Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester (1104 – 5 April 1168). The surname "de Beaumont" is given him by genealogists, in fact the only known contemporary surname applied to him is "Robert son of Count Robert". Henry Knighton, the fourteenth-century chronicler notes him as Robert "Le Bossu" (meaning "Robert the Hunchback" in French). He was Justiciar of England 1155-1168. Events September 3 - St. ... is the 95th day of the year (96th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... // Events December 22 - Afraid that Old Cairo would be captured by the Crusaders, its Caliph orders the city set afire. ...

Early Life and Education

Robert was an English nobleman of Norman-French ancestry. He was the son of Robert de Beaumont, Count of Meulan and 1st Earl of Leicester and Elizabeth de Vermandois. He was the twin brother of Waleran de Beaumont. There is no knowing whether they were identical or fraternal twins, but the fact that they are remarked on by contemporaries as twins indicates that they probably were in fact identical. This article is about the English as an ethnic group and nation. ... Norman conquests in red. ... Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester and Count of Meulan (died June 5, 1118) was a powerful English and French nobleman, revered as one of the wisest men of his age. ... Elizabeth de Vermandois, or Elisabeth or Isabel de Vermandois (1085? – 13 February 1130/1 17 February 1131), is a fascinating figure about whose descendants and ancestry much is known and about whose character and life relatively little is known. ... Waleran de Beaumont, Count of Meulan, 1st Earl of Worcester (1104 – 9 April 1166, Preaux), son of Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester and Elizabeth de Vermandois, the twin brother of Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester. ...

The two brothers, Robert and Waleran, were adopted into the royal household shortly after their father's death in June 1118 (upon which Robert inherited his father's second titles of Earl of Leicester). Their lands on either side of the Channel were committed to a group of guardians, led by their stepfather, William earl of Warenne or Surrey. They accompanied King Henry I to Normandy, to meet with Pope Callixtus II in 1119, when the king incited them to debate philosophy with the cardinals. Both twins were literate, and Abingdon Abbey later claimed to have been Robert's school, but though this is possible, its account is not entirely trustworthy. A surviving treatise on astronomy (British Library ms Royal E xxv) carries a dedication "to Earl Robert of Leicester, that man of affairs and profound learning, most accomplished in matters of law" who can only be this Robert. On his death he left his own psalter to the abbey he founded at Leicester, which was still in its library in the late fifteenth century. The existence of this indicates that like many noblemen of his day, Robert followed the canonical hours in his chapel. Events Knights Templar founded Baldwin of Le Bourg succeeds his cousin Baldwin I as king of Jerusalem John II Comnenus succeeds Alexius I as Byzantine emperor Gelasius II succeeds Paschal II as pope Births November 28 - Manuel I Comnenus, Byzantine Emperor (died 1180) Andronicus I Comnenus, Byzantine Emperor (died 1185... William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey, (died 1088) was one of the Norman aristocrats who fought at the Battle of Hastings and became great landowners in England. ... This is a list of British monarchs, that is, the monarchs on the thrones of some of the various kingdoms that have existed on, or incorporated, the island of Great Britain, namely: England (united with Wales from 1536) up to 1707; Scotland up to 1707; The Kingdom of Great Britain... Henry I (c. ... For other uses, see Normandy (disambiguation). ... Callixtus II (or Calistus II), born Guido of Vienne (died December 13, 1124), the son of William I, Count of Burgundy (1057–87), was elected Pope on February 2, 1119, after the death of Pope Gelasius II (1118–19). ... Events February 2 - Callixtus II becomes Pope August 20 - Henry I of England routes Louis VI at the Battle of Bremule. ... For other uses, see Cardinal (disambiguation). ... Abingdon Abbey was a Benedictine monastery located in Abingdon, historically in the county of Berkshire but now in Oxfordshire, England. ... Psalms (Tehilim תהילים, in Hebrew) is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, and of the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. ...

