Ranulf de Glanvill

Ranulf de Glanvill
Chief Justiciar of England
In office 1180–1189
Monarch	Henry II
Preceded by	Richard de Luci
Succeeded by	William de Mandeville Hugh de Puiset
Sheriff of Lancashire
In office 1173 – ?
Monarch	Henry II
Sheriff of Yorkshire
In office 1163–1170
Sheriff of Yorkshire
In office 1175 – ?
Justice of the King's Court
In office 1176–1180
Personal details
Born	Stratford St Andrew, Suffolk
Died	1190 Acre, Palestine
Relations	Hubert Walter, nephew

Ranulf de Glanvill (alias Glanvil, Glanville, Granville, etc., died 1190) was Chief Justiciar of England during the reign of King Henry II (1154–89) and was the probable author of Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus regni Anglie (The Treatise on the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom of England), the earliest treatise on the laws of England.

He was born c. 1112 at Stratford St Andrew near Saxmundham in Suffolk, but there is little information about his early life. He is first heard of as Sheriff of Yorkshire, Warwickshire and Leicestershire from 1163 to 1170 when, along with the majority of High Sheriffs, he was removed from office for corruption. However, in 1173 he had been appointed Sheriff of Lancashire and custodian of the honour of Richmond. In 1174, when he was Sheriff of Westmorland, he was one of the English leaders at the Battle of Alnwick, and it was to him that the king of Scotland, William the Lion, surrendered. In 1175 he was reappointed Sheriff of Yorkshire, in 1176 he became justice of the king's court and a justice itinerant in the northern circuit, and in 1180 Chief Justiciar of England. It was with his assistance that Henry II completed his famous judicial reforms, though many had been carried out before he came into office. He became the king's right-hand man, and during Henry's frequent absences was in effect regent of England. In 1176 he was also made custodian of Queen Eleanor, who was confined to her quarters in Winchester Castle.

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