Nicholas de Crioll (Cryoyll, Kerrial or Kyriel) (died c. February 1272), of a family seated in Kent, was Constable of Dover Castle and Keeper of the Coast during the early 1260s. His kinsman Bertram de Criol (died 1256) had distinguished himself in these offices during the preceding 20 years and both were near predecessors of the eminent Warden of the Cinque Ports, Stephen de Pencester (of Penshurst).
Kinship Although Nicholas de Crioll is often taken to be (and may well have been) a son of Bertram de Criol, the fact is not overtly stated. In 1242 King Henry granted the manor of Croxton, Leicestershire, to Bertram.Cal. Charter Rolls, 1226-1257, p. 274. The place was of special significance to the king as his father King John's heart was buried in Croxton Abbey, and he made many acts of patronage towards it.Cal. Charter Rolls, 1226-57, p. 463.'House of Premonstratensian canons: The abbey of Croxton Kerrial', in W.G. Hoskins and R.A. McKinley (eds), A History of the County of Leicestershire Vol. 2 (VCH/HMSO, London 1954), pp. 28-31 (British History Online, accessed 7 October 2017). By 1246 the manor had passed (no doubt in token of a near kinship) to Nicholas de Crioll, who was granted a market and fair there,Cal. Charter Rolls, 1226-1257, p. 311. and the village took its name Croxton Kerrial from the Crioll or Kyriel family's connection with it. Bertram de Criol's son Sir John de Criol (died 1264) is, however, referred to as his "son and heir",Cal. Patent Rolls, 1247-1258, p. 520, concerning a suit over a property in London. and John had a younger brother Sir Simon de Criol (died 1267), his fellow-juror in the inquisition upon Thomas de Normanville in 1245-46:'Inquisitiones post mortem (contd.)', Archaeologia Cantiana II (1859), p. 281-326, 'III: Thomas de Normanville (1245-46)', p. 293 and notes. Nicholas de Crioll is sometimes in their company as a fellow witness,Cal. Charter Rolls, 1226-1257, pp. 334, 403. and is clearly associated with them,C. Roberts (ed.), Excerpta e Rotulis Finium in Turri Londinensi Asservatis, Henrico Tertio Rege, A.D. 1216-1272, II: A.D. 1246-1272 (Commissioners, 1836), II, pp. 412-13. but the relationship is not explained.
Marriage Croxton Abbey was a Premonstratensian house, and the tenure of the neighbouring manor by Nicholas de Crioll may be connected with the tradition of patronage towards the Premonstratensians in the family of his wife, Joan de Auberville. She was heir to the senior line of the de Auberville inheritance, only daughter of William de Auberville (the younger), son of Hugh, and grandson of William de Auberville (the elder) and his wife Matilda, daughter of Ranulf de Glanville and Bertha de Valoines.'Auberville', and 'Crioll', in J.R. Planché, A Corner of Kent: Or, Some Account of the Parish of Ash-next-Sandwich (R. Hardwicke, London 1864), p. 290-96.See S.J. Bailey, 'Ranulf de Glanvill and His Children', The Cambridge Law Journal Vol. 15, No. 2 (Nov., 1957), pp. 163-182; and R. Mortimer, 'The Family of Rannulf de Glanville', Historical Research 129, 1981, pp. 1–16. William the elder had assisted Ranulf in the foundation of Leiston Abbey in Suffolk in 1182,Foundation charters in W. Dugdale & R. Dodsworth, Monasticon Anglicanum, sive Pandectae Coenobiorum, 3 Vols (London (Savoy) 1673), III, pp. 74-76. (in Latin). and himself founded Langdon Abbey in Kent, near the de Auberville seat of Westenhanger, in 1191, a grant which was confirmed by his fee-lord Simon de Averenches, Lord of Folkestone.W. Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum new edition (James Bohn, London 1846), VI Part 2, p. 898, Langdon, Charters Nos. I and II. Both were Premonstratensian houses. The de Criol family, which in Bertram gave long and distinguished service in the Constabulary of Dover Castle, were patrons also of St Radegund's Abbey at Bradsole.T. Tanner, Notitia Monastica (J. Tanner/W. Bowyer, London 1744), p. 218.Charter of Robert de Polton, in W. Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, sive Pandectae Coenobiorum, 3 Vols (London (Savoy) 1673), III, p. 70. The charter of B de Crioll on p. 71 is probably for Bertram the son of John de Crioll.
