Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/149

Belesme certain 'malefactors and disturbers of the peace' who had forcibly broken into and pillaged certain manors belonging to Hugh le Despenser (amongst whom were Ralphand Roger la Zousch), and upon another commission for the same purpose in the following year. In 1324 he sat on a commission for the trial of persons charged with complicity in a riot at Rochester. On 29 Jan. 1325-6, whi1e on his way from Kirkby to Leicester, he was murdered in a valley near Reresby by one Eustace de Folville and his brother. A commission for the trial of the murderers issued next month, Roger la Zousch of Lubesthorp and Robert Helewell being indicted as accessories. They fled from the kingdom, and their goods were confiscated. One Eudo or Ivo la Zousch was 'appealed of' the murder by Alicia, and, being also threatened with death by Hugh le Despenser, made his escape to France, and died in Paris at Martinmas. Process of outlawry issued against him unlawfully after his death, for the removal of which his son William petitioned parliament next year (1327). Alicia survived her husband by nearly twenty years, dying in 1344. The judge left an heir named Roger, who, being an infant, became a ward of the crown. Alicia was placed in possession of the estates in Leicestershire during his minority. The judge was buried at Kirkby in the church of St. Peter, where a monument in alabaster, representing him as a knight in complete armour, was extant at the date of publication of Nichols's 'History of Leicestershire' (1795), though the lines of the drapery were with difficulty traceable.

[Dugdale's Monast. vi. 511; Madox's Exch. ii. 140; Tanner's Not. Monast. 245; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 230. ii. 6, 171; Parl. Writs, ii. 522, 1647; Rot. Parl. ii. 432; Nichols's Leicest. i. pt. ii. 225, ii. pt. i. 230; Foss's Judges of England.]

 BELESME, ROBERT. [See .]

 BELET, MICHAEL (fl. 1182), judge, was sheriff of Worcestershire 1176-81 and again in 1184, of Wiltshire 1180-82, of Leicestershire and Warwickshire in conjunction with Ralph Glanvill 1185-87, and alone 1189-00. He appears as a justice itinerant for Warwickshire and Leicestershire in 1177, in the following year for Lincolnshire, and in 1179, on the redistribution of circuits which then took place, he was assigned for the eastern circuit.

On several occasions between the latter years of Henry II's reign and the third of John, 1201-2, we find him acting as tallager in various counties. He is classed as a baron in the record of a fine levied before him in the exchequer in 1183, and in 1189-90 we find him acting with the barons in assessing imposts in the midland counties. He was lord of the manor of Shene in Surrey, and of that of Wroxtun in Oxfordshire. He married Emma, daughter and coheir of John de Keynes, by whom he had several sons, of whom the eldest was named Hervey after his grandfather, and the second Michael [q. v.]. The last fine recorded by Dugdale as having been levied before him is dated 1199. Probably he died early in the thirteenth century. On his death his estates passed to his eldest son, Hervey, who, however, dying in 1207-8 without issue, was succeeded by his brother Michael, who paid a fine of 100l. upon the succession.

[Hoveden, ed. Stubbs, ii. 191; Madox's Exch., i. 82, 113, 130, 556, 705, 730; Fuller's Worthies, 137, 159, 178; Rot. Cancell, 3 John, 238; Fines (Hunter) Pref. xxi-xxiii; Pipe Roll 1 Ric. I, 35, 69, 103, 116, 160, 236; Dugdale's Chron. Ser. 6; Manning and Bray's Surrey, i. 406.]

 BELET, MICHAEL (fl. 1238), judge, second son of Michael Belet, the judge of Henry II's reign, is commonly styled Magister Michael Belet on account of his profession of civilian and canonist. He was presented in 1200-1 by the king to the living of Hinclesham in the diocese of Norwich. In the roll De Oblatis for 1201 occurs the curious memorandum, of which the following is a translation: 'Master Michael Belet offers the lord the king, on behalf of his sister, 40 marks for the hand of Robert de Candos, which is in the gift of the lord the king. And Geoffrey Fitz Peter is authorised to accept the aforesaid fine of 40 marks, provided it be for the profit of the king so to do, because if that be so, it is granted to him because he is in the service of the king.' In 1203-4 he was presented by the king to the living of Setburgham (now Serbergham, near Hesket, Newmarket) in the diocese of Carlisle. At a subsequent period, the precise date of which cannot be fixed, he incurred the 'ill will' (malevolentia) of the king, who caused him to be ejected from his manor of Shene in Surrey, which he held upon the tenure of 'sergeanty of butlery' to the king, and only re-instated him (in 1213) upon payment of a fine of 500 marks. He was not at the same time restored to the office of royal butler, of which he had also been deprived. On the whole, however, Belet seems to have been a faithful servant of the king, and in 1216 he received the lands of one Wischard Ledet, who is described as being 'with the king's enemies.' In 1223 he was appointed receiver of the rents of the see of Coventry, and in 