Note 98 — Chapter II · THE FIRST CHARTER OF THE KING.

Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniæ, II. clxxxviii. Such was also the opinion of M. Leopold Delisle. The French editors, however, of Ordericus write: "On ne sait auquel des nombreux Magneville, Mandeville, Manneville de Normandie rapporter le berceau de cette illustre maison" (iv. 108).

[99] There is a curious story in the Waltham Chronicle (De Inventione, cap. xiii.) that the Conqueror placed Geoffrey in the shoes of Esegar the staller. The passage runs thus: "Cui [Tovi] successit filius ejus Adelstanus pater Esegari qui stalra inventus est in Angliæ conquisitione a Normannis, cuius hereditatem postea dedit conquisitor terræ, rex Willelmus, Galfrido de Mandevile proavi presentis comitis Willelmi. Successit quidem Adelstanus patri suo Tovi, non in totam quidem possessionem quam possederat pater, sed in eam tantum quæ pertinebat ad stallariam, quam nunc habet comes Willelmus." The special interest of this story lies in the official connection of Esegar [or Ansgar] the staller with London and Middlesex, combined with the fact that Geoffrey occupied the same position. See p. 354, and Addenda.

[100] "Post cujus [i.e. Galfridi] mortem reliquit filium suum hæredem, cui firmitas turris Londoniarum custodienda committitur. Nobili cum Rege magnificé plura gessit patri non immerito in rebus agendis coæqualis" (Monasticon). Dugdale's error, as we might expect, is followed by later writers, Mr. Clark treating Geoffrey as the first "hereditary constable," and his son, whom with characteristic inaccuracy he transforms from "William" into "Walter," as the second (Mediæval Military Architecture, ii. 253, 254). The French editors of Ordericus (iv. 108) strangely imagined that William was brother, not son, of Geoffrey de Mandeville.

[101] "In arce Lundoniensi Guillelmo de Magnavilla custodiendus in vinculis traditus est" (iv. 108).

[102] See for instance Abingdon Cartulary, ii. 73, 85, 116, where he attests charters of circ. 1110-1112.

[103] Monasticon, iii. 433. He founds the priory "pro anima Athelaisæ primæ uxoris meæ, matris filiorum meorum jam defunctæ;" and "Lecelina domina uxor mea" is a witness to the charter.

[104] It is necessary to check by authentic charters and other trustworthy evidence the chronicles printed in the Monasticon under Walden Abbey. One of these was taken from a long and interesting MS., formerly in the possession of the Royal Society, but now among the Arundel MSS. in the British Museum. This, which is only partially printed, and which ought to be published in its entirety, has the commencement wanting, and is, unfortunately, very inaccurate for the early period of which I treat. It is this narrative which makes the wild misstatements as to the circumstances of the foundation, which grossly misdates Geoffrey's death, etc., etc. All its statements are accepted by Dugdale. The other chronicle, which he printed from Cott. MS., Titus, D. 20, is far more accurate, gives Geoffrey's death correctly, and rightly assigns him as wife the sister (not the daughter) of the Earl of Oxford, thus correcting Dugdale's error. It is the latter chronicle which Dugdale has misquoted with reference to the charge of the Tower.

[105] Who was really Peter de Valognes.

[106] "Madox ... has shown ... that Geoffrey Fitzpeter, Earl of Essex, obtained from the Crown Grants of the shrievalty of the Counties of Essex and Hertford when the Earls, commonly called Earls of Clare, were Earls of Hertford, and had the Third Penny of the Pleas of that County" (iii. 69, ed. 1829).

[107] "The County of Hertford appears to have been, at the time of the Survey, in the King's hands, and Peter was then Sheriff; and the Sheriffwick of Hertfordshire was afterwards granted in Fee, by the Empress Maud, to Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, at a rent as his father and grandfather had held it. The father of Geoffrey was Geoffrey Fitz Peter, and probably was son of Peter, the Sheriff at the time of the Survey. The first trace which the Committee has discovered of the title of the Earls of Clare to the Third Penny of the County is in the reign of Henry the Second, subsequent to the grants under which the Earls of Essex claimed the Shrievalty in fee, at a fee-farm rent. But the grant of the Third Penny must have been of an earlier date, as the grant to the Earl of Essex was subject to that charge. The family of Clare must therefore have had the Third Penny either before or early in the Reign of King Stephen" (iii. 125).

[108] Const. Hist., i. 362.

[109] Official Baronage, ii. 175.

[110] See Appendix C.

[111] See Frontispiece.

[112] Degrees of England.

[113] "Note that this is the most ancient creation-charter which hath ever been known." Vide Selden, Titles of Honour, p. 647.

[114] Historic Peerage, p. 178.

[115] Journ. Brit. Arch. Ass., xxxi. 386.

[116] Addl. MSS., 31,943, fol. 97.

