remained the principal seat of the family until 1569, their chief residence being at Raby in the north of the parish of Staindrop, where in the 14th century they built the present Raby Castle. Dolfin was succeeded by his son Meldred and he in turn by his son Robert fitz Meldred, who married the Norman heiress Isabel de Néville. Their son Geoffrey inherited the estates of his mother's family as well as his father's, and adopted their surname, which was borne by his descendants thereafter. In Norman-ruled England a Norman surname was more prestigious and socially advantageous than an English one. Already before the Néville marriage the family was a major power in the area: "In the extent of their landed possessions this family, holding on obdurately to native names for a full hundred years after 1066, was pre-eminent among the lay proprietors within the bishopric of Durham during the twelfth century".
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Wikipedia