Fulk FitzWarin at the time of his death in 1197. Whittington Castle lies on the English side of Offa's Dyke, which during the Norman era and before was the border between England and Wales. The site was fortified as a castle by William Peverel in 1138, in support of Empress Matilda, the daughter of King Henry I (1100–1135), in her struggle (known as The Anarchy) for the throne against King Stephen (1135–1154), grandson of William the Conqueror. In the late 1140s the lordship of Whittington, like Oswestry and Overton ceased to be part of England and became part of the Kingdom of
Ranuccio I Farnese, Duke of Parma however, manage to engineer a match with Margherita de' Medici, daughter of Cosimo II of Tuscany. The husband of Margherita Aldobrandini, niece of Pope Clement VIII, Ranuccio, the son of a Portuguese infanta, was considered as a potential king of Portugal when his childless great-uncle King Henry I died. The throne, however, passed to Philip II of Spain, whose troops had promptly occupied the country after Henry I's death. His great-uncle Henry I of Portugal's death triggered the struggle for the throne of Portugal when Ranuccio was 11 years old. As the son of the late elder daughter of Infante