Hugh de Neville Hugh de Neville ( died 1234 ; sometimes Hugh Neville ) was the Chief Forester under the kings , John , and of England . He was also the sheriff for a number of counties over his lifetime . Related to a number of other royal officials as well as a bishop , de Neville was a member of Prince Richard ' s household . After Richard became king in 1189 de Neville continued in his service , and accompanied him on the Third Crusade . De Neville remained in royal service following Richard ' s death in 1199 and the ascension of King John to the throne , becoming one of the new king ' s favourites and often gambling with him . He was named in " Magna Carta " as one of John ' s principal advisors , considered by a medieval chronicler to be one of King John ' s " evil councillors " . He deserted John after the French invasion of England in 1216 , but returned to pledge his loyalty to John ' s son after the latter ' s accession to the throne later that year . De Neville continued his royal service until late in his life , dying in 1234 . Early life and career . De Neville was the son of Ralph de Neville , a son of Alan de Neville , who was also Chief Forester . Hugh had a brother , Roger de Neville , who was part of Hugh ' s household from 1202 to 1213 , when Roger was given custody of Rockingham Castle by King John . Another brother was William , who was given some of Hugh ' s lands in 1217 . Hugh , Roger , and William were related to a number of other royal officials and ecclesiastics , most notable among them Geoffrey de Neville , who was a and Ralph Neville , who became Bishop of Chichester . Hugh de Neville employed Ralph de Neville at the start of Ralph ' s career , and the two appear to have remained on good terms throughout the rest of Hugh ' s life . Hugh de Neville was a member of the household of Prince Richard , later , and also served Richard ' s father King at the end of Henry ' s reign , administering two baronies for the king . De Neville accompanied Richard on the Third Crusade ; he was one of the few knights who fought with the king on 5 August 1192 outside the walls of Jaffa , when the king and a small force of knights and crossbowmen fought off a surprise attack by Saladin ' s forces . It was famously reported that during the engagement Saladin sent Richard two remounts in the thick of battle , so that Richard would not be forced to fight on foot . De Neville ' s account of events was a source for the chronicler Ralph of Coggeshall ' s entries on Richard ' s activities in the Third Crusade . In 1194 de Neville acquired the wardship of Joan de Cornhill , daughter of Henry de Cornhill , and married her four years later . He was given custody of the town of Marlborough in 1194 , and in 1196 was named as Sheriff of Oxfordshire . He was also named in 1197 as Sheriff of Essex and Sheriff of Hertfordshire , offices he held until some time in 1200 . Chief Forester . De Neville was appointed Chief Forester under King Richard I in 1198 . As the official in charge of the royal forest s , de Neville was one of the four great officers of the state : the others were the justiciar , the chancellor , and the treasurer . The forester was responsible for enforcing the forest law – the special law that applied to the royal forests – and presided over the forest justices , who held forest eyre s . There was also a special forest exchequer , or forest treasury . In 1198 de Neville presided over an Assize of the Forest that was described by the chronicler Roger of Howden as greatly oppressive . The revenues could be considerable ; in 1198 the forest eyre brought in £1 , 980 . De Neville stated in 1298 that over the previous six and a half years the amount raised by the various revenues of the forests had been £15 , 000 ; in 1212 it had been £4 , 486 . Forest law was resented by the king ' s subjects not just for its severity but also for the large extent of the country that it encompassed . It covered not just woodlands , but by the end of the 12th century it covered between a quarter and a third of the kingdom . This extent allowed the Norman and Angevin kings to use the harsh punishments of forest law to extract large sums of money for the government . De Neville continued to hold the office of Chief Forester under King John , and was often the king ' s gambling partner . He was a frequent witness on John ' s royal charters . Under John , de Neville was named to the offices of Sheriff of Hampshire in 1210 , and Sheriff of Cumberland , offices of which he was deprived in 1212 . He was also reappointed to the sheriffdoms of Essex and Hertfordshire in 1202 until 1203 . In 1210 John fined de Neville 1 , 000 marks because he had allowed Peter des Roches , the Bishop of Winchester , to enclose some hunting grounds without royal permission ; although des Roches was close to the king , that was an infringement of the royal forests . De Neville ' s large fine was likely a warning that the king was serious about enforcing the forest law , but it was eventually rescinded . In 1213 de Neville was placed in charge of the seaports along the coast from Cornwall to Hampshire , but some time in 1213 it appears that he fell