Hugh was succeeded by his son Ranulph, surnamed _Blundeville_, who, for his benevolence, was styled _Ranulph the Good_. He served in the holy wars, and was as celebrated as any of the Seven Champions of Christendom. After his return, he built Beeston Castle, in Cheshire, a noble and imposing fortress, which, before the use of fire-arms, might have been deemed impregnable. It is built on an insulated rock, and its summit is one hundred yards above the level of the brook that runs at its base. It endured three sieges during the civil wars. The middle part of the slope is surrounded by towers, which time, however, has dismantled; the well in the upper part was cut through the rock to the depth of one hundred yards; in the course of time it became nearly filled up with rubbish, but within the last few years was cleared, built round, and enclosed, by J. Tollemache, Esq., M.P., to whom the castle belongs. It is ten miles distant from Chester, on the London and North-Western Railway. This Earl Ranulph was besieged by the Welsh in the castle of Rhuddlan, and was relieved by Ralph Dutton, son-in-law of Roger Lacy, Constable of Chester, at the head of a large body of fiddlers, minstrels, &c., who were then assembled at the fair of Hugh Lupus. A remarkable privilege of this fair was, that no thief or malefactor that attended it should be attached or punished, except for offences then and there committed. With this motley crew Dutton marched into Wales, and raised the siege; for which Ranulph rewarded him with full power over all the instruments of his preservation, and the privilege of licensing the minstrels. The anniversary of this achievement was formerly celebrated on the festival of St. John the Baptist, by a regular procession of the minstrels to the church of their tutelar saint, St. Werburgh, in honour of whom Hugh Lupus granted to the minstrels, &c., the above-mentioned privilege, which is recognized in all subsequent vagrant acts, by a special exception in favour of the minstrel jurisdiction of the Duttons, of Dutton, in Cheshire. The last Earl Ranulph died in 1232, and was buried at Chester. John Scott succeeded Ranulph, who died without issue; not without suspicion, Leycester says, of being poisoned by the contrivance of Helene his wife. The Earls of Chester continued to exercise their local sovereignty for about one hundred and sixty years. They held that sovereignty, it is true, as the representatives of the paramount sovereignty of the King of England, and as owing allegiance to him in all things; but so far as the government of the Palatinate was concerned, their rule, though nominally mediate, was actually absolute, for the King does not appear to have thwarted their jurisdiction, or in any way to have exerted his supreme authority, beyond retaining a mint at Chester.