Robert de Auberville (brother of Joan's grandfather Hugh), after being among the rebel barons captured by King John at Rochester Castle late in 1215,'The Gesta Regum with its continuation' (sub anno), in W. Stubbs (ed.), The Historical Works of Gervase of Canterbury II, p. 110. (Internet Archive) served King Henry loyally as Constable of Hastings Castle during the 1220s.(Payments): Calendar of Liberate Rolls, Henry III: 1226-1240 (HMSO 1916), pp. 10, 25, 58, 78, 79, 118, 130, 164.T.D. Hardy (ed.), Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum in Turri Londinensi Asservati II: Ab anno MCCXIV ad annum MCCXXVII (Commissioners, 1833), pp. 48b, 49, 55b, 64b, 90, 115b, 140. (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) He was given authority jointly with Bertram de Criol for the defence of the ports between Sandwich and Portsmouth in 1229,Cal. Liberate Rolls, 1226-1240, p. 139. Cal. Patent Rolls, 1225-1232, pp. 258-59. and was replaced in that role by Henry de Sandwich (de Sandwico), Warden of Sandwich, in 1230:Cal. Patent Rolls, 1225-1232, p. 333. John de Gatesden, succeeding Robert as Constable of Hastings,Cal. Patent Rolls, 1225-1232, p. 330. then took on a larger command.Cal. Patent Rolls, 1225-1232, pp. 362-64, at p. 364. Joan de Auberville was first married to Henry de Sandwich, and was his widow when she married Nicholas de Crioll. In this way the de Auberville possessions, including Westenhanger, came into the de Crioll family.
Royal service Nicholas is described as "vadlettus", a royal servant, in orders requiring him to hunt for deer in the park at Clere (Highclere, HampshireE. Roberts, 'The Bishop of Winchester's Deer Parks in Hampshire, 1200-1400', Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club Archaeological Society XLIV (1988), pp. 67-86 (Society's pdf), at p. 67.) in 1243, at Guildford in 1244, and at Havering in 1245.Close Rolls of the Reign of Henry III: 1242-1247 (HMSO 1916), pp. 149, 226, 314. The Croxton market grant followed, and in 1248 he received a gift of two does from the park at Elham near Folkestone, from the king.Close Rolls of the Reign of Henry III: 1247-1251 (HMSO 1922), p. 80. In that year he received a summons for himself and two knights to be in London on 21 AugustClose Rolls of the Reign of Henry III: 1247-1251, p. 119. to go into Gascony on the King's service.Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry III: 1247-1257 (HMSO 1908), p. 31. He was in Gascony with Bertram de Criol from Easter 1249 for four months, upon a mission to deliver funds to the viceroy Simon de Montfort.Cal. Liberate Rolls, 1245-1251, pp. 227, 284; Close Rolls of the Reign of Henry III: 1254-1256 (HMSO 1931), pp. 294-95; Close Rolls of the Reign of Henry III: 1256-1259, (HMSO 1932), pp. 128-29.
