Sir Robert de Beaumont Earl of Leicester

  General Notes:

~Weis' Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700, 8th Edition, 50:24 - as husband of Isabel de Vermandois, the daughter of Hugh Magnus and Adelaide de Vermandois, and father of Waleran de Beaumont. 53:24 - as father of Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester, 66:24 - as father of Isabella de Beaumont, wife of Gilvert de Clare, 151:25 - as father of Roger de Beaumont, 215:24 - as father of Maud, wife of William de Lovel. ¹⁶⁰

~Emperor Charlemagnes Descendents, Vol. I, p. 125, Vol. II, p. 18, Vol. III, p. 35 ^528,529,530

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ¹⁴¹
Robert Beaumont, Seigneur of Beaumont, Pont-Audemer, Brionne and Vatteville in Normandy, and from 1081, comté de Meulan, accompanied William the Conqueror in the invasion of England in 1066 while he was very young. Having greatly distinguished himself at the battle of Hastings, he was rewarded with vast possessions in England, receiving ninety one great lordships or manors, mostly in Warwickshire. Upon the death of his mother in 1081 he became Comté de Meulan in France.

Robert succeeded to the greater part of his father's lands in Normandy including Beaumont, Pont-Audemer, Vatteville, and Brionne. This paternal inheritance, added to his French holdings and to his great possessions in counties Warwick and Leicester, made him one of the most powerful vassals of the Crown. After the death of William the Conqueror, he was one of the chief lay ministers of William Rufus. After the death of William Rufus, he became one of the chief advisors to King Henry I. He served the king at Tenchebrai, 28 Sep 1106. In 1110, he was besieged at Meulan by Louis VI, who took the castle by storm, but the following year he retaliated by a raid of Paris, which he plundered.

Upon the death of Ivo de Grandmesnil, he became lord of Grandmesnil's estates. This gave him one quarter of the town of Leicester, to which King Henry later added the remaining three-quarters.

Sir Robert was married to Elizabeth, sometimes called Isabella, daughter of Hugh de Crépi, also known as Hugh "le Grand," Comté de Vermandois. He died 5 Jun 1118, and was buried with his ancestors in the chapter house of Préux. His widow married, shortly after his death, William de Warenne, Earl or Surrey. Robert had three sons and five daughters. The sons were Waleran and Robert, twins born in 1104, and Hugh. Waleran, the eldest succeeded to the Norman and French fiefs, and the English land held by his grandfather Roger de Beaumont in 1086. Robert succeeded his father as the earl of Leicester, and Hugh is said to have been created Earl of Bedford. Of his daughters, only four of their names are known, Adeline, Aubreye, Maud and Isabella or Elizabeth. Adeline m. Hugh IV, Seigneur of Montfort-sur-Risle. Aubreye m. Hugh II, Seigneur of Châteauneuf-en-Thimerais. Maud married William Louvel, Seigneur of Ivri and Breval. Isabella, sometimes called Elizabeth, was a mistress of Henry I, and married Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Pembroke.

~Cokayne's Complete Peerage, 2nd Edition, (Leicester), Vol. VII, pp. 523-526

• Domesday Book. ²¹⁴
Robert of Beaumont was also called the Count of Meulan which he became through his mother. His brother was Henry, and he was the son of Roger/ He was Earl of Leicester from 1107. he died in 1118. he was a close advisor of Henry I.

His twin children, Robert who inherited the title of Walerun, Count of Meulan and later earl of Worcester were of great influence on King Stephen. His brother-in-law was Gilbert de Clare and theri half brother, William de Warrenne became second Earl of Surrey. Robert de Beaumont had land holdings in Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Worcestershire

• Web Reference:
Charles Cawley's Medieval Lands Robert de Beaumont-le-Roger son of Roger de Vieilles, seigneur de Beaumont-le-Roger and his wife Adeline d Meulan. "Orderic Vitalis names "...Rodbertus tiro Rogerii de Bellomonte filius..." among those who took part in the battle of Hastings [Orderic Vitalis (Prévost), Vol. II, Liber III, XIV, p. 148]. He was rewarded by William I King of England with the grant of lands, mainly in Warwickshire and Leicestershire. He succeeded his mother's family in 1081 as Comte de Meulan. Orderic Vitalis names "Rodbertum et Henricum" as the heirs of "Rogerius...de Bellomonte", adding that Robert inherited "comitatum de Mellento in pago Vilcasino hereditario jure post Hugonem Adelinæ matris suæ fratrem" and possessed "in Anglia comitatum Legecestriæ" which he was granted by King Henry I [Orderic Vitalis (Prévost), Vol. III, Liber VIII, XXV, p. 427]." Sir Robert married, first to Godechilde de Tosny, daughter of Raoul III de Tonsy seigneur de Conches and his wife Isabel de Montfort l'Amaury. Sir Robert married, as his second wife, «Isabelle de Vermandois, daughter of Hugues de France (Capet) comte de Vermandois et de Valois and his wife Adelais (Carolingian) comtessa de Vermandois. She is likely the mother of his children, despite divorcing her in 1115.

Robert married Isabella de Vermandois Countess of Leicester, daughter of Hugh Magnus Capet comté de Vermandois and Adélaide comtesse de Vermandois, in 1096 in France ¹⁶⁰.^,141 (Isabella de Vermandois Countess of Leicester was born in 1081 in Valois, Bretagne, France and died on 13 Feb 1131 in France of England ¹⁶⁰.)