Research Notes:
Complete Peerage states, [1]
Geoffrey de Mandeville (b) of Great Waltham, Saffron Walden, High Easter, and Pleshey, Essex, Edmonton.and Enfield, Middlesex, Sawbridigeworth, 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(c) of the same (who d. in or just before 1130),(d) by (it is said, but probably
(b) For a learned and elaborate account of his life and times, see H. Round's Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1892.
(c)The family ol Geoffrey de Mandeville probably derive their name from Manneville (Seine-Maritime, arrondissement Dieppe, canton Bacquville, now in the combined commune ol Le Thil-Manneville), or perhaps Colmesnil-Manneville, in the same departement and arrondissement, but canton Offranville Sir L.C. Loyd, The Origins pf Some Anglo-Norman Families, 1951, p. 57 (for the Mandevilles of Earl's Stoke, pp. 57 -8); K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, Medieval Prosopography, vol. 14, 1993, p. 8. [2]
(d) In the Pipe Roll of 31 Hen. I, Geofiiey de Mandeville rendered account for £866 13s. 4d. for his fathet's lands, and had paid £133 6s. 8d.--only two-thirteenths thereof. Round infers that his father was but recently dead.erroneously) Margaret, da. and h. of Eoun (a) de Rie, Dapifer, of Colchester, Essex:(b) which William was s. and h. of Geoffrey de Mandevile (who had held the aforesaid manors at the Domesday Survey), by his 1st wife, Athelaise.(c) For reasons which are somewhat obscure, the King cr. him
(a) Eudo is the Latin form of Eon, Eoun, Ion, or Ioun, and Odo that of Eude or Eudes, the two names being quite distinct, as M. Auguste Longnon well observes.
(b) In 1142 the Empress gave to Geoffrey, Earl of Essex, "totam terram que fuit Eudonis Dapiferi in Normannia et Dapiferatum ipsius. Et hec reddo ei ut rectum suum ut habeat et teneat hereditabiliter ita 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 Walteri [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 Euda 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 Geoff'rey's claim, if founded merely on collateral representation, was small. Still, it seems almost certain that Eoun died s.p.
(c) In his charter, founding the Priory of Hurley, Berks, this Geoffrey makes mention of his wife, Lesceline, then living, and of "Athelaise prime uxoris mee matris filiorum meorum jam defuncte." (Madox, Form. Angl., no. 397, ex autog.: Cartulary of Walden, f-.51 or 66, v: Cartulary of Westminster, Cotton MSS., Faust., A3, f. 280 v). Another charter to Westm. Abbey runs:--"Ego Goflridus de Magna Villa pro anima mea et pro anima Athelays conjugis mee in claustro sancti Petri sepulte qui eciam juxta eam epelliendus sum pro anirnabus quoque filiorum filiarumque mearum dedi sancto Petro Westm' maneriolum quod juxta ecclesiam ejus habebarn scilicet Ese [Eye, afterwards Eyebury] in perpetuam hereditatem sicut illud unquam melius tenui Et hoc donum Deo et sancto Petro cum uxore mea Lethselina concessione filii mei Willelmi quem michi heredem facere disposui quos eciam hujus elemosine participes fieri per omnia volo super altare predicti Apostoli Petri presentavi." (Cartulary, f. 281 v). Stapleton's conjecture that Adelais de Balte [see Gall. Christ., vol. xi, instr., col. 225, 234, 246], "probably sister of " Ricardus qui vocatur Turstinus Haldup, father of a Eudo Dapifer [Idem, col. 224., 233], "may have been identical with "the Ist wife of Geoffrey de Mandeville, seems to be improbable, and indeed chronologically impossible (cf. Gall. Christ, ibid., col. 60, 69). This Eudo Dapifer was not the one mentioned above, who was a son of Hubert de Rie, and the Eudo dt Ria filius Huberti who witnessed the foundation charter of the Abbey of Lessay, 12 July 1080.Earl of Essex,(a) by charter given at Westm. between June and Dec. 1140.(b) 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.(c) 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 ofiices of hereditary Justice and Sheriff of London, Middlesex, Essex, and Herts, and 60 milites feudatos.(d) 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.(d) He founded the Abbey of Walden,(e) He m.(f) Rohese, sister of Aubrey, 1st Earl of Oxford, and d. of Aubrey de Ver, Chamberlain of England, by Adelise,
(a) In Feb. or Mar. 1139/40 Geoffrey, then Constable of the Tower, had grossly insulted the King. (Newburgh, vol. i, pp. 4.4-5: Trevet, pp. 16, 17). Round suggests that "Stephen could not with prudence refuse his demand for an earldom."
(b) "As our earliest charter of creation extant or even known, the chief point to attract our notice is its intensely hereditary character. Geoffrey receives the earldom 'hereditarie' for himself 'et heredes sui post eum hereditario jure.' The terms in which the grant is made are of tantalizing vagueness." (G. de Mandeville, p. 53).
