Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 5.djvu/46

 44 LEICESTER. IV. ll'JO, Robert (de Heaumont), Karl of Leicester, to Seigneur of Breteuil and Pacy in Normandy, Steward of Eni/laml, 1204. called (from bu mother's name' Fit: /'(rntlL, 2d son; ') bat h. to his father's dignities, being invosl.d with the Earldom, 1 Feb, 1191, at Messina. He was Commander 3. but was taken prisoner, IS Jttae ItMi and not released till after IS Jan. ll!'J,t>, when his castlonf Pacy was ceded to Fiance. He acted .1.-= Steward at the Coronation ot King John, 27 May 11 pp. He m. Lauretta, da. of William 1>K BRA08K.( b ) He A s.p. 6 dan, 1204,(«) and was bur. in Leicester Abbey, when the Earldom of Leicester lapse! to the Own. His widow became a recluse at Hackingtou but was dead before 120S.('') V. 1207, 1. Simon de Montfort,( c i younger sou of Simon, to Coot ok Eviuxx in Xoimandy, by Amicia,( r i sister and coheir(S) 1218. of Robert [bk Bbabjiokt), Karl of Lkicksteb, next abovenatned, was b. probably about 1170; h ) sue. his father in or before 11S1 His elder br., William de Breteuil, was a leper, and, as such, even if he survived his father, would have been passed over in the succession. He was probably dead before Jan. 1195/6, At all events he does not appear to be among those who ratified the Earl's cession of Pacy at that date. These were (1) the King [2) Roger, Bishop ef St. Andrew's (3) Amicia, Countess of Montfort [the said Roger and Anuria being brother and sister of the said Kail) and (4) Simon " Doiniuus Moutisfoi lis," who speaks of the said Earl as " Avunculus metis." Sec La Roque, Maisou de Harcourt, preuves, pp. 120, 12". tte. Ex. infnrm. G. W. Watson. ( h ) It seems doubtful which William de Braose is indicated, and this Lauretta is not mentioned in the elaborate account of that family in "the. Qenealojfitt" (0. S., vols, to and v), while that given by Dugdale is inaccurate. She is usually called the da. of William de Braose who m. Matilda de St. Yalery, hut perhaps was his sister. Ex. inform. G. W. Watson. ( c ) The date of his death, according to Doyle's " Official Baronage," was 20 Oct. 1206, but 1201 is given in the Annals uf Waveiley (Gale ii, 16Sj, and the correctness of this date is certain, for in 1201 his sister, as " Amicia, Countess of Leicester," ceded to the King of France her castle of BreteUil anil all that her brother had possessed over sea. See La Roque (as in note " a " next above), p. 2174. (<•) In that year Philip, King of France, confirms to the monks of Lire all that " Laureta, quondam C'omitissa Leycestiie," had given. Ex inform. G. W. Wiitsou. (°) The account of the De Montfort family as given in the (admirable) " life of Simon de Montfort," by G. W. Prothero (1S77), has been followed here. The name was "from a stronghold still known as .Montfort L'Amauri " half way between Paris and Evreux ; situated in "the Mantois," in lle-de- Fiance. By the marriage of Simon I. (whocf. 10S7) with Agnes, da. of Richard anil sister arid heir (1118) of William, Counts of Evreux, that important ten itory came in 1104 (on the death of Simon II.) to his son Amauri (d. 1137), whose s. and h. Simon III. surrendered it (retaining, however, the title) in 1169 to King Henry II. and d. 1181. His eldest, ton, Amauri, d. about 1193, leaving an only s. and h., Amauri, Karl of Gloucester (jure matris) and Count of Evreux, who d. s.p. in or before Nov. 1213, while the second son, Simon IV'., who took the de Montfort estates, was Count of Montfort and Earl of Leicester (so cr. in 1207) as iu the text. Of Simon's children, Simon V., a younger son, was the 2d Karl of Leicester (of that house), while the elder sou Amauri, Count of Montfort (d. 1211), was inc. by bis sou John (d. 1249). whose da. and heir Iieatrice (rf. 1312) was, by Robert, Count of Dreux, mother of Yolande, who, by Arthur, Count ot Britnnny, carried the estates into that family in which " they remained until the union of Brittany with the Crown of France completed the absorption of the once princely domains of Montfort into the royal treasury." (f) Courthope (following the old version) makes the first Earl of Leicester the husband and not the son of Amicia (the heiress), ana gives the following note, " Pierre [sic] Anselme, in his ' Histoire des Coiinestables do France,' vol. i. p. 514, makes this same Simon de Montfort to be the son, and not the husband, of Amicia de Beaumont. There is an entry on the Close Rolls, 1200-07, which would seem to support the account so given, whilst the charter above referred to [i.e., the confirmation of the Earldom iu