berland of whom it is related, by Simeon of Durham, that he received that honour after the slaughter of bishop Walcher, which occurred in 1080; but, having little success in the difficulties which beset his position, he deserted his charge, and went home to his own country—that is, to Normandy; after which the Conqueror appointed Robert de Mowbray in his room.[1]
Albericus de Vere.the first of his name in England, came also from Normandy.[2] He held in chief, at the Domesday survey, lands in the counties of Middlesex, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Essex, and Suffolk. Among these was Kensington in the first mentioned county, in after ages the residence of our kings, the church of which he gave to the abbey of Abingdon, whence arose the name of St. Mary Abbat's, still attached to the church of Kensington. He also had Colne in Essex, since called Earl's Colne, where the Earls were customarily buried in a priory of their own foundation; and Hedingham, in the same county, where they erected their magnificent Norman castle.
The second Aubrey de Vere, son of the former, made an illustrious alliance by marrying Adeliza, daughter of Gilbert de Clare, earl of Hertford; and, in the year 1106, king Henry the First made him his chamberlain in the room of Robert Malet, lord of Eye in Suffolk, then recently slain in rebellion.[3]
It was Aubrey de Vere, the third after the Conquest of England, who became the first Earl of Oxford. But his elevation to the dignity of a comte was originally the result of his marriage, and this is one of the circumstances that have confused the old accounts of this Earldom; for Dugdale erroneously attributed that marriage to his grandfather,
- ↑ This important contribution to the right understanding of the Domesday Survey, was first pointed out by Mr. Baker, in the "History of Northamptonshire," vol. i. p. 561. The Domesday student will do well to note it in his copy of the Introduction by Sir Henry Ellis, who was not aware of it. Mr. Baker further remarks that Sir William Dugdale (Baronage, i. 188) was incorrect in his supposition that this Earl Alberic was an Englishman, having misunderstood the entry under Wiltshire which led to that conclusion; and that the historian of Leicestershire has adopted the same erroneous interpretation of the statements of the survey,—the fact being that the tenure of the Earl was then spoken of in the past tense, because his lands were actually forfeited. In his "History of Warwickshire," Dugdale has uniformly misrepresented this Earl as progenitor of the Earls of Oxford.
- ↑ Simeon Dunelm. edit. Twysden, col. 205.
- ↑ Robert Malet was slain at the battle of Tenerchebrai, fighting on the side of Duke Robert Courtehose, against his father King Henry on the 27th Sept. 1106.
