Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester

Notes:

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_de_Beaumont,_2nd_Earl_of_Leicester

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). Early genealogists gave him the surname of de Beaumont.

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 of Waleran de Beaumont. It is not known whether they were identical or fraternal twins, but the fact that they are remarked on by contemporaries as twins indicates that they were probably identical.

The two brothers, Robert and Waleran, were adopted into the royal household shortly after their father's death in June 1118. Robert inherited his father's second titles of Earl of Leicester in England, and his twin brother inherited the French lands and titles . 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.

He was literate, which was rare for the times. A surviving treatise on astronomy in the British Library 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.

In 1121, royal favor brought Robert the great Norman honors with his marriage to Amice de Montfort, daughter of Raoul II de Montfort, himself a son of Ralph de Gael, Earl of East Anglia. Both families had lost their English inheritances through rebellion in 1075. They had four children:

1. Hawise de Beaumont, who married William Fitz Robert, 2nd Earl of Gloucester and had descendants.

2. Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester who married Petronilla de Grandmesnil and had descendants.

3. Isabel, who married: Simon de St. Liz, Earl of Huntingdon and had descendants.

4. Margaret, who married Ralph V de Toeni and had descendants through their daughter, Ida de Tosny.


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 also held lands throughout the England. In the 1120s and 1130s he tried to manage his estates in Leicestershire. His block of estates were in the central midlands, bounded by Nuneaton, Loughborough, Melton Mowbray and Market Harborough.

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. During the first two years of the reign Robert is found in Normandy fighting rival claimants for his honor of Breteuil. He added the castle of Pont St-Pierre to his Norman estates in June 1136, and at the end of 1137 Robert and his brother were increasingly caught up in the politics of the court of King Stephen in England.

The outbreak of civil war in England in September 1139 brought Robert into conflict with Earl Robert of Gloucester, the illegitimate son of Henry I and principal sponsor of the Empress Matilda. His port of Wareham and estates in Dorset were seized by Gloucester, but 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.

The battle of Lincoln on 2 February 1141 saw the capture and imprisonment of King Stephen. Robert's brother, 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. Robert was in Normandy attempting to stem the Angevin invasion, and negotiated the terms of his brother's surrender. He quit Normandy soon after and his Norman estates from his wife were confiscated and used to reward Norman followers of the Empress.

Robert remained on his estates in England for the remainder of King Stephen's reign. Although he was a nominal supporter of the king, his 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.

The arrival in England of Duke Henry, son of the Empress Matilda, 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. Duke Henry restored Robert's Norman estates. 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 recognized by Henry.

Earl Robert began his career as chief justiciar [modern equivalent of a prime minister] of England probably as soon as Duke Henry succeeded as King Henry II in October 1154. 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 filled the office for nearly fourteen years until his death, and earned the respect of the emerging Angevin bureaucracy in England.

He died on 5 April 1168, probably at his Northamptonshire castle of Brackley, for his entrails were buried at the hospital in the town. He was buried to the north of the high altar of the great abbey he had founded {Leicester Abbey], 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.


Buried:
Grave location, biography, and photo of abbey ruins:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=85194743

Robert married Amice de Montfort. (daughter of Raoul II de Montfort) [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_de_Beaumont,_3rd_Earl_of_Leicester

He was an English nobleman, one of the principal followers of Henry the Young King in the Revolt of 1173-1174 against his father Henry II. He is also called Robert Blanchemains (meaning "White Hands" in French).

As the son of Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester, a staunch supporter of Henry II, he inherited from his father large estates in England and Normandy. When the revolt of the younger Henry broke out in April 1173, Robert went to his castle at Breteuil in Normandy and then went to Flanders, where he raised a large force of mercenaries, and landed at Walton, Suffolk, on 29 September 1173. He joined forces with Hugh Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk, and the two marched west, aiming to cut England in two. They were intercepted by the king's supporters and defeated at the Battle of Fornham, near Bury St Edmunds, on 17 October. Robert, along with his wife and many others, was taken prisoner. Henry II took away the earl's lands and titles as well.

