Genealogy Richard Remmé, The Hague, Netherlands » Robert II 'le Bossu' de Beaumont le Roger 2nd Earl of Leicester, Viceroy of England (± 1104-1168)

Personal data Robert II 'le Bossu' de Beaumont le Roger 2nd Earl of Leicester, Viceroy of England 

• Alternative names: Bossu, 2nd Earl Of Leicester Robert De Beaumont
• He was born about 1104 in Beaumont, Leicester, Leicestershire, England.Sources 5, 7, 9
• Baptized (at 8 years of age or later) by the priesthood authority of the LDS church on December 19, 1921.
• Profession: 2nd Earl of Leicester in Warfield, Berkshire, England, Great Britain.Sources 3, 5, 10
• He died on April 5, 1168 in Leicester Castle, Leicestershire, England.Sources 5, 7, 9, 10, 11
• He is buried in Leicester Abbey, Leicester, Leicestershire, England, Great Britain // Saint Mary's de Pre.
• A child of Robert II 'le Prud'Homme' de Beaumont le Roger and Isabel (Elizabeth) [Capet] de Vermandois
• This information was last updated on December 4, 2022.

Household of Robert II 'le Bossu' de Beaumont le Roger 2nd Earl of Leicester, Viceroy of England

(1) He is married to Amice de Montfort.

They got married after November 1120.Sources 7, 9

Child(ren):

1. Robert III 'Mains Blanches crusader' de Beaumont le Roger  ± 1130-1190 
2. Mabel De Beaumont le Roger  ± 1124-????
3. Hawise de Beaumont le Roger  ± 1130-1194 
4. Margaretha de Beaumont le Roger  ± 1125-> 1185 
5. Gervace (Paganel) de Beaumont le Roger  ± 1138-????
6. Lade de Beaumont le Roger  ± 1140-????
7. William de Beaumont le Roger  ± 1142-????
8. John de Beaumont le Roger  ± 1144-????
9. Geoffrey de Beaumont le Roger  ± 1146-????
10. Henry de Beaumont le Roger  ± 1148-????

(2) He is married to Amicia de Breteuil.

They got married November 1120.Sources 3, 5

Notes about Robert II 'le Bossu' de Beaumont le Roger 2nd Earl of Leicester, Viceroy of England

2nd Earl of Leicester, Justiciar of England

euweb.direaumont5.html

C2. Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester, Viceroy of England, *1104, +5.4.1168; m.after XI.1120 Amicie (+after 1168) dau.of Raoul, sn de Gael et de Montfort

==================

  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. The Earl, who was a munificent benefactor to the church and founder of several religious houses, died in 1168, having lived for fifteen years a canon regular in the abbey of Leicester, and was followed by his son, Robert.

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; overseeing local royal officials; acting as a judge in hearing major pleas of the crown; paying troops; provisioning royal castles and palaces; and transporting treasure. Robert was a dominant figure in government and aristocracy, with unrivaled royal confidence and estates to match, stretching from Wales to East Anglia. Much of the later prestige attached to the Justiciarship derived from Robert's own reputation as a politician of unequalled experience; a royal servant of expertise and a baron of the highest lineage and unsurpassed wealth. Yet sometimes his dual role found him out. In c. 1167, he had obtained a special writ of exemption from demands on his lands under the Forest Laws. This caused outrage among the old Exchequer hands led by Nigel of Ely who insisted that anyone who sat at the Exchequer possessed ex-officio exemption which did not require specific royal approval. It is one case of many where Earl Robert's first thought was to promote and protect his own property and interests while at the same time serving the King. FitzNeal described Robert as strong minded and diligent. Henry II recognised his quality and, again in FitzNeal's words, made him 'head not only of the Exchequer, but of the whole kingdom.'

