Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 3.djvu/448

 428 CORNWALL uterine br., William, then Duke of Normandy, the comte of Mortain,Q and was thenceforth known as Count of Mortain.('') He accompanied William in the invasion of England, where he was in command of the chivalry of the Cotentin at the battle of Hastings, 1066. His share of the spoil was one of the greatest, as, with the exception of the lands of the King and the Church, he received nearly the whole of the county of Cornwall, and is, consequently, usually considered EARL OF CORNWALL, though only known as Comes Moritoniensis. At the time of Domesday he was possessed of 797 manors in various counties, besides the borough of Pevensey in Sussex, ^c. In 1069 he, with Robert, Count of Eu, defeated the Danes in the parts of Lindsey with great slaughter. He joined hisbr. the Earl of Kent in 1088 in a rebellion against William II in favour of Robert Courthose, but was subsequently pardoned. He m., istly, before 1066, Maud, da. of Roger (de Montgomery), Earl of Shrewsbury, by his ist wife, Mabel, da. and h. of William, Seigneur d'Alen(on and BellIme. She was bur. in the Abbey of Grestain. He m., 2ndly, Almodis.(') He d. 8 Dec. 1090, and was bur. with his ist wife.('^) 2. William (de Mortain), Earl of Cornwall, also Count of Mortain, s. and h. He appears to have been b. before 1084, and to have coveted the Earldom of Kent, held by his uncle, Eudes (1067-97), and, being disappointed thereof, to have rebelled, with Robert de Belleme, against the King in Normandy, in an endeavour to recover that Duchy for Robert, the King's elder brother. They were defeated and taken prisoners, 24 Apr. 1106, at Tinchebray, when, being attainted, his honours hcczme for/eiled. He m. Adilidis.(') After many years' imprison- (*) That is, the comte of which Mortain {Moretonium or MoretoUum) in the Avranchin was the caput. The comte was otherwise called the comti of the city of Coutances. (Stapleton, Norman Rolls, Observations, vol. i, pp. 56, 97). Mortain has sometimes been confused with a place of a somewhat like name, viz,., Mortagne [Alauritania) in Perche. {ex inform. G. W. Watson). C") See Planche's The Conqueror and his Companions (vol. i, p. 107), where an account is given of this Robert, a man (according to William of Malmesbury) " of a heavy and sluggish disposition." Here, also, the strange anecdote related by Matthew Paris is given at length, of the very great black goat (an evil spirit), carrying the King to judgment, which appeared to the Earl's son at the very hour William Rufus was slain in the New Forest, 2 Aug. 1 1 00. {^) Alonasticon, vol. ii, p. 220: Round, Cal. of Documents, nos. 716, 120/. She may be the Almodis (afterwards wife of Roger de Montgomery or of Lancaster) who was sister and h. of Boson, Count of La Marche (i 088-1 091); but the name was not uncommon in La Marche, Poitou, Peri^ord, and the adjacent provinces, {ex inform, G. W. Watson). V.G. (<*) "8 Dec. Obiit Robertus comes Moretonii" {Obit. Eccl. Moreton., in Recueil des Historiens, vol. xxiii, p. 583; Neustria Pia, p. 529). {ex inform. G. W. Watson). V.G. (') Round, Cal. of Documents, no. 1209.