He remained in captivity until January 1177, well after most of the other prisoners had been released. The king was in a strong position and could afford to be merciful; not long after his release Robert's lands and titles were restored, but not his castles. Robert had little influence in the remaining years of Henry II's reign, but was restored to favor by Richard I. He carried one of the swords of state at Richard's coronation in 1189. In 1190 Robert went on the third crusade to Palestine, but he died at Dyrrachium on his return journey.

Robert married Petronilla, who was a daughter of William de Grandmesnil and great-granddaughter and eventual heiress to the English lands of Domesday baron, Hugh de Grandmesnil. They had five children:

1. Robert, who succeeded his father as Earl of Leicester;

2. Roger, who became Bishop of St Andrews in 1189;

3. William, possibly the ancestor of the House of Hamilton;

4. Amicia, who married Simon de Montfort, and whose son Simon subsequently became Earl of Leicester;

5. Margaret, who married Saer de Quincy, later 1st Earl of Winchester.

Robert married Petronilla de Grandmesnil, Countess of Leicester. Petronilla was born ca 1123, Leicestershire, England; died 01 Apr 1212, Leicestershire, England; was buried , Leicester Abbey, Leicester, Leicestershire, England. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_de_Tosny

Ida de Tosny, Countess of Norfolk was very likely a daughter of Ralph V de Tosny (died 1162) and his wife Margaret (born circa 1125 and living in 1185), a daughter of Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester.

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_de_Beaumont,_2nd_Earl_of_Leicester

In 1121, royal favor brought Robert the great Norman honors with his marriage to Amice de Montfort, daughter of Raoul II de Montfort, himself a son of Ralph de Gael, Earl of East Anglia. Both families had lost their English inheritances through rebellion in 1075. They had four children:

1. Hawise de Beaumont, who married William Fitz Robert, 2nd Earl of Gloucester and had descendants.

2. Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester who married Petronilla de Grandmesnil and had descendants.

3. Isabel, who married: Simon de St. Liz, Earl of Huntingdon and had descendants.

4. Margaret, who married Ralph V de Toeni and had descendants through their daughter, Ida de Tosny.

Margaret married Ralph V de Tosny. Ralph died 1162. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saer_de_Quincy,_1st_Earl_of_Winchester

Her husband's rise to prominence in England came through his marriage to Margaret. She was the younger sister of Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester, but it is probably no coincidence that her other brother was the de Quincy's powerful Fife neighbour, Roger de Beaumont, Bishop of St Andrews. Earl Robert died in 1204, and left Margaret as co-heiress to the vast earldom along with her elder sister. The estate was split in half, and after the final division was ratified in 1207, de Quincy was made Earl of Winchester.

She had three sons and three daughters:

1. Lora who married Sir William de Valognes, Chamberlain of Scotland.

2. Arabella who married Sir Richard Harcourt.

3. Robert (d. 1217), before 1206 he married Hawise of Chester, Countess of Lincoln, sister and co-heiress of Ranulf de Blundeville, Earl of Chester.

4. Roger, who succeeded his father as earl of Winchester (though he did not take formal possession of the earldom until after his mother's death).

5. Robert de Quincy (second son of that name; d. 1257) who married Helen, daughter of the Welsh prince Llywelyn the Great.

6. Hawise, who married Hugh de Vere, Earl of Oxford.


Buried:
Grave location:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=131741312

Margaret married Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester. Saer was born ca 1170, England; died 03 Nov 1219, Near Damietta, Egypt; was buried , Acre, Holy Land and Garendon Abbey, Shepshed, Leicestershire, England. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_de_Tosny

She was very likely a daughter of Ralph V de Tosny (died 1162) and his wife Margaret (born circa 1125 and living in 1185), a daughter of Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester. Ida de Tosny was a royal ward and mistress of Henry II, King of England, by whom she was mother of one of his illegitimate sons, William Longespée, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, (b c. 1176-March 7, 1226), as proven by the discovery of a charter of William mentioning "Comitissa Ida, mater mea" (Countess Ida, my mother).

