General Notes

Name Suffix:<NSFX> 2nd Earl Of Leicester
Robert (called Bossu), 2nd earl of Leicester, stoutly adhering to King Henry I upon all occasions, was with that monarch at his decease in 1135, and he afterwards staunchly supported the interests of his grandson, Henry II, upon whose accession to the throne his lordship was constituted Justice of England. He m. (1119) Amicia, dau. of Ralph de Waer, Earl of Norfolk, by whom he had a son, Robert, and two daus., one, the wife of Simon, Earl of Huntingdon, the other of William, Earl of Gloucester, The earl, who was a munificent benefactor to the church and founder of several religious houses, d. in 1167, having lived for fifteen years a canon regular in the abbey of Leicester, and was s. by his son, Robert. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, England, 1883, p. 42, Bellomont, Earls of Leicester]
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Robert, Earl of Leicester, was the younger of the twin sons of Robert of Meulan, Henry I's chief adviser. While his brother, Waleran, was mercurial, even flashy, Robert was renowned for patience and circumspection. Very much under Waleran's shadow until the 1140's, Robert slowly built up one of the largest baronies in England and a major political position through alliances with other magnates and a growing network of vassals whose loyalty was secured by firm discipline. By 1154, Robert was perhaps the most powerful baron in England as well as being a political veteran whose reputation as an administrator, negotiator, and lawyer (in the words of Richard FitzNeal who knew him, 'a man of sound judgement, well educated and practised in legal affairs'). Something of an intellectual, his views on royal authority and treason were quoted by John of Salisbury in his "Policraticus" and he himself wrote on philosophy and astronomy. In 1155, Henry II harnessed both Robert's territorial power and his personal talents to the new regime by appointing him Justiciar, an office which he held, as the senior partner to Richard de Lucy, until his death.
Under his father's will, Robert received the family lands in England, including the earldom of Leicester, but in 1121 his marriage to Amice, heiress of Breteuil, brought him a strategically important fief in Normandy. Brought up in Henry I's court, by the early 1130s, Robert shared in the high favour bestowed on his family and their connections; he also witnessed fifteen royal charters between 1130 and 1135, a sign of things to come. With the death of Henry I and the accession of Stephen, Robert shared in the heyday of Beaumont power, taking the opportunity to settle old scores with territorial rivals, such as the Tosnis in Normandy. In 1139 he helped his brother destroy Roger of Salisbury, receiving from Stephen the city and earldom of Hereford the following year. Robert's diplomatic skills were exercised in 1141 when he negotiated the division of the family lands so that he could retain his English estates as a supporter of Stephen and his brother Waleran the French lands as an adherent of the Angevins. Although remaining a close associate of King Stephen, Robert spent much of the rest of the reign securing his own position. Independent of the king, he formed treaties with Angevin magnates, such as Ranulf of Chester, in order to reduce the prospects of damage to his landed interests, especially in the Midlands. He was notorious for controlling his tenants over whom he lay the constant threat of disseisin. In 1153, he changed sides, soon becoming one of Henry FitzEmpress's chief counsellors and having his Norman estates restored.
As Justiciar, he acted as Henry's main adviser at court and his representative when the king was abroad. Although prominent in the Becket controversy, he avoided the excommunications of 1166, perhaps because the archbishop saw him as of independent mind, a possible mediator. His duties as Justiciar included presiding at the Exchequer; carrying out royal writs; ov