[535] William de Ou (Auco) or Eu is returned in the carta of the Earl of Essex (1166) as holding four fees of him.
[536] See Appendix Q, on "Osbertus Octodenarii."
[537] Dodsworth's transcript begins again here, and is continued down to "Belloc[ampo]."
[538] "Comes Herefordiæ" (Dug.).
[539] So also Dodsworth; but Dugdale wrongly extends: "Robertus filius Reginaldi." See p. 94, n. 4.
[540] Robert de Courci of Stoke (Courcy), Somerset. He figures in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I. As "Robert de Curci" he witnessed the Empress's charter creating the earldom of Hereford (July 25, 1141), and as "Robert de Curci Dapifer" her confirmation of the Earl of Devon's gift (Mon. Aug., v. 106; Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. 391), both of them passing at Oxford, the latter (probably) in 1142, subsequent to the above charter. He was slain at Counsylth, 1157.
[541] John Fitz Gilbert, marshal to the Empress, and brother, as the succeeding charter proves, to William, her chancellor. With his father, Gilbert the Marshal (Mariscallus), he was unsuccessfully impleaded, under Henry I., by Robert de Venoiz and William de Hastings, for the office of marshal (Rot. Cart., 1 John), and in 1130, as John the Marshal (Mariscallus), he appears as charged, with his relief, in Wiltshire, for his father's lands and office (Rot. Pip., 31 Hen. I.). He is mentioned among the "barons" on the side of the Empress at the siege of Winchester (Gesta Stephani), and he was, with Robert de Curcy, witness to her (Oxford) charter, which I assign in the last note to later in this year, as he also had been to her charter creating the earldom of Hereford (July 25, 1141). Subsequently, he witnessed the charter to the son of the Earl of Essex (vide post). He played some part in the next reign from his official connection with the Becket quarrel. See also p. 131.
[542] Miles de Beauchamp, son of Robert de Beauchamp, and nephew to Simon de Beauchamp, hereditary castellan of Bedford. In 1130 he appears in connection with Beds. and Bucks. (Rot. Pip., 31 Hen. I.). With his brother (Salop Cartulary) Payn de Beauchamp (who afterwards married Rohaise, the widow of this Geoffrey de Mandeville), he had held Bedford Castle against the king for five weeks from Christmas, 1137, as heir-male to his uncle, whose daughter and heir, with the Bedford barony, Stephen had conferred on Hugh Pauper, brother of his favourite, the Count of Meulan (Ord. Vit.; Gesta Steph.). Dugdale's account is singularly inaccurate. Simon, the uncle, must have been living in the spring of 1136, for he then witnessed, as a royal dapifer, Stephen's great (Oxford) charter.
[543] See p. 94, n. 2.
[544] Robert de Oilli the second, castellan of Oxford, and constable. Founder of Osney Priory. He appears in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I., and had witnessed, as a royal constabularius, Stephen's great (Oxford) charter of 1136, but had embraced the cause of the Empress in 1141 (see p. 66). He witnessed five others of the Empress's charters, all of which passed at Oxford (Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. 391, 392, 396, 397).