Some corrections and additions to the Complete Peerage: Volume 5: Essex

ESSEX (County of)

See also "proposed" section

Volume 5, pages 113, 114:
GEOFFREY DE MANDEVILLE,(b) of Great Waltham, Saffron Walden, High Easter, and Pleshey, Essex, Edmonton and Enfield, Middlesex, Sawbridgeworth, Herts, Quarrendon and Amersham, Bucks, Streatley, Berks, Long Compton, co. Warwick, &c., Constable of the Tower of London, s. and h. of William DE MANDEVILLE, of the same (who d. in or just before 1130),(d) by (it is said, but probably erroneously) Margaret, da. and h. of Eoun DE RIE, Dapifer, of Colchester, Essex:(b) which William was s. and h. of Geoffrey DE MANDEVILLE (who had held the aforesaid manors at the Domesday Survey), by his 1st wife, Athelaise.
Page 113, note b:
For a learned and elaborate account of his life and times, see J. H. Round's Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1892.
Page 113, note d:
In the Pipe Roll of 31 Hen. I, Geoffrey de Mandeville rendered account for £866 13s. 4d. for his father's lands, and had paid £133 6s. 8d. - only two-thirteenths thereof. Round infers that his father was but recently dead.
Page 114, note b:
In 1142 the Empress gave to Geoffrey, Earl of Essex, "totam terram que fuit Eudonis Dapiferi in Normannia et Dapiferum ipsius. Et hec reddo ei ut rectum suum ut habeat et teneat hereditabiliterita ne ponatur inde in placitum versus aliquem. Et si dominus meus Comes Andegavie et ego voluerimus Comes Gaufredus accipiet pro dominiis et terris quas habet eschaetis et pro servicio militum quod habet totam terram que fuit Eudonis Dapiferi in Anglia sicut tenuit ea die qua fuit et vivus et mortuus quia hoc est rectum suum." (G. de Mandeville, p. 167). Round (op. cit., p. 173) considers that "the fact that this [Eudo's] fief escheated to the Crown [Pipe Roll, 31 Hen. I], instead of passing to the Mandevilles with the Dapifer's alleged daughter, is directly opposed to a story [viz., "the received statement that Geoffrey was maternally a grandson of the Dapifer, whose daughter and heiress Margaret had married his father William"] which has no foundation of its own." This statement is taken from a Genealogia Fundatoris of Tintern (Monasticon, vol. v, p. 269, from a transcript formerly in Cotton MSS., Vitell., F4):- "Rohesia una sororum Walter [Giffard] ... conjuncta in matrimonio Ricardo filio Comitis Gisleberti ... Predicta Rohesia supervixit et renupta Eudoni Dapifero Regis Normannie ... Margareta filia eorum nupta fuit Willelmo de Mandevill' et fuit mater Gaufridi filii Comitis Essexie et jure matris Normannie dapiferi [Rohese, wife of Richard fitz Gilbert, is here confused, as Sir F. Madden noticed long ago, with her da., Rohese, wife of Eudo Dapifer]." It appears to be the only authority for the paternity (and even for the name) of the wife of William de Mandeville. Round concludes that the relationship between Eoun and Geoffrey was "probably collateral instead of lineal." Eoun had two brothers, and at least one sister, each of whom left male issue existing in 1142; so that Geoffrey's claim, if founded merely on collateral representation, was small. Still, it seems almost certain that Eoun died s.p.

The chronology of J. H. Round's account in Geoffrey de Mandeville was revised by R. H. C. Davis, English Historical Review, vol. 79, pp. 299-307 (1964) (see below). On Geoffrey's parentage, C. W. Hollister [History, vol. 58, pp. 18-28 (1973)] argues that William de Mandeville did indeed marry a daughter of Eoun de Rie, that he died (probably) before May 1116, and that his widow remarried to Othuer fitz Earl (d. 25 November 1120), an illegitimate son of Hugh, Earl of Chester.

