Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 1.djvu/285

 ARUNDEL COMPLETE PEERAGE 235 Sussex unde Comes est. (*) No doubt, however, he was more generally known as "Earl of Arundel," and as such (only) he is spoken of by his s. and h. (who styles himself Earl of Sussex) in a charter to the Priory of Wymondham ; and as Earl of Arundel (only) he is described in the record of his death in the Annals of Waverley. He was justly held in great esteem by Henry II, and was one of the embassy to Rome in 1 163/4, and to Saxony (on the espousal of the Princess to the Duke of Saxony) in 1 168. He was also in command of the Royal army in Aug. 1 173, in Normandy, against the King's rebellious sons, where he distinguished himself for his " swiftness and velocity, " and, on 29 Sep. following he assisted at the defeat, near Bury St. Edmunds, of the Earl of Leicester, who, with his Flemings, had invaded Suffolk. He w., in 1138 (the 3rd year of her widowhood) Adeliz, Queen Dowager of England (widow of Henry I), 1st da. of Godefroy a la Barbe, Duke of Lothier {i.e. Lorraine Inf(irieure), Count of Brabant and Louvain, by his ist wife, Ide, da. of Albert III, Count of Namur. His wife, the Queen Dowager, retired in 1 1 50 to a nunnery at Afflighem, in South Brabant, where she d.^ and was bur. 23 Apr. 1 151, aged about 48. He survived her 25 years, and d. 12 Oct. 1176, (") at Waverley Abbey, Surrey, and was bur., with his father, at Wymondham Priory, Norfolk. V. 1 1 89. 2. William (d'Aubigny), Earl of Sussex, (") s. and h., in II 76/7, was confirmed in that dignity, but the Castle and Honour of Arundel having, in accordance with the policy of Henry II, been retained by the Crown, on the death of the last holder, (*) (*) This was apparently but a confirmation to him of the Earldom of Sussex and its third penny (as well as of the Honour and Castle of Arundel) which he had enjoyed before, unless (indeed) the deed signed by him as Earl of Sussex, temp. Stephen (see p. 234, note " e, ") is a forgery. Dugdale, speaking of this Earl (vol. i, p. 119) says : — " After the death of King Stephen he did not only obtain [from King Henry II] the castle and honour of Arundel to himself and his heirs, but a confirmation of the Earldom of Sussex (for though the title of Earl was most known by Arundel and Chichester, at which places his chief residence used to be, yet it was of the county of Sussex that he was really Earl) by the tertium denarium of the Pleas of Sussex granted to him, which was the usual way of investing such great men (in ancient times) with the possession of any Earldom, after those ceremonies of girding with the sword and putting on the robes performed, which have ever, till of late, been thought essential to their creation. " See also p. 232 of this work, note " b. " (*) For an account of this Earl and of his Earldom of Lincoln, see J.H.Round's Geoffrey de Mandeville. if) For references to him as Earl of Sussex before 1189, see Benedictus, vol. ii, p. 3, Christmas 11 86, and Add. Charter 15688, before Mich. 11 88. {ex inform. H.J.Ellis.) Richard I granted him the Honour after his coronation, 3 Sep. 11 89, when he is styled Earl of Sussex, and before 18 Sep. 1189, when he is styled Earl of Arundel. V.G. C) It certainly was not because the successor was a minor (as suggested in the Lordi Reports on the Dignity of a Peer, vol. i, p. 410), //it be allowed (as in the text)