He was among those who crossed with the king to Gascony in 1253, and again in 1254 in company with his serjeant William de Waleton.Calendar of Patent Rolls: Henry III, 1247-1258 (HMSO 1908), pp. 31, 235, 367. His name heads the list of men summoned to Chester on 9 August 1257 for the service of the king and Edward his son in Wales.Cal. Patent Rolls, 1247-1258, p. 597. This assembly was to support King Henry's response (which proved ineffectual) to the English defeat at the Battle of Cadfan by the Welsh under Llywelyn ap Gruffudd earlier in the same year. In May 1260 de Crioll appears as Constable of Dover Castle. He was entrusted with the safekeeping of great sums of the King's money delivered to him from France by Aubrey de Fiscamp and William de Axemuth, the King's clerks. Arrangements were to be made for the delivery of some part of it to the king, for the payment of £1000, and for the safe retention of the remainder at Dover.Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry III: 1258-66 (HMSO 1910), pp. 68-69 (HathiTrust). Close Rolls of the Reign of Henry III, 1259-1261 (HMSO 1934), p. 257.
A year later an important ecclesiastical inquisition was held at Otford Palace to determine the true heirs to the estate (sometime considered a barony) of Eynsford, Kent, following the death, in the archbishop's wardship, of William de Eynsford the 7th lord. It was claimed in two moieties by Nicholas de Crioll and William Herengod. With the extinction of the descent from William the 5th lord (great-grandfather of the deceased) their claim lay in the descent from his sisters Joan, who married Hugh de Auberville (grandfather of Joan, wife of Nicholas) and Beatrice, who by marriage to Stephen Herengod was mother to the co-claimant. This defeated a counter-claim from an elder branch of the family which had never held seisin, and was decided in favour of de Crioll and Herengod.F.R.H. du Boulay, The Lordship of Canterbury: An Essay on Medieval Society (Nelson 1966), pp. 108-10.
The Second Barons' War In June 1263 the king committed to Nicholas de Crioll the Wardenship of the Cinque Ports, with instructions to Robert de Glastonia, Constable of Dover Castle, to provide him with quarters at the Castle when he should return there. The barons and bailiffs of Dover, Hastings, Romney, Hythe and Sandwich were required "to provide by his counsel two or three of the most approved men for the security and defence of the port[s] by sea and land against any adversaries or rebels."Cal. Patent Rolls, 1258-66, pp. 262-63 (HathiTrust). Partly recited in K.M.E. Murray, The Constitutional History of the Cinque Ports, Cinque Ports Association (Manchester University Press 1935), p. 80. (Google) In September 1263 de Crioll received a mandate to take charge of the county of Kent and the Hundred of Middleton in the absence of a Sheriff, and to deliver the issues for munitions to the Constable of Dover.Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1258-66, p. 280 (HathiTrust)
At the death of Hamo de Crevecoeur, Lord of the barony of Chatham and of Leeds Castle, early in 1263, Nicholas is shown to have held five knights' fees from the barony of Folkestone, for which he did service as of the fee of Morteyne. His tenure owed three watches to ward of Dover Castle, and it is recorded that he held from the king in capite by barony elsewhere.'Inquisitions post mortem: XXXV. Hamo de Crevecuer, 3 April & 3 June, 47 Henry III (1263): Extent of the manor of Folkestane, 3 June 1263', Archaeologia Cantiana III (1860), pp. 253-264, 257-64, at p. 260. (Society's pdf pp. 13-24). See also C. Roberts (ed.), 'Inquisitiones post mortem, 47 Henry III, in Calendarium Genealogicum: Henry III. and Edward I., 2 vols (Longmans, Green & Co., London 1865), No. 33, p. 107 (Latin text). Hamo held the Folkestone barony in husband-right of his second wife Matilda de Averenches, Lady of Folkestone, who had died c.1250.Close Rolls of the Reign of Henry III: 1251-1253 (HMSO 1927), p. 198. John de Criol's son Bertram (the younger) was married to Eleanor de Crevecoeur (third daughter of Hamo and Matilda), who with her sisters inherited the Folkestone barony.C. Flight, 'The fall of the house of Crevequer', Colin Flight Research Archive, Kent Archaeology digiarchive, p. 3, note 5.