CHAPTER X.
THE EARLDOM OF ESSEX.
The death of Geoffrey was a fatal blow to the power of the fenland rebels. According, indeed, to one authority, his brother-in-law, William de Say, met his death on the same occasion,[700] but it was the decease of the great earl which filled the king's supporters with exultant joy and hope.[701] For a time Ernulf, his son and heir, clung to the abbey fortress, but at length, sorely against his will, he gave up possession to the monks.[702] Before the year was out, he was himself made prisoner and straightway banished from the realm.[703] Nor was the vengeance of Heaven even yet complete. The chief officer of the wicked earl was thrown from his horse and killed,[704] and the captain of his foot, who had made himself conspicuous in the violating and burning of churches, met, as he fled beyond the sea, with the fate of Jonah, and worse.[705]
Chroniclers and genealogists have found it easiest to ignore the subsequent fate of Ernulf (or Ernald) de Mandeville.[706] He has even been conveniently disposed of by the statement that he died childless.[707] It may therefore fairly be described as a genealogical surprise to establish the fact, beyond a shadow of doubt, not only that he left issue, but that his descendants flourished for generations, heirs in the direct male line of this once mighty house. Ernulf himself first reappears, early in the following reign, as a witness to a royal charter confirming Ernald de Bosco's foundation at Betlesdene.[708] He also occurs as a principal witness in a family charter, about the same time.[709] This document,[710] which is addressed by Earl Geoffrey "baronibus suis," is a confirmation of a grant of lands in Sawbridgeworth, by his tenant Warine fitz Gerold "Camerarius Regis" and his brother Henry, to Robert Blund of London, who is to hold them "de predictis baronibus meis." The witnesses are: "Roesia Com[itissa] matre mea, Eust[achia] Com[itissa], Ernulfo de Mannavilla fratre meo, Willelmo filio Otuwel patruo meo, Mauricio vicecomite, Willelmo de Moch' capellano meo, Otuwel de bouile, Ricardo filio Osberti, Radulfo de Bernires, Willelmo et Ranulfo fil' Ernaldi, Gaufrido de Gerp[en]villa, Hugone de Augo, Waltero de Mannavilla, Willelmo filio Alfredi, Gaufredo filio Walteri, Willelmo de Plaisiz, Gaufrido pincerna." He is, doubtless, also the "Ernald de Mandevill" who holds a knight's fee, in Yorkshire, of Ranulf fitz Walter in 1166.[711] But in the earliest Pipe-Rolls of Henry II. he is already found as a grantee of terræ datæ in Wilts., to the amount of £11 10s. 0d. (blanch) "in Wurda." This grant was not among those repudiated by Henry II., and Geoffrey de Mandeville, Ernulf's heir, was still in receipt of the same sum in 1189[712] and 1201-2.[713] Later on, in a list of knights' fees in Wilts., which must belong, from the mention of Earl William de Longespée, to 1196-1226, and is probably circ. 1212, we read: "Galfridus de Mandevill tenet in Wurth duas partes unius militis de Rege."[714] That Ernulf should have received a grant in Wilts., a county with which his family was not connected, is probably accounted for by the fact that he obtained it in the time of the Empress, who, as in the case of Humfrey de Bohun, found the revenues of Wilts. convenient as a means of rewarding her partisans.[715] But we now come to a series of charters of the highest importance for this discovery. These were preserved among the muniments of Henry Beaufoe of Edmondescote, county Warwick, Esq., when they were seen by Dugdale, who does not, however, in his Baronage, allude to their evidence. By the first of these Earl Geoffrey (died 1166) grants to his brother Ernulf one knight's fee in Kingham, county Oxon.:—
"Sciatis me dedisse et firmiter concessisse Ernulfo de Mandavilla fratri meo terram de Caingeham, ... pro servitio unius militis in excambitione terre Radulfi de Nuer.... Et si Caingeham illi garantizare non potero dabo illi excambium ad valorem de Caingeham antequam inde sit dissaisitus.... T. Com[ite] Albrico auunculo meo, Henry (sic) fil[io] Ger[oldi], Galfr[ido] Arsic, Rad[ulf]o de Berner[iis], Waltero de Mandavilla, Will[elm]o de Aino, Galfrido de Jarpeuill, Will[elmo] de Plais', Jurdan[o] de Taid', Hug[one] de Auc[o], Willelm[o] fil[io] Alured Rad[ulfo] Magn[?avilla], Audoenus (sic) Pincerna, Rad[ulfo] frater (sic) eius, Aluredus (sic) Predevilain."[716]
Ralph "de Nuers," is entered in 1166 as a former holder of four fees from Earl Geoffrey (II.).[717] Of the witnesses to the charter,[718] Henry fitz Gerold (probably the chamberlain) held four fees (de novo) of the earl in 1166, Ralph de Berners four (de veteri), Walter de Mandeville four (de veteri), Geoffrey de Jarpe[n]ville one (de novo), Hugh de Ou and William fitz Alfred one each (de novo), "Audoenus Pincerna" and Ralph his brother the fifth of a fee (de novo) jointly. The relative precedence, according to holding, is not unworthy of notice. The second charter is from Earl William, confirming his brother's gift:—
"Willelmus de Mandavilla comes Essexie Omnibus hominibus, etc. Sciatis me concessisse Ernulfo de Mandauilla fratri meo donationem quam Comes Galfridus illi fecit de villa de Kahingeham.... T. Comite Albrico, Simone de Bellocampo, Gaufrido de Say, Will[elm]o de Bouilla, Radu[lfo] de Berneres, Seawal' de Osonuilla, Ric[ard]o de Rochellâ, Osberto fil[io] Ric[ard]i, Dauid de Gerponuilla, Wiscardo Leidet, Waltero de Bareuilla, Albot Fulcino, Hugone clerico," etc.[719]
Here Earl "Alberic" was uncle both to the grantor and the grantee; Simon de Beauchamp was their uterine brother; Geoffrey de Say their first cousin. William de Boville would be related to Otuel de Boville, the chief tenant of Mandeville in 1166.[720] "Sewalus de Osevill" then (1166) held four fees (de veteri) of the earl. Richard "de Rochellâ" held three-quarters of a fee (de novo). Osbert fitz Richard was probably a son of Richard fitz Osbert, who held four fees (de veteri) in 1166. Wiscard Ledet was a tenant in capite in Oxfordshire (Testa, p. 103).[721]
The third charter transfers the fee from the grantee himself to his son:—
"Notum sit ... quod ego Arnulfus de Mandeuilla concessi et dedi Radulfo de Mandeuilla filio meo pro suo servicio et homagio villam de Chaingeham ... et hospitium meum Oxenfordie ad prædictam villam pertinens[722] ... T. Henrico Danuers," etc.[723]
From another quarter we are enabled to continue the chain of evidence. We have first a charter to Osney:—