One of my favorite female ancestors is my 16th great grandmother, Lady Constance (Stokes) (de Percy) (de Percy) (Fitzwarin) de la Riviere (Stokes-3673), who was born in the early 14th century, and lived a long and "naughty lyf". She was married 4 times, had a son with Robert Wyville, Bishop of Salisbury and Keeper of the Privy Seal, as well as two daughters with her third husband, Philip Fitzwarin. She triggered a long running feud of=ver the inheritance of the manor of Creat Chalfield.
She was born sometime before 1330. In 1349 she married a wealthy widower with a young daughter, Beatrice. He bestowed his manor of Great Chalfield on her for life, then to go to Beatrice. In 1357 he went on went on pilgrimage, said to be because of "the naughty lyf the said Constance his second wyf lyved in with the bisshoppe Wayvile and with others". He never got to Jerusalem, because he died in Cologne.
In 1359 she married another wealthy landowner, who died a year later.
In 1360 her stepdaughter Beatrice (or more likely Beatrice's guardian and / or her first husband) sued for posession of Great Chalfield, but lost. Sometime before 1361 she had a son by Bishop Wyville of Salisbury.
In 1361 she married again (my 16th g grandfather) who came of a good family, but originally had no land (he subsequently acquired substantial estates). They had two daughters.
The same year, 1361, Beatrice signed over to Constance not only the life interest in Great Chalfield, but also the rights of Beatrice and her heirs after Constance's death. There was a subsequent century of lawsuits (not settled until 1467, long after both Beatrice and Constance were dead) on whether
a) Beatrice was "of age" when she signed over her inheritance to her stepmother
and
b) whether Beatrice had been coerced into signing away her inheritance.
Constance's third husband died in 1384, and she married for 4th time, another wealthy landowner. She "overlived" this 4th husband, who died in 1400. She was still actively involved in managing her properties, settling manors on various descendants in 1416, and she is last mentioned as alive in 1419, aged at least 89.
Thomas Tropenell (1405- 1488) was a lawyer and businessman who acquired a lot of land in south west England, especially Wiltshire - and he wanted Great Chalfield by whatever means possible. He claimed it as his inheritance, because his third great grandmother, Catherine Percy, had been the daughter and sister of previous owners, but that claim failed. He sent military men to take it by force. That failed. Then he paid large amounts of money to the families of Constance's descendants, and Betrice's descendants, who were still claiming ownership. Finally in 1467 he was able to get firm title to Great Chalfield, tore down the existing manor, and built a Tudor manor house, which still stands, and is open to the public. It has been used in the filming of several movies and television series, including the 2008 film, "The Other Boylen Girl", a BBC verision of "Tess of the d'Ubervilles", and the BBC series "Wolf Hall.".
See [[Space:Great Chalfield|Great Chalfield]]for details.
