Editing Ranulf Flambard (section)

==Death and legacy==
[[File:Durham View from Cathedral.JPG|thumb|upright=1.3|left|Modern view from Durham Cathedral looking towards [[Durham Castle]] across [[Palace Green]]]]
Ranulf worked to complete the [[Durham Cathedral|cathedral]]<ref name=DNB/> which his predecessor, [[William de St-Calais]], had begun;<ref name=Adams200>Adams ''History of Western Art'' p. 200</ref> fortified Durham with a wall around [[Durham Castle]],<ref name=Feudal167/> built [[Norham Castle]] to help defend the [[River Tweed|Tweed River]];<ref name=Pettifer193>Pettifer ''English Castles'' p. 193</ref><ref name=Bartlett281>Bartlett ''England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings'' p. 281</ref>{{efn|This was probably a timber and earth castle and was rebuilt in stone by [[Hugh de Puiset]], a later bishop.<ref>Kerr ''Norman Sites'' p. 174</ref>}} and endowed the collegiate church of Christchurch, Hampshire. He built or expanded other churches, including the one at Christchurch in Hampshire which he had endowed, and St. Martin's in [[Dover]].<ref name=Poole260>Poole ''Domesday Book to Magna Carta'' p. 260</ref> The first stone bridge at Durham was completed by his instruction in 1120, the so-called [[Framwellgate Bridge]],<ref name=DNB/> a bridge described as "of wonderful workmanship."<ref name=Bartlett364>Bartlett ''England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings'' p. 364</ref> He cleared and levelled the Palace Green in Durham between the castle and the cathedral.<ref name=Feudal174>Barlow ''Feudal Kingdom of England'' pp. 174–175</ref> While the chroniclers mainly condemned Ranulf for his morals, his own cathedral chapter held him in high esteem because of his building activities and his defence of the rights of Durham.<ref name=Chibnall71>Chibnall ''Anglo-Norman England'' p. 71</ref> Although he usurped some of the income of the cathedral chapter, the money from those rights was used to complete the cathedral rebuilding, and later restored the income to the monks as well as increasing the endowment.<ref name=Dawtry91/> At his death, the cathedral walls were complete up to "the covering", which probably means the vault instead of the roof.<ref name=Snape22>Snape "Documentary Evidence" ''Medieval Art and Architecture'' p. 22</ref>

Ranulf attracted scholars to his household and reformed the administration of the diocese by dividing it into archdeaconries.<ref name=Feudal150/> Ranulf oversaw the translation of [[Cuthbert of Lindisfarne|Saint Cuthbert]]'s relics to a new tomb in a lavish ceremony. He was also a patron to the hermit [[Godric of Finchale|Saint Godric]], whom he befriended.<ref name=Church73>Barlow ''English Church 1066–1154'' pp. 73–74</ref>

