Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 1.djvu/284

 234 COMPLETE PEERAGE arundel 1138 or 113 9, the Castle and Honour of Arundel, which had been settled on her in dower, (") whereby it may be considered that, according to the admission of 1433, C) he became EARL OF ARUNDEL. (<=) There is conclusive evidence from various charters, that at, or about the time of, and probably soon after, his said marriage, he was recognised as Earl of Lincoln, and he may be assumed to have been so cr. in the summer of 1 139. In this year he gave shelter to the Empress Maud, at Arundel Ca3tle, but ever after adhered to Stephen. He can be shown to have very soon lost the Earldom of Lincoln, and in 1141 he attested a charter of Stephen as Earl of Sussex, ('^) (being from time to time thereafter so described, as, e.g. where he witnesses (") a charter to the Abbey of Barking under that name) and may be assumed to have been so cr. by Stephen in 1 141, after that King had regained his freedom. Early in 1142, the Earldom of Lincoln had already passed to another, viz. William de Roumare. In his own later charters he is styled, and in a charter, before 1 1 50, of the Queen Dowager to the Abbey of Reading, she styles him Earl of Chichester. (') He was influential in arranging the treaty of 1 1 53, whereby the Crown continued with King Stephen for life, though the inheritance thereof was secured to Henry II. To this instrument he subscribed as " Comes Cicestrie. " Henry II, by a grant undated, but supposed to have been in 11 55 (the year after his accession), confirms to him as " William, Earl of Arundel, the Castle of Arundel, with the whole honour of Arundel and all its appurtenances, " and, by the same instrument, bestows on him the third penny of the pleas of the county of (") For evidence in a virtually contemporary MS. Chronicle [ante Ric. i) that William d'Aubigny did not become Earl of Arundel till some time after his marriage with Queen Adeliz, and so did not take it with the Castle, see J. H. Round's Geoffrey de Mandeville, p. 322. C") See p. 231, note " b. ", but see per contra note by J. H. Round iub i Earl of Sussex. Q " In the elaborate discussion or the title of Earl of Arundel by the Lords' committees in their Reports upon the Dignity of a Peer, it has been doubted whether even the Earldom of Arundel was ever possessed by the family of Albini, as a title of dignity. Historians and numerous contemporary evidences have, however, constantly styled the family of Albini by the title of Earls of Arundel, and they _i.e. these Earls] could not with propriety be omitted in this place; nevertheless, it must be observed that the assertion made, upon the claim of John, Earl of Arundel {temp. Hen. VI.), that the dignity of Earl of Arundel had been constantly and invariably enjoyed by the Lords of the Castle of Arundel, cannot, under any circumstances, be maintained. " [Courthope, p. 27). See also observations at the beginning of the article " Aumale " in this work. C) As to the different styles of his Earldom, see note sub i Earl of Sussex. (') " Tcstibui Matilda Regina (shewing it was in the reign of King Stephen) et IVillelmo Comite de Sussexa " — Confirmation charter. Patent Roll 2 Hen. VI. See Planch^'s Earls of Sussex referred to in note " b, " p. 232. For fuller details see Round's Geoffrey de Mandevi He, and G.F. Warner's and H.J. JEllis's facsimiles of Royal Charters ia'c, vol. i, 14, 27, which valuable works have been consulted and utilised in the rewriting of this article.