Career at the Norman Court

In 1120 Robert was declared of age and inherited most of his father's lands in England, while his twin brother took the French lands. However in 1121, royal favour brought Robert the great Norman honors of Breteuil and Pacy-sur-Eure, with his marriage to Amice de Montfort, daughter of a Breton intruder the king had forced on the honor after the forfeiture of the Breteuil family in 1119. Robert spent a good deal of his time and resources over the next decade integrating the troublesome and independent barons of Breteuil into the greater complex of his estates. He did not join in his brother's great Norman rebellion against King Henry I in 1123-4. He appears fitfully at the royal court despite his brother's imprisonment until 1129. Thereafter the twins were frequently to be found together at Henry I's court. Events Welcher of Malvern creates a system of measurement for the earth using degrees, minutes, and seconds of latitude and longitude. ... Events Concordat of Worms condemns Pierre Abélards writings on the Holy Trinity. ... Breteuil may refer to: Places Breteuil is the name of two communes in France: Breteuil, in the Eure département Breteuil, in the Oise département People Baron de Breteuil Emilie de Breteuil, marquise du Chatelet This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. ... Pacy-sur-Eure is a commune of the Eure département in France. ... Historical province of Brittany, showing the main areas with their name in Breton language The traditional flag of Brittany (the Gwenn-ha-du), formerly a Breton nationalist symbol but today used as a general civic flag in the region. ... Events February 2 - Callixtus II becomes Pope August 20 - Henry I of England routes Louis VI at the Battle of Bremule. ... Events First Council of the Lateran confirms Concordat of Worms and demands that priests remain celibate End of the reign of Emperor Toba of Japan. ... Events March 26 - Henry I of Englands forces defeat Norman rebels at Bourgtheroulde. ... Events Emperor Toba of Japan begins his cloistered rule sharing power with Sutuku, ex-emperor Shirakawas son. ...

Robert held lands throughout the country. In the 1120s and 1130s he tried to rationalise his estates in Leicestershire. Leicestershire estates of the See of Lincoln and the Earl of Chester were seized by force. This enhanced the integrity of Robert's block of estates in the central midlands, bounded by Nuneaton, Loughborough, Melton Mowbray and Market Harborough. For the Diocese of Lincoln in the USA, see Roman Catholic Diocese of Lincoln. ... The Earldom of Chester is one of the few palatine earldoms in England. ... , Nuneaton is the largest town in the English county of Warwickshire, and the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth. ... Loughboroughs carillon Loughborough parish church The Brush engineering works Loughborough University Loughborough (pronounced locally as either , LUFF-burra or , LUFF-bruh, and more widely as [ˈlʌfˌb(ə)ɹə]) is a town in Leicestershire, central England with a population of 57,600 as of 2004. ... , Melton Mowbray (known locally as Melton) is a town within the Melton borough of Leicestershire, England. ... , Market Harborough is a market town in Leicestershire, England. ...

In 1135, the twins were present at King Henry's deathbed. Robert's actions in the succession period are unknown, but he clearly supported his brother's decision to join the court of the new king Stephen before Easter 1136. During the first two years of the reign Robert is found in Normandy fighting rival claimants for his honor of Breteuil. Military action allowed him to add the castle of Pont St-Pierre to his Norman estates in June 1136 at the expense of one of his rivals. From the end of 1137 Robert and his brother were increasingly caught up in the politics of the court of King Stephen in England, where Waleran secured an ascendancy which lasted till the beginning of 1141. Robert participated in his brother's political coup against the king's justiciar, Roger of Salisbury (the Bishop of Salisbury). Events January - Byland Abbey founded Stephen of Blois succeeds King Henry I. Empress Maud, daughter of Henry I and widow of Henry V opposed Stephen and claims the throne as her own Owain Gwynedd of Wales defeats the Normans at Crug Mawr. ... Stephen (c. ... Events Completion of the Saint Denis Basilica in Paris Peter Abelard writes the Historia Calamitatum, detailing his relationship with Heloise People of Novgorod rebel against the hereditary prince Vsevolod and depose him Births Amalric I of Jerusalem William of Newburgh, English historian (died 1198) Deaths November 15 - Margrave Leopold III... Events Completion of the Saint Denis Basilica in Paris Peter Abelard writes the Historia Calamitatum, detailing his relationship with Heloise People of Novgorod rebel against the hereditary prince Vsevolod and depose him Births Amalric I of Jerusalem William of Newburgh, English historian (died 1198) Deaths November 15 - Margrave Leopold III... // Groups BL1137 is the (now defunct) Unix group at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ where Unix and C were invented. ... Roger (d. ... Arms of the Bishop of Salisbury The Bishop of Salisbury is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury. ...

