It is tempting to view the history of Durham in this period in terms of the growing influence and power of the Nevilles. The appointment of Robert Neville as bishop of Durham in 1438 could be seen not so much as a turning point or watershed, but as the natural conclusion to a more long-term process explored in chapter three, namely the increasing integration of the affinities of the Nevilles and bishops of Durham. This integration, it might be argued, produced a single lineage system in which the resources of the palatinate were placed firmly at the disposal of one family: there was effectively only one aristocratic patron from whom the gentry of the bishopric could seek favour.

Contemporaries were aware of the potential power of this lineage. When John Wessington, the prior of Durham, wrote to Robert Neville in May 1438 to express his pleasure at the bishop's elevation, he drew particular attention to Neville's status as a local man rather than an outsider, a quality generally lacking in those who occupied the see of Durham. The new bishop, wrote the prior, was one ‘to whom all the lords and magnates of this country are closely related’ (cui … omnes domini et majores natu hujus patriae genere sunt propinqui). It was an observation that was not lost on the new incumbent of the church of Durham. When the ties of service and good lordship were of uncertain strength, it was to family that the junior Nevilles turned to anchor their position within local society.