Robert de Beaumont was Count of Meulan and 1st Earl of Leicester.
"Robert de Beaumont, Seigneur of Beaumont, Pont-Audemer, Brionne and Vatteville in Normandy, and from 1081 Count of Meulan in the French Vexin, s. and h. [of Roger de Beaumon], b. circa 1046. When very young he accompanied Duke William to England and distinguished himself at the battle of Hastings, and received large grants of lands in co. Warwick, with smaller holdings in cos. Leicester, Northants, and Wilts. On 14 July 1080, as Robert de Bellomonte, he witnessed the foundation charter of Lessay, and next year he inherited from his mother's family the comté of Meulan. Thereafter he is continuously styled Count (Comes) of Meulan. After the death of the Conqueror he adhered to William Rufus, and was high in favour at his court. He quarrelled with Robert of Normandy about the castellanship of Brionne, in consequence of the exchange of Brionne for Ivry made by his father. He was imprisoned, but was released at the intercession of his father Roger, who eventually succeeded in obtaining Brionne in fee. He succeeded to the greater part of his father's lands in Normandy, including Beaumont, Pont-Audemer, Vatteville and Brionne. This paternal inheritance, added to his French comté and his great possessions in cos. Warwick and Leicester, made him one of the most powerful vassals of the Crown. He became one of the chief lay ministers of William Rufus, with whom he sided against Robert Courtheuse in 1098, and when William invaded the French Vexin in 1097 he received his troops in his fortresses of the comté of Meulan. After the death of William Rufus he became one of the chief advisers of Henry I. On the death of Ives de Grandmesnil on Crusade, Robert retained his estates, [These, which had been held by Hugh, the Domesday tenant, father of Ives, were very extensive in cos. Leicester, Hertford, Warwick and Northampton, and included a fourth part of the town of Leicester, the other three parts being held respectively by the King, the Bishop of Lincoln, and Simon de St. Liz, Earl of Huntingdon.] which Ives had mortgaged to him circa 1102. Thereby he acquired one-quarter of the town of Leicester, the whole of which was later granted to him by the King. [Orderic, vol. iv, pp. 168, 169. The mortgage, for fifteen years, was in consideration of Robert's mitigating the King's wrath against Ives for rebellion, and for money advanced for the Crusade.] Robert thus added largely to his already vast possessions. In 1104 he was one of the Norman barons who adhered to Henry on his arrival in Normandy. He was present in the King's army at Tenchebrai, 28 Sep. 1106. In 1110 he was besieged at Meulan by Louis VI, who took the castle by storm, but in the following year he retaliated by a raid on Paris, which he plundered. After obtaining the whole town of Leicester he is said to have become Earl of Leicester, but, being already Count of Meulan, was never so styled. There is no contemporary record that he had the third penny of the pleas of the county, but he doubtless acquired, with the Grandmesnil fief, the third penny of the issues of the Mint at Leicester. He m., in 1096, Isabel, called also Elizabeth, da. of Hugh de Crépi, called Hugh "le Grand," Count of Vermandois. He d. 5 June 1118, and was bur. with his ancestors in the chapter house of Préaux. His widow m., very shortly after his death, William (de Warenne), Earl of Surrey. [1]
[1] George E. Cokayne and Vicary Gibbs, ed., The Complete Peerage, rev., Vol. 7, Husee to Lincolnshire (London: St. Catherine Press, 1929), 523-26, Leicester.