Hollister argues that the Genealogia Fundatoris of Tintern is supported by contemporary circumstantial evidence, and that in particular the references in Maud's charter, to Eoun's land's being Geoffrey's by right, imply that he was Eoun's heir [Hollister, p. 24].

A charter of Henry I, dated before May 1116, implies that William was dead by that time [Hollister, p. 22]. Although there is some doubt about the charter's authenticity, his widow's remarriage to a man who died in 1120 implies that he was dead long before 1130, so that Round's inference about the date of his death from the pipe roll must be incorrect.

A certain William fitz Othuer is later described as the brother of Geoffrey de Mandeville [Hollister, pp. 23, 24]. This shows that Geoffrey's mother also married a man named Othuer. From the rarity of the name, and from the fact that Othuer fitz Earl had held lands earlier seized from the Mandevilles and granted to Eoun de Rie [Hollister, p. 21], it seems clear that Geoffrey's widow remarried to Othuer fitz Earl (d. 1120). Othuer seems also to have succeeded Geoffrey as keeper of the Tower of London [Hollister, p. 23].

Hollister [p. 24] argues that the reason for Eoun's lands still being in the king's hands in 1130 was the conflict between the claims of Geoffrey de Mandeville and William fitz Othuer - Othuer having perhaps been intended by the king as Eoun's heir.

[Thanks to Douglas Richardson for pointing out Hollister's account.
Item last updated: 26 August 2004.]

Volume 5, pages 114, 115:
For reasons which are somewhat obscure, the King cr. him [Geoffrey de Mandeville (d. 1144)] EARL OF ESSEX, by charter given at Westm. between June and Dec. 1140. He deserted the King on the downfall of the latter in Feb. 1140/1, and obtained from the Empress Maud, at Westm., just before Midsummer 1141, a more extensive charter, recognising him as Earl of Essex and hereditary Constable of the Tower, and granting him 100 librates of land, the service of 20 knights, and the offices of hereditary Sheriff and Chief Justice (Capitalis Justicia) of Essex. He deserted the Empress soon afterwards, and obtained from the King, at Canterbury, about Christmas 1141, a charter granting him 400 librates of land, the custody of the Tower, the offices of hereditary Justice and Sheriff of London, Middlesex, Essex, and Herts, and 60 milites feudatos. He drove the rebels from the Isle of Ely early in 1142, but soon after the King's illness in Apr. he extorted from the Empress, then at Oxford, a charter (convencio et donacio) confirming to him all his lands and the grants from herself and the King, and giving him the lands and the office of Eoun Dapifer.

J. H. Round's dating of the four charters of Stephen and Maud for Geoffrey de Mandeville was reconsidered by R. H. C. Davis [English Historical Review, vol. 79, pp. 299-307 (1964)]. He concluded that:

• Stephen's charter creating him Earl of Essex should be dated between December 1139 and (probably) December 1140.
   
• Maud's second charter should be dated between 25 July and 1 August 1141, rather than in 1142. There is therefore no reason to believe that Geoffrey rejoined Maud's side after returning to Stephen's at Christmas 1141.

[Item last updated: 26 August 2004.]

Volume 5, chart between pages 116 and 117:
Geoffrey fitz Piers, Earl of Essex: d. 14 Oct. 1213
[married firstly] Beatrice: d. before 19 Apr. 1197.
[by whom he had]
Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex and Gloucester: d. s.p. 23 Feb. 1215/6.
William de Mandeville, Earl of Essex: d. s.p. 8 Jan. 1226/7.
Henry: appointed Dean of Wolverhampton, 5 Aug. 1205.
Maud, Countess of Essex: d. 27 Aug. 1236.

Geoffrey and Beatrice are stated in the report of a legal case dated before 1279 also to have had a daughter Alice, who was dead before William de Mandeville's death, 8 January 1226/7 [Selden Society, vol. 111, p. 89 (1996)].

[This evidence was provided by Douglas Richardson in October 2004.
Item last updated: 8 November 2004.]