Born to greatness, Robert acquired further greatness by doing well out of the civil war of Stephen's reign and was thus in an unrivalled position to exploit his opportunities when high office was thrust upon him. Robert has been called 'the model of the curial magnate' and his career, taken with those of his father and brother, expose how unrealistic is the historical cliché which pits kings against barons. Medieval realms only operated through intimate cooperation between ruler and the most powerful of the ruled. Such relationships were inevitably at times tense and could degenerate into acrimony and violent confrontation especially if, as under Stephen, the king was a poor manager of men. But such dislocation was the product of mutual dependency, not separation of interests. Robert did well out of kings and did well for kings: in him and those like him, we can see how effective medieval government operated to the desired benefit of all involved. Sectional interests as often as not united monarch and magnate as divided them. Twelfth century kings had no option or desire to base their rule on others than the natural leaders of society of whom few were more effective than Robert of Leicester who combined self-interest and loyalty to the material advantage of master and minister alike.

The earl founded the abbey of St. Mary de Pré at Leicester and other religious houses and by a charter confirmed the burgesses of Leicester in the possession of their merchant guild and customs. His son Robert succeeded to the Earldom of Leicester and with other English barons assisted Prince Henry in his revolt against his father, the king, in 1773. For this participation, and also on a later occasion, he was imprisoned; but he enjoyed the favour of Richard I and died in Greece while returning from a pilgrimage in 1190. Earl Robert II of Leicester was buried in Saint Mary's de Pre in Leicestershire.

=================================

.
On Leicester, Earldom of [Burke's Peerage, p. 1671]:

Robert de Beaumont, a companion in arms of William I (The Conqueror) at Hastings was granted after the Conquest much land in the Midlands of England, but most of it was in Warwickshire rather than Leicestershire. Indeed his younger brother became Earl of Warwick.  Robert also held territory in Normandy and is usually referred to as Count of Meulan.  He was a leading political figure in the reigns of William II and Henry I and on the death of one Ives de Grandmesnil in the First Crusade, the funds for campaigning in which Ives had raised from Robert on the security of his estates, [Robert] came into full possession of them, including a sizeable part of Leicester.  The rest of the town was granted him by Henry I and it is possible that he became Earl of Leicester.  His son, another Robert, certainly called himself Earl of Leicester.

----------------------------

EARLDOM OF LEICESTER (II) 1118

ROBERT (a), EARL OF LEICESTER, younger son, being twin with Waleran, who succeeded his father as Count of Meulan, was born 1104, and was commonly called Le Bossu or Le Goczen. He
styles himself Earl of Leicester in the confirmation of his charter on behalf of Bec and St. Nicaise-de-Meulan in 1119. He and his brother Waleran were brought up at the court of Henry I with great care on account of the King's gratitude to their father. They accompanied Henry when he interviewed Pope Calixtus at Gisors, November 1119 where they astonished the Cardinals by their learning. On 8 September 1131 Robert was one of the five Earls who witnessed Henry's charter to Salisbury at the Northampton Council, and both the brothers were present at the deathbed of Henry L In the anarchy which followed Stephen's accession he engaged in private warfare with his hereditary enemy, Roger de Tosny, whom he captured with the assistance of his brother Waleran. In 1137 the twins returned to England with Stephen. Meanwhile, during Robert's absence in England, his possessions in Normandy were overrun until he came to terms with Roger de Tosny. In June 1139 the two brothers took a leading part in the seizing of the Bishops o! Salisbury and Lincoln at Oxford. At about this time he received from Stephen a grant to him as Earl of Leicester and to his heirs of the town and castle of Hereford "et totum comitatum de Herefordisc.," excepting the lands of the Bishop, those of the Abbot of Reading and of other churches and abbeys holding in chief of the King, and excepting also the fees of Hugh de Mortemer, Osbert son of Hugh, and others, "cum aliis omnibus rebus et libertatibus quae ad omnia prefata pertinent cum quibus Gul. filius Osbern unquam melius vel liberius tenuit." This grant was made at Newton (probably near Leominster) at a time when Miles of Gloucester had already taken possession of the county for the Empress, and therefore cannot have been effectual to bestow either the lands or the Earldom of Hereford, if such was Stephen's intention. After the defeat of Stephen, 2 Feb. 1141, Robert appears to have made a truce with the Angevin party in Normandy until he should return from England, and devoted himself to his foundation of St. Mary de Pré at Leicester, which was accomplished in 1143. According to the narrative of St. Mary's, he became a canon regular there circa 1153, and so remained until his death, but the story conflicts with his known public career. In that year Henry, son of the Empress, anticipating his succession to the throne (which was agreed by the Treaty of Waningford in November 1153), gave Robert and his son Robert charters, dated at Bristol, "restoring" to them the lands then held by the elder, Robert, and granting them the Stewardship of England and of Normandy, whereby he doubtless secured their support of his claims to the crown. Robert was at the siege of Torigny in October 1154 with Henry II just before his accession, attended his Coronation in December 1154, and rapidly rose in the new King's favour. He received a confirmation charter of the grant made at Bristol and thus became Steward of England and of Nor:mandy. He was made Justiciar in the following year, and he acted as Viccroy part of the time with Richard de Luci during the King's absence from England from December 1158, after Eleanor left the country until his rcturn 25 January 1162/3. He was present at the Council of Clarendon, 13-28 January 1163/4, and was the first to attest the "Constitutions," to which he procured the assent of Thomas à Becket. He took part with the Crown in its struggle with Becket, but sought to reconcile the King and the Archbishop at the Council of Northampton in October 1164. As Justiciar he pronounced sentence on the Archbishop, who cut short his address by denying the jurisdiction of the court. In 1165 he again acted as Viceroy on the King's departure. In the spring of 1166 he went to Normandy with the King, but was in England again in October, and retained the Justiciarship until his death two years later.