from favour , although the circumstances are unknown . A fine of 6 , 000 marks was assessed on him for allowing two prisoners to escape , as well as other unrecorded offences , although the king did subsequently remit 1 , 000 marks of the fine . In 1215 de Neville lost his office of forester . De Neville was present at Runnymede for the signing of " Magna Carta " and was mentioned in the preamble as one of King John ' s councillors , as well as serving as a witness to the document . Roger of Wendover , a chronicler writing in 1211 , listed de Neville as one of King John ' s " evil councillors " . John ' s later reign and service under King Henry III . John ' s style of ruling and his defeats on the continent in 1214 had alienated many of his nobles . Initially , a faction of the barons forced John to agree to " Magna Carta " to secure less capricious government from the king . John , however , after agreeing to their demands , secured the annulment of the charter from the papacy in late 1215 . The opposition magnates then invited Prince Louis to take the English throne , and the French prince arrived in England with an army in May 1216 . De Neville joined the rebel barons in 1216 , shortly after Prince Louis of France invaded England . De Neville surrendered Marlborough Castle , a royal castle in his custody , to Prince Louis in mid - 1216 . Louis had not besieged the castle , and it appears that de Neville took the initiative in making overtures to the prince . When John heard of the change of sides , he confiscated all of de Neville ' s lands held directly from the king on 1216 . On 4 September 1216 the king further confiscated lands belonging to other rebels that had been granted to de Neville before the surrender of Marlborough ; some were re - granted to de Neville ' s brother William . Hugh de Neville ' s son , Herbert , also joined the rebels . After King John ' s death in October 1216 , de Neville and his son made their peace with the new king , Henry III , John ' s son . Both men had their lands restored in 1217 , but the offices that the elder de Neville had held were not returned quickly . Custody of some royal forests was returned by 1220 , but the office of Chief Forester was not returned until some time later . In 1218 de Neville was supposed to have had the forest of Rockingham returned to his custody , but William de Fors , the Count of Aumale , refused to return it . It was not until 1220 that de Neville managed to recover his custody of Rockingham forest . By 1224 de Neville was once more Chief Forester , but he never regained the power and influence that he had held under John . When he lost the office the second time is unclear . The historian C . R . Young states that he held the office until his death in 1234 when it passed to his son John , but Daniel Crook , writing in the " Oxford Dictionary of National Biography " , claims that de Neville lost the forester office in 1229 , replaced by John of Monmouth and Brian de Lisle . He also served as Sheriff of Lincolnshire during 1227 . Records and lands . De Neville ' s household records for 1207 still survive , detailing his itinerary for the year ; in one eight - week period his household visited 11 different towns . His wife pledged in 1204 to pay the king 200 chickens for the right to sleep one night with her husband , an obligation recorded in the royal records . The historian Daniel Crook suggests it shows that Joan was one of the barons ' wives who attracted King John ' s sexual attentions . De Neville inherited lands in Lincolnshire worth one half of a knight ' s fee . These were augmented with gifts from Richard and John , much of which were in Essex . He also acquired lands in Surrey and Somerset , and his marriage to Joan brought properties in Essex . Joan ' s lands also brought de Neville into conflict with Falkes de Breauté , the husband of Joan ' s younger sister and co - heiress , and the two brothers - in - law were involved in lawsuits over their wives ' lands for more than five years . Joan and her sister were also co - heiresses to the barony of Courcy , in right of their mother Alice de Courcy . Death and legacy . De Neville ' s first wife , Joan de Cornhill , died after December 1224 . He remarried some time before April 1230 to Beatrice , the widow of Ralph de Fay and one of five daughters of Stephen of Turnham . Joan and de Neville had at least three sons – John , Henry , and Herbert . De Neville also had a daughter named Joan . De Neville died in 1234 , although his death was erroneously recorded by Matthew Paris as occurring in 1222 . De Neville was buried at Waltham Abbey , of which he had been a patron . Besides Waltham , he also made gifts to Christ Church Priory in Canterbury , Bullington Priory in Lincolnshire , and . The historian Sidney Painter said of de Neville ' s career during John ' s reign that " a strong argument could be advanced for the thesis that the royal official who wielded the most actual power during John ' s reign was the chief forester , Hugh de Neville " . Another historian , J . R . Maddicott , states that de Neville was head of " one of the most detested branches of royal administration " .