Civil War in England

The outbreak of civil war in England in September 1139 brought Robert into conflict with Earl Robert of Gloucester, the bastard son of Henry I and principal sponsor of the Empress Matilda. His port of Wareham and estates in Dorset were seized by Gloucester in the first campaign of the war. In that campaign the king awarded Robert the city and castle of Hereford as a bid to establish the earl as his lieutenant in Herefordshire, which was in revolt. It is disputed by scholars whether this was an award of a second county to Earl Robert. Probably in late 1139, Earl Robert refounded his father's collegiate church of St Mary de Castro in Leicester as a major Augustinian abbey on the meadows outside the town's north gate, annexing the college's considerable endowment to the abbey. The Anarchy or The Nineteen Year Winter refers to a period of English history during the reign (1135–1154) of the Norman King, Stephen of England, which was characterized by civil war and unsettled government. ... July 26, Independence of Portugal from the Kingdom of León and Castile declared after the Battle of Ourique against the Almoravids lead by Ali ibn Yusuf: Prince Afonso Henriques becomes Afonso I, King of Portugal, after assembling the first assembly of the estates-general of Portugal at Lamego, where... Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester (c. ... Empress Matilda (February 1102 – September 10, 1167; sometimes Maud or Maude), also called Matilda, Countess of Anjou or Matilda, Lady of the English, was the daughter and dispossessed heir of King Henry I of England. ... Wareham is a historic market town in the Purbeck district of Dorset, England. ... Dorset (pronounced DOR-sit or [dɔ.sət], and sometimes in the past called Dorsetshire) is a county in the south-west of England, on the English Channel coast. ... For other uses, see Hereford (disambiguation). ... Hereford Castle was in the cathedral city of Hereford (grid reference SO509395). ... Flag of a Lord-Lieutenant The title Lord-Lieutenant is given to the British monarchs personal representatives around the United Kingdom. ... Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county and unitary district (known as County of Herefordshire) in the West Midlands region of England. ... July 26, Independence of Portugal from the Kingdom of León and Castile declared after the Battle of Ourique against the Almoravids lead by Ali ibn Yusuf: Prince Afonso Henriques becomes Afonso I, King of Portugal, after assembling the first assembly of the estates-general of Portugal at Lamego, where... St. ... The Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo (died AD 430), are several Roman Catholic monastic orders and congregations of both men and women living according to a guide to religious life known as the Rule of Saint Augustine. ... Bold textTHIS IS THE PAGE THAT A.S. REALLY NEEDS!! THIS IS NOW MARKED!!! ] ps i like A.O. This article is about an abbey as a Christian monastic community. ...