He married, after November 1120, Amice, daughter of Ralph, SEIGNEUR OF GAEL AND MONTFORT in Brittany, who was son of Ralph, EARL OF NORFOLK, by Emma, daughter of William FITZOSBERN, 1st Earl of Hereford. By this marriage he acquired a large part of the FitzOsbern inheritance in Normandy and England. He died 5 April 1168, and was probably buried in St. Mary de Pré. Amice survived him, and is said to have entered the convent of Nuneaton.  [Complete Peerage VII:527-30, XIV:429, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]

[a] It has become the established usage to apply the name of Beaumont to the Earls of Leicester of the first line. Though doubtless a convenient form of nomenclature, it lacks contemporary authority. Roger, Seigneur of Beaumont-le-Roger, the contemporary of the Conqueror, is called Roger de Beaumont with good reason. Orderic speaks of his younger brother Robert as Robert de Beaumont, but in doing so is clearly transferring to him the style borne later by Roger, for Robert always appears in charters as Robertus flius Humphredi. Robert, son of Roger, was also styled de Beaumont until he became Count of Meulan, but his son Robert, 2nd Earl of Leicester, is never so styled. In the next generation the question does not arise, for there were no younger sons. In the last generation of these Earls, William, the eldest brother (who d. vp), is in charters always William de Bréteuil, and Robert, before he succeeded as Earl, figures as Robert de Bréteuil in two charters, and is also so styled in the Chron. de Mailros. There was no reason why this branch of the family should take its style from a place in which it had no interest. Hugh (said to have become Earl of Bedford), younger brother of Robert and Waleran, witnesses a charter circa 1123-38 as Hugone de Mellent. With respect to the elder branch, those who were not themselves Counts were called de Mellento, and this though the caput of their Norman honour was Beaumont, and this endured as the name of two branches of the family after the loss of the comti of Meulan.

Do you have supplementary information, corrections or questions with regards to Robert II 'le Bossu' de Beaumont le Roger 2nd Earl of Leicester, Viceroy of England?
The author of this publication would love to hear from you!

Timeline Robert II 'le Bossu' de Beaumont le Roger 2nd Earl of Leicester, Viceroy of England

Click on the names for more info. Symbols used:  grandparents    parents    brothers/sisters    children