[117] Comp. fol. 96: "My position is that where this system of counter-charters between Stephen and the Empress is proved, the former generally is the first in point of date."

[118] See p. 41 ad pedem.

[119] Notes and Queries, 6th Series, v. 83.

[120] On the Great Seal of King Stephen, pp. 19, 20.

[121] "Apud regem Stephanum, ac totius regni majores tanti erat ut nomine comitis et re jampridem dignus haberetur" (Mon. Angl., vol. iv. p. 141).

[122] "Gaufridus de Magnavillâ comes Essexe" (ibid.).

[123] Addl. MSS. 31,943, fol. 85 dors.

[124] Ordericus Vitalis, vol. v. p. 120.

[125] See p. 282, n. 4.

[126] "Protractaque est obsidio [Lincolnie] a diebus Natalis Domini (1140) usque ad Ypapanti Domini" (Will. Newburgh, i. 39).

[127] To this visit may be assigned three charters (Sarum Charters and Documents, pp. 9-11) of interest for their witnesses. Two of them are attested by Philip the chancellor, who is immediately followed by Roger de Fécamp. The latter had similarly followed the preceding chancellor, Roger, in one of Stephen's charters of 1136 (see p. 263), which establishes his official position. Among the other witnesses were Bishop Robert of Hereford, Count Waleran of Meulan, Robert de Ver, William Martel, Robert d'Oilli with Fulk his brother, Turgis d'Avranches, Walter de Salisbury, Ingelram de Say, and William de Pont de l'Arche.

[128] The "P. cancellarius," by whom the writ is tested, was a chancellor of whom, according to Foss, virtually nothing is known. He was, however, Philip (de Harcourt), on whom the king conferred at Winchester, in 1140, the vacant see of Salisbury ("Rex Wintoniam veniens consilio baronum suorum cancellario suo Philippo Searebyriensem præsulatum ... dedit" (Cont. Flor. Wig.)). But the chapter refused to accept him as bishop, and eventually he was provided for by the see of Bayeux. He is likely, with or without the king, to have gone straight to Salisbury after his appointment at Winchester, in which case he would not have been present at Andover, even if Stephen himself was.

[129] "Acceptam ab eo injuriam rex caute dissimulabat, et tempus opportunum quo se ulcisceretur, observabat. Injuria vero quam regi nequam ille intulerat talis erat. Rex ante annos aliquot episcopi, ut dictum est, Salesbiriensis thesauros adeptus, summa non modica regi Francorum Lodovico transmissa, sororem ejus Constantiam Eustachio filio suo desponderat; ... eratque hæc cum socru sua regina Lundoniis. Cumque regina ad alium forte vellet cum eadem nuru sua locum migrare, memoratus Gaufridus arci tunc præsidens, restitit; nuruque de manibus socrus, pro viribus obnitentis, abstracta atque retenta, illam cum ignominia abire permisit. Postea vero reposcenti, et justum motum pro tempore dissimulanti, regi socero insignem prædam ægre resignavit" (ii. 45).

[130] (1140) "Facta est desponsatio illorum mense Februario in transmarinis partibus, matre regina Anglorum præsente" (ii. 725).

[131] "Accipiens thesauros episcopi comparavit inde Constantiam sororem Lodovici regis Francorum ad opus Eustachii filii sui" (p. 265). It is amusing to learn from his champion (the author of the Gesta Stephani) that the king spent this treasure on good and pious works. This matrimonial alliance is deserving of careful attention, for the fact that Stephen was prepared to buy it with treasure which he sorely needed proves its importance in his eyes as a prop to his now threatened throne.

[132] Annals of Waverley (Ann. Mon., ii. 228), where it is stated that, at this council, Stephen gave the see of Salisbury to his chancellor, Philip. According, however, to the Continuator of Florence, he did this not at London, but at Winchester (see p. 47, supra).

[133] See the Continuator of Florence.

[134] Will. Malms.

[135] See p. 81 as to the alleged riot in London and death of Aubrey de Vere, three weeks before.

[136] "Ad Pentecostem ivit rex cum exercitu suo super Hugonem Bigod in Sudfolc" Ann. Wav. (Ann. Mon., ii. 228).

[137] "Item in Augusto perrexit super eum et concordati sunt, sed non diu duravit" (ibid.).

[138] Printed in Archæological Journal, xx. 291. Its second witness is Richard de Luci, whom I have not elsewhere found attesting before Christmas, 1141.

[139] If, as would seem, Hugh Bigod appears first as an earl at the battle of Lincoln, when he fought on Stephen's side, it may well be that the "concordia" between them in August, 1140, similarly comprised the concession by the king of comital rank. On the other hand, there is a noteworthy charter (Harl. Cart., 43, c. 13) of Stephen, which seems to belong to the winter of 1140-1, to which Hugh Bigod is witness, not as an earl, so that his creation may have taken place very shortly before Stephen's fall. As this charter, according to Mr. Birch, has the second type of Stephen's seal, it strengthens the view advanced in the text.

