1st Earl of Essex Geoffrey de Mandeville

• General Notes
  • Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1st Earl of Essex (d. 1144) was one of the prominent players during the Anarchy of the reign of King Stephen of England. His biographer, the historian J. H. Round, called him "the most perfect and typical presentment of the feudal and anarchic spirit that stamps the reign of Stephen." He succeeded his father, William sometime before 1130. A key portion of the family patrimony was in the king's hands, as William had incurred Henry I's displeasure and lost them, along with his office as constable of the Tower of London. The king also held the substantial estate of Geoffrey's maternal grandfather Eudo Dapifer.
    
    Geoffrey's goal in the early years of strife between Stephen and Maud seems to have to recover these losts lands. He succeeded in this, during the shifting tides of fortunes of the two competitors for the English throne, by bidding his support to first one, then the other.
    
    He started out supporting Stephen, who sometime in 1140 (or perhaps December 1139) made him Earl of Essex in reward for his services against Maud. In 1140 or 1141 Stephen returned to him the seized estates in Essex. In 1141 he was also appointed custodian of the Tower of London.
    
    After the defeat and capture of Stephen at Lincoln (1141) the earl deserted to Maud. She confirmed his custody of the Tower, forgave the large debts his father had incurred to the crown, granted him the Norman lands of Eduo Dapifer, and appointed him sheriff of Essex, Middlesex and London, and Hertfordshire. But before the end of the year, learning that Stephen's release was imminent, he returned to his original allegiance. In 1142 he was again intriguing with the empress; but before he could openly join her cause he was detected and deprived of his castles by the king.
    
    In 1143-1144 Geoffrey maintained himself as a rebel and a bandit in the fen-country, using the Isle of Ely and Ramsey Abbey as his headquarters. He was besieged by Stephen in the fens, and met his death in September 1144 in consequence of a wound received in a skirmish.
    
    His career is interesting for two reasons. The charters which he extorted from Stephen and Matilda illustrate the peculiar form taken by the ambitions of English feudatories. The most important concessions are grants of offices and jurisdictions which had the effect of making Mandeville a viceroy with full powers in Essex, Middlesex and London, and Hertfordshire. His career as an outlaw exemplifies the worst excesses of the anarchy which prevailed in some parts of England during the civil wars of 1140-1147, and it is probable that the deeds of Mandeville inspired the rhetorical description, in the Peterborough Chronicle of this period, when "men said openly that Christ and his saints were asleep." Geoffrey married Rohese de Vere, daughter of Aubrey de Vere. They had three sons:
    Ernulf, who was exiled and disinherited
    Geoffrey de Mandeville, 2nd Earl of Essex (d. 1166)
    William de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of Essex (d. 1189)
    
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    Vol V pp 113-116
    # Note:
    
        Geoffrey de Mandeville, who like his fellow (the 2nd (meaning Algernon Capell, 2nd Earl of Essex of the 1641 creation)) Earl of Essex of the present creation was Constable of the Tower of London, was created Earl of Essex in 1140 by King Stephen. He already held numerous manors in Berks, Bucks, Essex, Herts, and Middlesex, which had belonged to his grandfather, another Geoffrey, at the time of the Domesday Survey in 1086. The family originated in Normandy, but precisely where is unclear, since there are several place names there akin to Mandeville (which seems originally to have been in Latin 'Magna Villa' or "Great Town"). De Mandeville later sided with the Empress Maud, who granted him a more generously framed charter, including a clause making the post of Constable of the Tower hereditary. Later still de Mandeville again sided with Stephen but subsequently rebelled yet again. His son was recreated Earl of Essex by Maud in Jan 1155/6, the rebellious habits of the father and perhaps also the appointive nature of earldoms at the time requiring a regrant.
    
    # Note:
    
        After the death of the 3rd de Mandeville Earl, right to the title passed through a female branch but these descendants of the original de Mandevilles took the old family name (Mandeville) and were recognised as Earls of Essex in the time of King's John and Henry III. [Burke's Peerage, page 1004]
    
    # Note:
    
        Cokayne's "Complete Peerage" (Essex, pp. 113-116), says that, for reasons that are somewhat obscure, KING STEPHEN, made him Earl of Essex, then proceeds to detail Geoffrey's frequent switching of support for the EMPRESS MAUD and for KING STEPHEN in their contest for the throne. About Oct 1143, he was accused of treason, but he ridiculed the charge. He was, however, arrested and imprisoned until he surrendered his castles to avoid being hanged. He then broke into open revolt, seized and fortified the Abbey of Ramsey, sacked Cambridge, and ravaged the fen country, until, when beseiging Burwell Castle, having removed his headpice on account of the heat, he was mortally wounded by an arrow
    
    # Note:
    Title: Magna Charta Sureties 1215, Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr, 5th Edition, 1999
    Page: 159-1
    
    Title: Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th Edition, Charles Mosley Editor-in-Chief, 1999
    Page: cxviii, 1004
    Title: Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom, by G. E Cokayne, Sutton Publishing Ltd, 2000
    Page: XI:464-465

Click here for details of Geoffrey's family with Rohese de Vere

¹ http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=tamer&id=I7447

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