Ranulf de Glanvill

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.

[4] It was with his assistance that Henry II completed his famous judicial reforms, though many had been carried out before he came into office.

After the death of Henry in 1189, Glanvill was removed from his office by Richard I on 17 September 1189[4] and imprisoned until he had paid a ransom, according to one authority, of £15,000.

Ranulf married Bertha de Valoignes, daughter of Theobald de Valoines, lord of the manor of Parham, Suffolk,[9] by whom he had three daughters:[10] Perhaps at the instigation of Henry II, Glanvill wrote or oversaw the writing of Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus regni Anglie (The Treatise on the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom of England), a practical discourse on the forms of procedure in the king's court, which was often known simply as Glanvill.

[14] As the source of our knowledge regarding the earliest form of the curia regis, and for the information it affords regarding ancient customs and laws, it is of great value to the student of English history.

It is now generally agreed that the work of Glanvill is of earlier date than the Scottish law book known from its first words as Regiam Majestatem, which bears a close resemblance to his.