Around Christmas 1181, Ida de Tosny was given in marriage to Roger Bigod, 2nd Earl of Norfolk by Henry II, together with the manors of Acle, Halvergate and South Walsham, which had been confiscated from his inheritance after his father's death (Hugh Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk).[4] Ida and Roger had a number of children including:

1. Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk who married in 1206 or 1207, Maud Marshal, a daughter of William Marshal

2. William Bigod

3. Roger Bigod

4. John Bigod

5. Ralph Bigod

6. Mary Bigod, married Ralph fitz Robert

7. Margery Bigod, married William de Hastings

8. Ida Bigod

The names of the children of Roger Bigod and Ida de Tosny can be found in the Durham Liber Vitae as discussed by Rosie Bevan in her article, "The Durham Liber Vitae:some reflections on its significance as a genealogical resource," Foundations July 2005 1:6, 414-424.

Ida married Roger Bigod, 2nd Earl of Norfolk. Roger (son of Hugh I Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk and Juliane de Vere) was born ca 1144/1150, Norfolk, England; died 1221, England; was buried , Thetford Priory, Thetford, Norfolk England. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawise_of_Chester,_1st_Countess_of_Lincoln

Sometime before 1206, she (Hawise of Chester) married Robert de Quincy, son of Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester and Margaret de Beaumont of Leicester. The marriage produced one daughter:

Margaret de Quincy, 2nd Countess of Lincoln in her own right (c.1206-March 1266), married firstly in 1221 John de Lacy, 2nd Earl of Lincoln by whom she had two children, Edmund de Lacy, Baron of Pontefract, and Maud de Lacy; she married secondly on 6 January 1242 Walter Marshal, 5th Earl of Pembroke.

Hawise's husband Robert died in 1217 in London. He had been accidentally poisoned through medicine prepared by a Cistercian monk. Robert and his father had both been excommunicated in December 1215 as a result of the latter having been one of the 25 sureties of the Magna Carta six months before.

Buried:
Grave location and biography:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=111309627

Robert married Hawise of Chester, 1st Countess of Lincoln. Hawise was born ca 1180, Chester, Cheshire, England; died Between 6 Jun 1241 and 3 May 1243, England. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Bigod,_3rd_Earl_of_Norfolk

He was a member of the powerful early Norman Bigod family and was for a short time the 3rd Earl of Norfolk. Born ca. 1182, Hugh the eldest son of Roger Bigod, 2nd Earl of Norfolk by his wife Ida de Tosny.

In 1215 he was one of the twenty-five sureties of Magna Carta of King John. He succeeded to his father?s estates (including Framlingham Castle) in 1221.

In late 1206 or early 1207, Hugh married Maud Marshal (1192 -27 March 1248), daughter of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1147-1219), Marshal of England, by his wife Isabel de Clare, 4th Countess of Pembroke. They had four, or possibly five, children:

1. Roger Bigod, 4th Earl of Norfolk (c.?1209-1270), died without progeny.

2. Hugh Bigod (1211-1266), Justiciar of England. Married Joan de Stuteville, by whom he had issue.

3. Isabel Bigod (c. 1212-1250), married twice: Firstly to Gilbert de Lacy, by whom she had children; Secondly to John FitzGeoffrey, Lord of Shere, by whom she had children, including Maud FitzJohn, and Joan FitzJohn who married Theobald le Botiller, and from whom descended the Irish Earls of Ormond.

4. Ralph Bigod (born c. 1215)

Hugh died on 18 Feb 1225. Very soon after Hugh's death, his widow Maud remarried William de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey.




Buried:
Grave location, cemetery photo, and biography:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=99492888

Hugh married Maude Marshal, Countess of Norfolk, Countess of Surrey. Maude (daughter of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke and Isabel de Clare) was born 1192, Pembrokeshire, Wales; died 27 Mar 1248, Tintern, Monmouthshire, Wales; was buried , Tintern Abbey, Monmouthshire, Wales. [Group Sheet]