RIDDELLS OF NORMANDY AND ARDNAMURCHAN.
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TENTH GENERATION.
Matilda Ridel (1), only child of Galfridus (4), married to Richard
Basset, Lord Justiciary of England to King Henry I. He was of an an-
cient and noble family, being the son of Ralph Basset, Lord Justiciary of
England, grandson of Thurstine, who came over with William the Con-
queror, great-grandson of Hugh Basset, who lived in the end of the tenth
century. Matilda and her husband founded the Abbey of Laud, in Lei-
cestershire. The issue of this marriage was four sons, the eldest of whom,
in honor of his mother, assumed the name of Ridel, and carried on that
family. Ralph, the second son, became ancestor of the Bassets of Dray-
ton, peers of the realm; this branch ended in heirs female, married into
the family of Beauchamp, Earls of Warwick, the Earls of Stafford, and
the Chaworths. The third son, William, became ancestor of the Bassets
of Sapcote, peers of the realm, which branch ended in heirs female about
the time of that of Drayton,
the end of the fourteenth century. An
Matilda succeeded in 1139 A. D.
account of the fourth son hereafter.
Rignald Ridel¹º (1), a son of Hugh (1) succeeded to his father's es-
tates, and left one son, his heir, of whom hereafter.
ELEVENTH GENERATION.
Galfridus Ridel" (5), eldest son of Matilda¹0 (1), born at Blaye,
France, in 1129, assumed the surname of Ridel and became the represent-
ative of that family, being the twelfth in order of succession. He was
Baron of Blaye, in France, and held fifteen knights' fees in England of
the king, in capite, being lands in Normandy and others in England, as
a feudatory. He was one of the chaplains of King Henry II, and was so
much in the royal favor, that after Thomas à-Becket was elevated to the
primacy of Canterbury, he was appointed his successor as archdeacon of
Canterbury, 1162. He was induced to take holy orders by the king's en-
treaties, as his support against the machinations of Becket, who used to
declare that his greatest enemy on earth was Galfridus Ridel, and also to
give him on that account, the name of "Archdevil of Canterbury." He
was employed still at court, for his name stands second of the "Assidentes
Justicia Regis," before whom, in 1165, a charter between the abbots of
St. Albans and Westminster was executed in the Exchequer. He was
sent with John of Oxford, in 1164, to the pope, to obtain his confirmation
of the ancient customs and dignities of the realm; and again, in 1169,
he was one of the ambassadors to the court of France, with the king's
request that Becket, who had withdrawn there, might not be permitted
to remain. Both embassies were unsuccessful, but his activity in the
king's behalf was not allowed to pass unnoticed. The irritated primate
included him in the excommunication which he pronounced in 1169,
against several of the bishops and chief men of the kingdom, and in an-
nouncing the sentence to the bishop of Hereford, he designated Galfridus
an "archdevil." On Henry's remonstrance, however, the pope's nuncios
found it necessary to absolve him before the end of the year, he being
one of those who personally attended the king. Galfridus' favor increased
at court with Becket's oppression, and accordingly, in the same year of
the death of the bishop, the See of Ely was placed in his hands and so re-
mained about four years. In 1173 the bishopric was given him, but he
was not admitted to it until he had given his solemn protestation in the
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