"Carta M. Imperatricis per quam dat Gaufredo de Mannevill filio Gaufredi Comitis Essexie totam hereditatem suam et omnes tenuras quas concessit patri suo. Testes R. Com. Gloec., Rag. Com. Cornub., Rog. Com. Hereford, R. Regis filio, Umfridus de Bohun Dap., Johannes filius Gisleberti, W. de Pontlarch' Camerario. Apud Divisas.[730]
The names of Robert, Earl of Gloucester, and Roger, Earl of Hereford, limit the date of this charter to 1144-1147, and the father of the grantee died, as we have seen, in August, 1144. It should be noted that nothing is said here of the earldom of Essex, and that only an absolutely new creation could confer the dignity on Geoffrey, as he was not his father's heir.
Here, however, yet another charter, also at present unknown, comes to our assistance with its unique evidence that Geoffrey must have held his father's title before 1147.[731] He then disappears from view for the time.
We must now skip some twelve years, and pass to that most important charter in which the earldom was conferred anew on Geoffrey by Henry II. Only those who have made a special study of these subjects can realize the value of this charter, a record hitherto unknown. The attitude of Henry II. to the creations of Stephen and Matilda, the extent to which he recognized them, and the method in which he did so, are subjects on which the historian is peculiarly anxious for information, but on which our existing evidence is singularly and lamentably slight. Of the four charters quoted in the Reports on the Dignity of a Peer, only two can be said to have a real bearing on the question, and of these one is of uncertain date, while the meaning of the other is doubtful. But the charter I am about to deal with is remarkably clear in its meaning, and possesses the advantage that its contents enable us to date it with precision.
The original charter was formerly preserved in the Cottonian collection, but was doubtless among those which perished in the disastrous fire.[732] The copy of it made by Dugdale, and now among his MSS. at Oxford, is unfortunately imperfect, but the discovery of an independent copy among the Rawlinson MSS. has enabled me not only to fill the gaps in Dugdale's copy (which I have here placed within brackets), but also to establish by collation the accuracy of the text.
Charter of Henry II. to Geoffrey de Mandeville the Younger (Jan. 1156).
H. Rex Angl[orum] (et) Dux Normannie et Aquitanie et Comes Andegavie Archiepiscopis Episcopis Abbatibus Comitibus Justiciariis Baronibus Vicecomitibus ministris et omnibus fidelibus suis Francis et Anglis Anglie et Normannie salutem. Sciatis me fecisse Gaufridum de Magna Villa Comitem de Essexa et dedisse et hereditarie concessisse sibi et heredibus suis ad tenendum de me et heredibus meis Tertium Denarium de placitis meis ejusdem Comitatus. Et volo et concedo et firmiter precipio quod ipse Comes et heredes sui[733] post eum [habeant] et teneant comitatum suum ita bene et in pace et libere et quiete et plene et honorifice sicut aliquis Comes in Angliâ vel Normanniâ melius, liberius, quietius, plenius, et honorificentius tenet Comitatum suum. Præterea reddidi ei et concessi totam terram Gaufridi de MagnaVilla proavi sui, et avi sui, et patris sui, et omnia tenementa illorum, tam in dominiis quam in feodis militum, tam in Anglia quam in Normannia, que de me tenet in capite, et de quocunque teneat et de cujuscunque feodo sint, et nominatim Waledenam et Sabrichteswordam[734] et Walteham. Et vadium quod Rex Henricus avus meus habuit super predicta tria maneria sua imperpetuum ei clamavi quietum sibi et heredibus suis de me et de meis heredibus. Quare volo (et firmiter precipio) quod ipse et heredes sui habeant et teneant (de me et de meis heredibus) comitatum suum predictum ita libere (et quiete et plene) sicut aliquis Comes in Anglia (vel Normannia) melius, (liberius quietius et plenius comitatum suum) tenet. Et habeant et teneant ipse et heredes sui omnia predicta tenementa antecessorum suorum predictorum et nominatim predicta tria maneria ita bene (et in pace et libere et quiete et honorifice et plene, in bosco et plano et pratis et pascuis in Aquis et molendinis in viis et semitis in forestis et warrennis in rivariis et piscariis infra Burgum et extra et in omnibus locis et nominatim infra Civitatem London[ie], cum Soco et Saca et Toll et Team et Infangtheof et cum omnibus Libertatibus et liberis consuetudinibus et quietanciis suis) sicut Gaufridus de MagnaVilla proavus suus et avus suus et pater suus unquam melius, (liberius, quietius, et honorificentius et plenius) tenuerunt, tempore Regis Willelmi et Regis Henrici avi mei. Testibus T[heobaldo] Archiepiscopo Cantuar' (Rog[er]o Archiep[iscop]o Eborac' Ric[ardo] Ep[iscop]o London', Rob[erto] Ep[iscop]o Lincoln', Nigello Ep[iscop]o Eliensi, Tom[a] Canc[ellario], Rag[inaldo] Com[ite] Cornub', R[oberto] Com[ite] Legrec', Rog[ero] Com[ite] de Clara, H[enrico] de Essex Conesta[bulo], Ric[ardo] de Hum[ez] Conest[abulo], Ric[ardo] de Lucy, War[ino] fil[io] Ger[oldi] Cam[er]ario, Man[assero] Bisset dap[ifero], Rob[er]to de Dunest[anvilla] et Jos[celino] de Baillolio) Apud Cantuariam.
The first point to be considered is that of the date. It is obvious at once from the names of the primate and the chancellor that the charter must be previous to the king's departure from England in 1158. But the only occasion within this limit on which the charter can have passed is that of the king's visit to Canterbury on his way to Dover and the Continent in January, 1156 (115⅚). On no other occasion within this limit did he land at or depart from Dover. Now, it is quite certain that the charter to Earl Aubrey (de Vere), which is tested "Apud Dover in transitu Regis," passed at the time of this departure from Dover (January 10, 1156).[735] We find, then, that as in 1142 the charters to Earl Geoffrey and Earl Aubrey were part of one transaction and passed on the same occasion, so now, the charters to Earl Geoffrey the second and Earl Aubrey, his uncle, passed almost on the same day. The long list of witnesses to the former, for which we are indebted to the Rawlinson MS., enables us to compare it closely with those of the four other charters which passed, according to Mr. Eyton, about the same time.[736] The proportions of their witnesses found among the witnesses to this charter are respectively: seven out of ten in the first; nine out of eighteen in the second; the whole ten in the third; and seven out of fourteen in the fourth. As the king had spent his Christmas at Westminster, we can thus fix the date almost to a day, viz. circ. January 2, 1156. And this harmonizes well enough with the evidence of the Pipe-Rolls, which show that Earl Geoffrey was in receipt of the tertius denarius in 1157, as from Michaelmas, 1155.
On looking at the terms of this instrument, we are struck at once by the fact that it is a charter of actual creation. This is in perfect accordance with the view advanced above, namely, that the charter granted at Devizes to this Geoffrey, as his father's son, has no bearing on the earldom of Essex, "and that only an absolutely new creation could confer the earldom on Geoffrey, as he was not his father's heir." It is thus that the existence of his brother Ernulf became a factor in the problem of no small consequence.[737]
Being thus an undoubted new creation, its terms should be examined most carefully. It will then be found that the precedent they follow is not the charter of the Empress (1141), but the original charter of the king (1140).