The battle of Lincoln on 2 February 1141 saw the capture and imprisonment of King Stephen. Although Count Waleran valiantly continued the royalist fight in England into the summer, he eventually capitulated to the Empress and crossed back to Normandy to make his peace with the Empress's husband, Geoffrey of Anjou. Earl Robert had been in Normandy] since 1140 attempting to stem the Angevin invasion, and negotiated the terms of his brother's surrender. He quit Normandy soon after and his Norman estates were confiscated and used to reward Norman followers of the Empress. Earl Robert remained on his estates in England for the remainder of King Stephen's reign. Although he was a nominal supporter of the king, there seems to have been little contact between him and Stephen, who did not confirm the foundation of Leicester Abbey till 1153. Earl Robert's principal activity between 1141 and 1149 was his private war with Ranulf II, Earl of Chester. Though details are obscure it seems clear enough that he waged a dogged war with his rival that in the end secured him control of northern Leicestershire and the strategic Chester castle of Mountsorrel. When Earl Robert of Gloucester died in 1147, Robert of Leicester led the movement among the greater earls of England to negotiate private treaties to establish peace in their areas, a process hastened by the Empress's departure to Normandy, and complete by 1149. During this time the earl also exercised supervision over his twin brother's earldom of Worcester, and in 1151 he intervened to frustrate the king's attempts to seize the city. There were two Battles of Lincoln, both occurring during the Middle Ages at the city of Lincoln in England. ... Geoffrey V (August 24, 1113 – September 7, 1151), Count of Anjou and Maine, and later Duke of Normandy, called Le Bel (The Fair) or Geoffrey Plantagenet, was the father of King Henry II of England, and thus the forefather of the Plantagenet dynasty of English kings. ... Events Henry Jasomirgott was made count palatine of the Rhine. ... Leicester Abbey, the Abbey of Saint Mary de Pratis (St Mary of the Meadows), standing about a mile (2 km) north of the city of Leicester in the riverside meadows of the navigable Soar, was built under the patronage of Robert le Bossu, Earl of Leicester. ... , For the larger local government district, see Chester (district). ... Mountsorrel village green For Mount Sorrel, Wiltshire, see Broad Chalke. ... Events King Afonso I of Portugal and the Crusaders capture Lisbon from Muslims First written mention of Moscow. ... The title of Duke of Beaufort in the Peerage of England was created by Charles II in 1682 for Henry Somerset, 3rd Marquess of Worcester, a descendant of Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester, illegitimate son of Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, a Lancastrian leader in the Wars of... Events Ghazni is burned by the princes of Ghur Geoffrey of Anjou dies, and succeeded by his son Henry, aged 18. ...

Earl Robert and Henry Plantagenet

The arrival in England of Duke Henry, son of the Empress Mathilda, in January 1153 was a great opportunity for Earl Robert. He was probably in negotiation with Henry in that spring and reached an agreement by which he would defect to him by May 1153, when the duke restored his Norman estates to the earl. The duke celebrated his Pentecost court at Leicester in June 1153, and he and the earl were constantly in company till the peace settlement between the duke and the king at Winchester in November 1153. Earl Robert crossed with the duke to Normandy in January 1154 and resumed his Norman castles and honors. As part of the settlement his claim to be chief steward of England and Normandy was recognised by Henry. Henry II of England 5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189) ruled as King of England (1154–1189), Count of Anjou, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. ... Events January 6 - Henry of Anjou arrives in England. ... Leicester Castle is located in Leicester, England. ...

Earl Robert began his career as chief justiciar of England probably as soon as Duke Henry succeeded as King Henry II in October 1154.^[1] The office gave the earl supervision of the administration and legal process in England whether the king was present or absent in the realm. He appears in that capacity in numerous administrative acts, and had a junior colleague in the post in Richard de Lucy, another former servant of King Stephen. The earl filled the office for nearly fourteen years until his death,^[1] and earned the respect of the emerging Angevin bureaucracy in England. His opinion was quoted by learned clerics, and his own learning was highly commended. In medieval England and Scotland, the Chief Justiciar (latterly known simply as the Justiciar) was roughly equivalent to a modern Prime Minister as the monarchs chief minister. ... Richard de Luci was first noted as Sheriff of the County of Essex. ...

He died on 5 April 1168,^[1] probably at his Northamptonshire castle of Brackley, for his entrails were buried at the hospital in the town. He was received as a canon of Leicester on his deathbed, and buried to the north of the high altar of the great abbey he had founded and built. He left a written testament of which his son the third earl was an executor, as we learn in a reference dating to 1174. Northamptonshire (abbreviated Northants or Nhants) is a landlocked county in central England with a population of 629,676 (2001 census). ... , Brackley is a town in south Northamptonshire, England. ... Map sources for Brackley at grid reference SP5837 Brackley is a town in south Northamptonshire, England. ... Canons, Bruges A Canon of the Seminary, Sint Niklaas, Flanders. ...