(c) "Ego Matildis Regis Henrici filia et Anglorum domina do et concedo Gaufrido de Magnavilla pro servitio suo et heredibus suis post eum hereditabiliter ut sit Comes de Essex' et habeat tertium denarium vicecomitatus de placitis sicut comes habere debet in comitatu suo in omnibus rebus." (Idem, pp. 88-1 13). The wording of Stephen's charter had been, "Sciatis me fecisse Comitem de Gaufrido de Magnavilla."
(d) Idem, pp. 140-156, 166-178.
(e) As "Gaufridus de Mandevilla Comes Essexie." (Foundation charter in Cartulary of Walden, carte fundatarum, no. 1).
(f) In the Coucher Book of Kirkstall, f. 71 (Duchy of Lancaster, Misc. Books, vol. 7--edit. Thoresby Soc. p. 241, and Monasticon, vol. v, p. 647), it is stated that John, Constable of Chester, "duxit in uxorem Aliciam de Ver sororem Willelmi de Maindevile" in another version of this account (Cotton MSS., Cleop., C 3, Monasticon, ibid.), the words de Ver are omitted. From this statement Dugdale (pp. 201, 206) concluded that Earl Geoffrey had a former wife, mother of this Alice, as otherwise, if not thus of the half-blood, the representative of Alice--and not Beatrice de Say--wouId have been heir to Earl William in 1189: Dugdale did not notice that Alice might just as well have been half-sister to Earl William by the mother as by the father. However, the above statement is erroneous, and his reasoning falls to the ground. "Alicia de Essex' est de donatione domini Regis et est Ix annorum et est amita Comitis Willelmi et soror Comitis Albrici et habet ij filios milites et filiam maritatam Johanni Constabulario Cestr'" (Rot. de Dom., m. 3 d). The wife of John was therefore Ist cousin, not sister, of Earl William. As to this Alice de Essex, she was da. of Aubrey de Ver the Chamberlain, and wife, 1stly, of Robert de Essex, and, 2ndly, of Roger fitz Richard, of Warkworth (G. de Mandaville, p. 391).da. of Gilbert Fitz Richard, of Clare and Tonbridge.(a) About Oct. 1143 he was accused of treason, but he ridiculed the charge. He was, however, arrested at St. Albans, and imprisoned till he surrendered his castles (the Tower, Walden, and Pleshey) to avoid being hanged.(b) He then broke into open revolt, seized and fortified the Abbey of Ramsey, sacked Cambridge, and ravaged the fen country, until, when besieging Burwell Castle, co. Cambridge, in Aug. 1144, having removed his headpiece on account of the heat, he was mortally wounded by an arrow.(c) He d.at Mildenhall, Suffolk, 14. or 16 Sep. 1144.(d) His body was taken by the Knights Templars to their Old Temple in Holborn, but, as he had died under excommunication, could not receive Christian burial till absolution was granted in 1163, when it was bur. in the grave-yard of the New Temple Church.(e) His widow m. Payn de Beauchamp of Bedford, with whom she founded the Priory of Chicksand (where she was bur.).(f) He d. before Michaelmas 1156.(g) She survived her son, Geoffrey, the 2nd Earl.
(a) G. de Mandwille, pp. 388-391.
(b) Gesta Stephani, pp. 103-7: Huntingdon, pp. 276-7: Chranicl: of Ramsey, pp. 329-332: Gervase, vol. i, p. 128: Chron. of Walden, "C" [see next note]: Newburgh, vol. i, pp. 44-6: De Antiq. Legibus Liber, p. 197.
(c) There are three monastic accounts, all late transcripts, dealing with the Mandevilles. (A) The pedigree, from a ledger of Walden: (B) The founders of Walden Abbey, from a roll: both in Arundel MSS., no. 51, and printed in the Monasticon, vol. iv, pp. 139-141 [with a wrong reference to no. 29]: (C) A diffuse account of the family in Arundel MSS., no. 29 (a better transcript is in Cotton MSS., 1 Vesp., E6), printed in part in the Monasticon, pp. 141-8 [with a wrong reference to no. 51]. There are also (D) notes to several of the carte fundatorum in the Cartulary of Walden, some of which notes are identical with the text of "C." In "B" two dates are given for the death of the 1st Earl (xvjo kal. Oct. and sexto kal. Oct.), "cujus corpus jacet Londoniis humatum apud Temple bar in porticu ante ostium ecclesie occidentalis [sic]." In "C" it is stated that his corpse was lapped in lead and hung on a tree in the orchard at the Old Temple till absolution was obtained, when it was buried in cimiterio novi templi. M. Paris (vol. ii, p. 177) says that he died xviij kal. Octobris.
(d) Leland, Itinerary, edit. L. T. Smith, vol. i, p. 100: Pipe Roll, 2 Hen. II, Bucks and Beds.
[1] George E. Cokayne and Vicary Gibbs, ed., The Complete Peerage, rev., Vol. 5, Dacre to Dysart (London, St. Catherine Press, 1926), 113-116.
[2] George E. Cokayne, Peter W. Hammond, ed., The Complete Peerage, rev., Vol. 14 Addenda & Corrigenda (London: Sutton, 1998), 308-309, this note is a replacement for note c in vol. 5, p. 113, [FamilySearchBook], [FamilySearchCatalog].