A fact from Alan de Neville (forester) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 23 January 2016 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that King Henry II of England supposedly said of Alan de Neville, his chief forester, that an abbey could have his body, the king would have his money, and "the demons of hell his soul"?
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"In 1153 Neville was serving the future King Henry." As a butler, or some other function?
Source says "Having served Count Waleran during most of Stephen's reign, about 1153 Neville transferred his allegiance to the Angevins," ... so no clue. We're often totally at sea with some of these more obscure royal officials, especially early in their careers. Ealdgyth - Talk13:59, 21 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
"...after Neville decided to go on crusade." Maybe link to the specific crusade he was involved in?
He never went. It was not unknown for people to say they were going to go on crusade and then never actually go. This was usually to get some clergyman off their case. A famous example is Henry II of England, who spent much of his later reign claiming he was going to go on crusade "real soon now", but somehow never did. Ealdgyth - Talk13:59, 21 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
"Neville had at least four sons – Ives, Thomas,[4] Ralph,[23] and Geoffrey…" I'm guessing none of these were born outside his marriage?
It would be nice to have an image, some ideas would be of King Henry or perhaps a castle or forest Neville presided over.
Marlborough was in ruins by 1403. Corfe is mostly ruins now, and had extensive rebuilding after Alan's time. Most of the "forests" aren't actually forests as we think of them - they weren't big swaths of tall trees, but instead areas, often with lots of cultivation, where the kings declared that forest law held sway. All the Anglo-Norman kings were keen hunters, and they passed on the habit to the later English kings too. And we lack a good contemporary portrait of Henry II. I try to avoid using later "reconstructions" of items or portraits as they can be misleading to readers. I assume that Alan was buried at Battle, but there is no sure proof of this, and even if there was, little remains there that would have been contemporary with his time. Ealdgyth - Talk13:59, 21 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
