Roger Grenewood & Lady Cristine

The Intertwined Destinies of Roger Grenewood and Lady Cristine

Roger Grenewood: From Cheshire Fields to European Battlegrounds

Born on the 19th of November, 1330, in the Hundred of Macclesfield, Cheshire, Roger Grenewood's life began in the shadow of the Macclesfield Forest, near the flowing waters of the River Goyt. As the son of a Husbandman farmer who tended to a notable 80 acres of land—a holding suggesting a family of some substance within their class—young Roger learned the value of hard work and precision from an early age. His natural talent with the longbow, a skill honed through compulsory practice for English yeomen, soon became apparent. When the call to arms came from King Edward III for his campaigns in France, Roger, then a youth of fifteen, answered without hesitation. His skill with the bow would serve him well, particularly at the momentous Battle of Crécy on the 26th of August, 1346, where he fought as an archer in the victorious English ranks.

Lady Cristine: A Noblewoman's Path Through War and Loss

Lady Cristine's journey began far from the fields of Cheshire. Born on the 26th of March, 1330, in the Essex village of Sible Hedingham, her early life unfolded within the noble household of the Earl of Oxford. She was the daughter of Sir Robert Davenport, a knight in service to John de Vere, the 7th Earl of Oxford, and was raised with the values and expectations of the English nobility. In 1344, at the tender age of fourteen, Cristine was married to Sir Hugh de Clare, a minor knight also in the Earl of Oxford's service.

Their life together was tragically brief. Accompanying Edward III's expedition to France, Sir Hugh de Clare fought and fell at the Battle of Crécy on the 26th of August, 1346, the same battle where Roger Grenewood served. This devastating loss left Cristine, barely sixteen, a widow in a war-torn foreign land.

A Fateful Meeting in Rouen

In the aftermath of Crécy, as English forces moved through Normandy, Roger Grenewood found himself in the city of Rouen. Meanwhile, the widowed Lady Cristine, stranded and seeking to arrange passage back to England, had also sought shelter with friends in the same city. It was in Rouen, a city that would soon face the horrors of the Black Death, that their paths converged. Roger, the yeoman archer, and Cristine, the grieving noble widow, met. Their shared experience of the recent battle and its profound impact, coupled with Cristine's vulnerable position and Roger's protective presence, forged an unlikely bond. Despite the considerable social differences, their connection deepened. In October 1348, with Rouen in the grip of the Black Death which peaked that spring and summer, they were married at the ancient abbey of Saint-Ouen. For Cristine, a widow with greater autonomy over her choices, and in a world disrupted by war and pestilence, this union with a capable soldier offered a measure of security and companionship.

A Life Forged in Conflict

The years that followed saw Cristine adapt to a life starkly different from her noble upbringing. She traveled with Roger as he sought service with the Free Companies—mercenary bands that roamed France, particularly active in Normandy, Gascony, and Aquitaine during lulls in the main conflict. Cristine learned to navigate the challenges of life on campaign, a common, albeit arduous, experience for soldiers' families.

When Edward III renewed the war with France in 1355, Roger rejoined the royal forces. His skill and leadership during the Black Prince's devastating grande chevauchée of 1355 earned him a promotion to the rank of Ventenar, an officer typically in command of about twenty men. While Roger fought in this campaign and subsequently at the decisive English victory at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356 alongside Edward of Woodstock (the Black Prince), Cristine often remained in relatively safer areas within English-held territories like Aquitaine, Normandy, or Brittany.

During these tumultuous years, Cristine and Roger were blessed with three sons. Raised amidst the realities of military life, all three would eventually follow in their father's footsteps, becoming men-at-arms in service to the English crown. Despite the constant upheaval and dangers, Cristine maintained her noble bearing, providing a stable presence for her family.

Roger's military career continued its relentless pace. He later joined the legendary White Company, commanded by Sir John Hawkwood, fighting throughout the Italian peninsula until approximately 1367. His service saw him at the Battle of Nájera in Castile in 1367, fighting under the Black Prince, and at the infamous Siege of Limoges in 1370, where the Black Prince's army, including its archers, took the city.

Later Years and the Companie of the Badger

After the death of Edward of Woodstock in 1376, Roger and Cristine, ever adaptable, returned to service with Free Companies, continuing their martial existence throughout France and Gascony. Finally, in 1380, after decades of warfare, Roger, now fifty, and Lady Cristine returned to England. There, Roger's experience found a new outlet. He joined the Companie of the Badger, a Free Company, as their Ventenar. In this role, he continued to lead archers, bringing his wealth of battlefield experience and leadership to train and command men, sometimes for campaigns on the continent.

Lady Cristine, ever his steadfast partner, continued to support her husband in his endeavors with the Companie of the Badger. Her heraldry, a poignant combination of the Davenport arms (Argent a chevron between 3 crosses crosslet fitchee Sable) and her first husband's De Clare arms (Or three chevrons Gules), served as a constant visual reminder of her noble lineage and the extraordinary, challenging, and ultimately intertwined chapters of her life alongside the yeoman archer who became her husband.

The lives of Roger Grenewood and Lady Cristine, from the fields of Macclesfield and the halls of Essex nobility to the blood-soaked battlefields of France, Italy, and Spain, weave a remarkable tapestry through the heart of the Hundred Years' War. Their story is a testament to endurance, adaptation, and the unexpected bonds forged in the crucible of medieval conflict.