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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_de_Beaumont,_1st_Earl_of_Leicester1st Earl of Leicester
Lord of Beaumont
Companion to William the Conqueror at Hastings 1066
Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester and
Count of Meulan was a powerful English and French nobleman, revered as one of the wisest men of his age. Chroniclers speak highly of his eloquence, his learning, and three kings of England valued his counsel.
He accompanied
William the Conqueror to England in 1066, where his service earned him more than 91 lordships and manors. When his mother died in 1081, Robert inherited the title of
Count of Meulan in
Normandy, also the title of Viscount Ivry and Lord of Norton. He did homage to
Philip I of France for these estates and sat as French Peer in the Parliament held at
Poissy.
At the
Battle of Hastings Robert was appointed leader of the infantry on the right wing of the army.
He and his brother Henry were members of the Royal hunting party in the
New Forest, when
William Rufus received his mysterious death wound,
2 August 1100. He then pledged alligience to William Rufus' brother,
Henry I of England, who created him Earl of Leicester in 1107.
On the death of William Rufus, William, Count of Evreux and
Ralph de Conches made an incursion into Robert's Norman estates, on the pretence that they had suffered injury through some advice that Robert had given to the King; their raid was very successful for they collected a vast booty.
According to
Henry of Huntingdon, Robert died of shame after "a certain earl carried off the lady he had espoused, either by some intrigue or by force and stratagem." His wife Isabella remarried in 1118 to
William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey.
Family and children
He was the eldest son of
Roger de Beaumont and
Adeline of Meulan, daughter of
Waleran III, Count de Meulan, and an older brother of
Henry de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Warwick.
In 1096 he married
Elizabeth de Vermandois, daughter of
Hugh Magnus and a scion of the French royal family. Their children were:
1. Emma de Beaumont
2. Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester 3. Waleran IV de Beaumont, Count of Meulan 4. Hugh de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Bedford 5. Adeline de Beaumont, married two times:
1. Hugh IV of Montfort-sur-Risle;
2. Richard de Granville of Bideford 6. Aubree de Beaumont, married Hugh II of Château-neuf-Thimerais.
7. Maud de Beaumont, married William Lovel.
8. Isabel de Beaumont, a mistress of King
Henry I of England. Married two times:
1. Gilbert de Clare, 1st Earl of Pembroke;
2. Hervé de Montmorency, Constable of Ireland