General Notes

1  NOTE Upon the decease of William de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of Essex,muchd
ispute arose regarding the inheritance: Beatrix, his auntand heir, in t
he first place, preferring her claim, sentGeoffrey de Say, her younger so
n, to transact the business forthe livery thereof, but Geoffrey FitzPie
rs insisted upon theright of Beatrix, his wife. Nevertheless, Geoffr
ey de Say, inconsideration of 7,000 marks promised to be paid on a certain
day, obtained an instrument in right of his mother, under theking's sea
l, for the whole of the barony, but the said Geoffreyde Say, making defau
lt of payment, this Geoffrey FitzPiers,being a man of great wealth and rep
utation, made representationthat the barony was the right of his wife an
d, promising to paythe money, obtained livery thereof and procured the kin
g'sconfirmation of his title. One of the earliest acts of thisfeudal lo
rd was to dispossess the monks of Walden of certainlands which they had de
rived from his predecessors, a proceedingfollowed by a long controversy, w
hich, after being referred tothe Pope and the King, was finally compromise
d. Upon the removalof Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, from the offi
ce of Justiceof England by Richard I, this Geoffrey was appointed to succe
edhim, and at the coronation of King John, 26 June, 1199, he wasgirt wi
th the sword as Earl of Essex, and then served at theking's table. Being n
ominated patron of the monastery at Walden,he appears soon after to have b
een received with great ceremonyby the monks and perfectly reconciled to t
hose holy fathers. Inthe 7th King John, he had a grant of the castle and h
onour ofBerkhamstead, with the knights' fees thereunto belonging to hold
to him and the heirs of his body, by Aveline, his 2nd wife. Hislordsh
ip m. 1st, Beatrix de Say, by whom he had issue, Geoffrey,William, Henr
y, all of whom assumed the name of Mandeville, andMaud, m. to Robert de Bo
hun. He m. 2ndly, Aveline ---, and hadan only son, John FitzPiers, Lo
rd of Berkhamstead. His lordship,whom Matthew Paris characterizes as "ruli
ng the reins ofgovernment so that after his death the realm was like a sh
ip ina tempest without a pilot," d. 2 October, 1213, and was s. byhis elde
st son, Geoffrey de Mandeville. [Sir Bernard Burke,Dormant, Abeyant, Forfe
ited and Extinct Peerages, Burke'sPeerage, Ltd., London, England, 188
3, p. 353, Mandeville, Earlsof Essex]
----------
GEOFFREY FITZ PETER (d. 1213), earl of Essex and chief justiciarof Englan
d, was a sheriff, a justice itinerant and a justice ofthe forest under Hen
ry II. During Richard's absence on crusadehe was one of the five justic
es of the king's court who stoodnext in authority to the regent, Longcham
p. In 1190 Fitz Petersucceeded to the earldom of Essex, in the right of h
is wife, whowas descended from the famous Geoffrey de Mandeville. Inattemp
ting to asset his hereditary rights over Walden prioryFitz Peter came in
to conflict with Longchamp, and revengedhimself by joining in the baroni
al agitation through which theregent was expelled from his office. Thou
gh refusing to give himformal investiture of the Essex earldom, Richard ap
pointed himjusticiar in succession to Hubert Walter (1198). Fitz Petercont
inued Walter's policy of encouraging foreign trade and thedevelopment of t
he towns; many of the latter received, duringhis administration, charte
rs of self-government. He wascontinued in his office by John, who found h
im an ableinstrument of extortion. He profited to no small extent by thesp
oliation of church lands in the period of the interdict. Buthe was not alt
ogether trusted by the king. The contemporary"Historie des ducs" describ
ed Fitz Peter as living in constantdread of disgrace and confiscatio
n. In the last years of hislife he endeavoured to act as a mediator betwe
en the king andthe opposition. It was by his mouth that the king promis
ed tothe nation the laws of Henry I. (at the council of St. Albans,Au
g. 4,