One of Ranulf's brothers was [[Fulcher]], who was Bishop of Lisieux in 1101.<ref name=Spear5>Spear "Norman Empire and the Secular Clergy" ''Journal of British Studies'' p. 5</ref>{{efn|Fulcher's name has sometimes been given as William.<ref>Schriber ''Dilemma of Arnulf of Lisieux'' p. 26</ref>}} Another brother was Osbern, who was a royal clerk for Rufus,<ref name=Rufus150>Barlow ''William Rufus'' p. 150</ref> and the last brother was Geoffrey.<ref name=Rufus193/> Fulcher may have been appointed bishop to enable Ranulf to exploit the see while Ranulf was in exile in Normandy.<ref name=Schriber26>Schriber ''Dilemma of Arnulf of Lisieux'' pp. 26–27</ref> Ranulf had a son, Thomas of Lisieux, who also held the see of Lisieux,<ref name=Spear5/> right after his uncle. Like his uncle, he may have been appointed as a placeholder to allow his father to appropriate the revenues of Lisieux.<ref name=Schriber26/> Ranulf's mistress was an Englishwoman named Alveva or Ælfgifu, who was the mother of at least two of his sons.<ref name=Rufus193/><ref name=Bartlett567/> Alveva's sons were Ranulf, who was an archdeacon, and Elias.<ref name=DP354>Keats-Rohan ''Domesday People'' p. 354</ref> When Ranulf became bishop, he married her to a [[burgess (title)|burgess]] of [[Huntingdon]], but remained on good terms with both Alveva and her spouse, often staying with them when he travelled away from Durham.<ref name=Rufus193/><ref name=Bartlett567>Bartlett ''England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings'' p. 567</ref> Alveva was the aunt of [[Christina of Markyate]], and Christina is said to have rebuffed the bishop's attempts to seduce her in 1114.<ref name=Rufus193/><ref name=Govern159fn>Richardson and Sayles ''Governance of Mediaeval England'' p. 159 footnote7</ref> Alveva and Ranulf's son Elias held a prebend at London and was a royal clerk under Henry I. Ranulf's son Ralf was parson of Middleham and held a prebend at London too. He was a member of Archbishop [[Theobald of Bec|Theobald]] of Canterbury's household after 1138.<ref name=Rufus193/> Some of Ranulf's sons were educated at Laon under [[William de Corbeil]], who was one of Ranulf's clerks.<ref name=HenryI23>Hollister ''Henry I'' p. 23</ref> One of Ranulf's nephews, Ralf, was archdeacon of Northumberland and during the reign of King [[Stephen of England|Stephen]] helped to hold the diocese of Durham loyal to Stephen.<ref name=Feudal221>Barlow ''Feudal Kingdom of England'' p. 221</ref> Other nephews were Osbert, who was sheriff of Durham, and Robert, Richard, and William who held fiefs.<ref name=Rufus193/> Unrelated to Ranulf, William of Corbeil became one of Ranulf's household clerks and was eventually elected Archbishop of Canterbury in 1123.<ref name=Church73/>

Ranulf died on 5 September 1128.<ref name=Handbook241/> He was buried in his chapter house in Durham, where his tomb was opened in 1874.<ref name=DNB/> His skeleton is still extant, and examination of it reveals that he would have been about {{height|ft=5|in=9}} tall. He was fond of clothes and was always richly dressed. While he was efficient in collecting the royal revenues, he was generous to his own men and, later in life, gave liberally to the poor. His crozier and signet ring were found in his grave, and they were rather plain.<ref name=Rufus193/> An oddity of his grave was that he was buried on top of a layer of charcoal that was laid over alternating layers of lime and dirt.<ref name=Carver13>Carver "Early Medieval Durham" ''Medieval Art and Architecture'' p. 13</ref>

Ranulf's reputation has suffered because of the hostility of the monastic chroniclers to both himself and to Rufus.<ref name=Feudal150/><ref name=Civil321>Hollister "Anglo-Norman Civil War" ''English Historical Review'' pp. 321–322</ref> Many chroniclers decried his financial ruthlessness and his lax morals.<ref name=Rufus193/><ref name=Church72>Barlow ''English Church 1066–1154'' p. 72</ref> Orderic described Ranulf's career as "addicted to feasts and carousals and lusts; cruel and ambitious, prodigal to his own adherents, but rapacious in seizing the goods of other men".<ref name=Turner107/> Besides the chroniclers, Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury wrote to Pope [[Pope Paschal II|Paschal II]], while Ranulf was in exile, describing Ranulf as "a rent collector of the worst possible reputation."<ref name=QVaughn239>Quoted in Vaughn ''Anselm of Bec and Robert of Meulan'' p. 239</ref> William of Malmesbury said that Flambard was a "plunderer of the rich, destroyer of the poor".<ref name=Dawtry91>Quoted in Dawtry "Benedictine Revival in the North" ''Studies in Church History 18'' p. 91</ref> Victorian historians, including [[Edward Augustus Freeman|E. A. Freeman]], vilified Ranulf, and Freeman especially held that Ranulf was a "malignant genius".<ref name=DNB/><ref name=QDNB>Quoted in Mason "Flambard, Ranulf" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''</ref> Modern historians have embraced a more moderate view, starting with [[Richard Southern]] in 1933.<ref name=DNB/> The historian David Bates felt that he, along with his successor Roger of Salisbury, "were essentially the chief managers of the king's finance and justice".<ref name=Bates11>Bates "Origins of the Justiciarship" ''Proceedings of the Battle Conference IV'' p. 11</ref>