Baron Cantilupe

[11] Sir Nicholas was the 5th and youngest son of William II de Cantilupe (d.1251), 2nd feudal baron of Eaton Bray[12] in Bedfordshire, steward of the household to King Henry III (whose own father William I de Cantilupe (died 1239) had been steward of the household to King John, father of Henry III).

[13] The 1st Baron signed and sealed the Barons' Letter of 1301 to the pope (as Dominus de Ravensthorpe, "lord (of the manor) of Ravensthorpe") and was present at the Siege of Caerlaverock Castle in Scotland in 1300, when his armorials, a version of the arms of the senior line differenced by a fess vair (as seen on his surviving 1301 seal), were blazoned in verse in the Caerlaverock Roll.

In 1343, Nicholas founded Beauvale Priory[16] within his deer park at Greasley, with the consent of his distant cousin William La Zouche, Archbishop of York (one of the two co-heirs of the de Cantilupe senior line was a member of the Zouche family, descended from one of Archbishop William's two sisters) on the death of George de Cantilupe (1251-1273), 4th feudal baron of Eaton Bray, Lord of Abergavenny.

He was buried in Lincoln Cathedral, where his severely mutilated recumbent effigy still survives atop a chest tomb displaying the arms of Cantilupe of Greasley.

[19] He died without issue, his younger brother William de Cantilupe (1344-1375) becoming his heir, but he was murdered by his cook and squire, possibly at the behest of his wife Maud Neville.