Domestic politics occupied the attention of the earl of Chester to the end of the minority [of Henry III]. When the great Earl Marshal died in 1219, "the ablest and most powerful of the English barons, Earl Ranulf, was in distant Palestine, and there was no one to take his place." Hubert de Burgh, justiciar of England, moved adroitly to fill the leadership vacuum with his own undoubted talents, and Ranulf's well-known hostility toward Hubert may date from the justiciar's succession to the seat of power. Ralph V. Turner noted that the great loyalist barons "had long distrusted Hubert...feeling that he was a greedy upstart," and that they "held [him] responsible for the policy of resumption of royal castles." Perhaps the reasons for Ranulf's dislike of Hubert are not so apparent. Did Ranulf fear the justiciar's growing power in Wales and the March, and might that be connected with the earl's friendship for Llewelyn? Was it a question of old blood against new? Was it that Ranulf (and other nobles) felt that they had a better right than the justiciar to guide the crown? It is possible that personality conflict was also a factor in their bad relations, since Hubert was far from lovable. In any case, Ranulf did not get on at all well with the justiciar, and very real issues embittered their relations between 1220 and 1224.