[140] Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, vol. xi., New Series.

[141] Mr. Birch points out the interesting fact that while the earlier type has an affinity to that of the great seal of Henry I., the later approximates to that adopted under Henry II.

[142] Royal Charters, No. 15. See my Ancient Charters, p. 39.

[143] Dr. Stubbs observes that the consequence of the arrest was that "the whole administration of the country ceased to work" (Const. Hist., i. 326).

[144] Cotton Charter, vii. 4. See Frontispiece.

[145] This is the well-known Henry de Essex (see Appendix U), son of Robert (Rot. Pip., 31 Hen. I.), and grandson of Swegen of Essex (Domesday). He witnessed several of Stephen's charters, probably later in the reign, but was also a witness to the Empress's charters to the Earls of Oxford and of Essex (vide post).

[146] A John, son of Robert fitz Walter (sheriff of East Anglia, temp. Hen. I.), occurs in Ramsey Cartulary, i. 149.

[147] Robert de Neufbourg, said to have been a younger son of Henry, Earl of Warwick, occurs in connection with Warwickshire in 1130 (Rot. Pip., 31 Hen. I.). Mr. Yeatman characteristically advances "the idea that Robert de Arundel and Robert de Novoburgo were identical." He was afterwards Justiciary of Normandy (Ord. Vit.), having sided with Geoffrey of Anjou (Rot. Scacc. Norm.). He is mentioned in the Pipe-Rolls of 2 and 4 Henry II. According to Dugdale, he died (on the authority of the Chronicon Normanniæ), in August, 1158, a date followed by Mr. Yeatman. Mr. Eyton, however (Court and Itinerary, p. 47), on the same authority (with a reference also to Gervase, which I cannot verify) makes him die in August, 1159. The true date seems to have been August 30, 1159, when he died at Bec (Robert de Torigni).

[148] The Maenfininus Brito (Mr. Birch reads "Mamseu"), who, in the Pipe-Roll of 1130 (p. 100), was late sheriff of Bucks. and Beds. Probably father of Hamo filius Meinfelini, the Bucks. baron of 1166 (Cartæ). See also p. 201, n. 2.

[149] Turgis d'Avranches appears in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I. as having married the widow of Hugh "de Albertivillâ." We shall find him witnessing Stephen's second charter to the earl (Christmas, 1141).

[150] William de St. Clare occurs in Dorset and Huntingdonshire in 1130 (Rot. Pip., 31 Hen. I.). He was, I presume, of the same family as Hamon de St. Clare, custos of Colchester in 1130 (ibid.), who was among the witnesses to Stephen's Charter of Liberties (Oxford) in 1136.

[151] Odo de Dammartin states in his Carta (1166) that he held one fee (in Norfolk) of the king, of which he had enfeoffed, temp. Hen. I., his brother, William de Dammartin.

[152] Richard fitz Urse is of special interest as the father (see Liber Niger) of Reginald fitz Urse, one of Becket's murderers. He occurs repeatedly in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I. After this charter he reappears at the battle of Lincoln (Feb. 2, 1141):—"Capitur etiam Ricardus filius Ursi, qui in ictibus dandis recipiendisque clarus et gloriosus comparuit" (Hen. Hunt., p. 274). For his marriage to Sybil, daughter of Baldwin de Bollers by Sybil de Falaise (neptis of Henry I.), see Eyton's Shropshire, xi. 127, and Genealogist, N.S., iii. 195. One would welcome information on his connection, if any, with the terrible sheriff, Urse d'Abetot, and his impetuous son; but I know of none.

[153] William de Eu appears as a tenant of four knights' fees de veteri feoffamento under Mandeville in the Liber Niger.

[154] Richard fitz Osbert similarly figures (Liber Niger) as a tenant of four knights' fees de veteri feoffamento. He also held a knight's fee of the Bishop of Ely in Cambridgeshire. An Osbert fitz Richard, probably his son, attests a charter of Geoffrey's son, Earl William, to Walden Abbey.

[155] A Ralph de Worcester occurs in the Cartæ and elsewhere under Henry II.

[156] "Eglino," an unusual name, probably represents "Egelino de Furnis," who attests a charter of Stephen at Eye (Formularium Anglicanum, p. 154).

[157] William fitz Alfred held one fee of Mandeville de novo feoffamento. He also attests the earl's foundation charter of Walden Abbey (Mon. Ang., iv. 149). A William fitz Alfred occurs, also, in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I.

[158] William fitz Ernald similarly held one knight's fee de novo feoffamento. He also attests the above foundation charter just after William fitz Alfred.

[159] See Appendix D, on "Fiscal Earls."

[160] "Acies exhæredatorum, quæ præibat, percussit aciem regalem ... tanto impetu, quod statim, quasi in ictu oculi, dissipata est.