Church Patronage

In addition to the abbey of St. Mary de Pré, in Leicester, the earl founded in England the Cistercian abbey of Garendon in 1133, the Fontevraldine priory at Nuneaton between 1155 and 1160, the priory of Luffield, and the hospital of Brackley. He refounded the collegiate church of St Mary de Castro as a dependency of Leicester abbey around 1164, after suppressing it in 1139. Around 1139 he refounded the collegiate church of Wareham as a priory of his abbey of Lyre, in Normandy. His principal Norman foundations were the priory of Le Désert in the forest of Breteuil and a major hospital in Breteuil itself. He was a generous benefactor of the Benedictine abbey of Lyre, the oldest monastic house in the honor of Breteuil. The Order of Cistercians (OCist) (Latin Cistercenses), otherwise Gimey or White Monks (from the colour of the habit, over which is worn a black scapular or apron) are a Catholic order of monks. ... , Shepshed, often known until 1888 as Sheepshed[1], (also Sheepshead - a name derived from the village being heavily involved in the wool industry) is a town in Leicestershire, England with a population of around 14,000 people. ... General view of the complex. ... , Nuneaton is the largest town in the English county of Warwickshire, and the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth. ... A priory is an ecclesiastical circumscription run by a prior. ... Luffield Abbey is a village in the very north of Buckinghamshire, England. ... Map sources for Brackley at grid reference SP5837 Brackley is a town in south Northamptonshire, England. ... Wareham is a historic market town in the Purbeck district of Dorset, England. ...

Family and children

He married after 1120 Amice de Montfort, daughter of Ralph, senior of Gael or Montfort. They had four children: Gael (Ancient people) : A Gael is a member of a distinct culture existing in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man whose language is one that is Gaelic. ... Montfort can refer to: A Catholic school in Singapore, founded in 1916. ...

1. Hawise, who married William Fitz Robert, 2nd Earl of Gloucester;
2. Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester;
3. Isabel, who married with:
   1. Simon II of St Liz, 4th Earl of Huntingdon and Northampton;
   2. Gervase Paynel of Dudley.
4. Margaret, who married Ralph V de Toeni

William Fitz Robert, 2nd Earl of Gloucester (died 1183) was the son and heir of Sir Robert de Caen, 1st Earl of Gloucester, and Mabel of Gloucester, daughter of Robert Fitzhamon. ... Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester (died 1190) was an English nobleman, one of the principal followers of Henry the Young King in his revolt against his father Henry II. He is also called Robert Blanchemains. ... Simon II de Senlis (d. ...

Literary references

He is a minor character in The Holy Thief, one of the Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters. Cadfael (pronounced , approximately CAD-vile) is the fictional detective in a series of murder mysteries by the late Edith Pargeter writing under the name Ellis Peters. ... Edith Mary Pargeter, BEM (September 28, 1913 in Horsehay, Shropshire, England –October 14, 1995) was a prolific author of works in many categories, especially history and historical fiction, and was also honoured for her translations of Czech classics; she is probably best known for her murder mysteries, both historical and...

Notes

References

• D. Crouch, The Beaumont Twins: the Roots and Branches of Power in the Twelfth Century (Cambridge, 1986).
• D. Crouch, The Reign of King Stephen, 1135-1154 (London, 2000).
• E. King, "Mountsorrel and its region in King Stephen's Reign", Huntington Library Quarterly, 44 (1980), 1-10.
• Leicester Abbey, ed. J. Storey, J. Bourne and R. Buckley (Leicester, 2006).
• Powicke, F. Maurice and E. B. Fryde Handbook of British Chronology 2nd. ed. London:Royal Historical Society 1961
• British Library ms Royal E xxv.