Ralph de Greystoke, 1st Baron Greystoke

Ralph de Greystoke, 1st Baron Greystoke, (15 August 1299–14 July 1323) was an English peer and landowner.

Life

Greystoke was the son of Robert fitz Ralph, the second son of Ralph Fitzwilliam. William, Robert's elder brother, predeceased their father, and Robert succeeded as Ralph Fitzwilliam's heir, when Fitzwilliam died between November 1316 and February 1317.

Little is known of Ralph de Greystoke's life. On 15 May 1321, he was summoned to parliament, taking the surname of his paternal great-grandmother (Ralph Fitzwilliam's mother), and became the 1st Baron Greystoke. In March 1322, he fought in the Battle of Boroughbridge, on the side of Edward II, against Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster. He was also 'a principal' in the arrest of Sir Gilbert de Middleton for treason, at Mitford Castle, in Northumberland.

He obtained dispensation from Pope John XXII to marry Alice Audley (b. 1300 d. 1358), daughter of Hugh Audley 1st lord Audley of Stratton Audley & Isolt de Mortimer/Iseult de Mortimer, by whom he was related 'within the third and fourth degrees' of consanguinity. His son and heir, William Greystoke, was born at the family home in Grimthorpe, on 6 January 1321. Ralph de Greystoke died, of a possible poisoning arranged by Sir Gilbert de Middleton, on 14 July 1323, at Gateshead, County Durham. He was buried at Newminster Abbey, Northumberland.

Greystoke's widow, Alice, remarried to Ralph Neville, 2nd Baron Neville de Raby, who held guardianship of the Greystoke estates for William, Ralph Greystoke's heir, who was a child when his father died.