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580 ESSEX. Westm."(") probably about 1139, EARL OF ESSEX. He, however, deserted that King, for the Empress Maud, from whom he received a grant of the hereditary Sheriffalty of London and Midx., Essex and Hertford, of the Cunstableship of the Tower of London, as also, probably about 1111, of the Earldom of Essex abovenamed. This charter (wherein the Kmpress is styled " Anglormn Domina ") "is presumed to be one of the very earliest charters of express creation of the title of Earl ; the words of creation are Do et eoncedo (iuufrcdo de Maynaeilta, pro streitio suo et hojrcdibus sit is post cum horcditabilitcr ut sit Comes dp. Essexia ct habml (crd'uiu denarium Vicecomitatus dc placitis, siatt Comes habere debet in eomitutu stto."{ h ) Ho was afterwards imprisoned by King Stephen and forced to give up many of his possessions. He was founder of Walden Abbey, in Essex, &c. The name of his first wife(by whom he had no male issue) is unknown, but he m. secondly before 1130, lfohesia, sister of Aubrey, 1st Eari. ok OXFORD, da. of Aubrey DE Veri:,|, l ') Great Chamberl.iin of England) by Adcliza, da. of Gilbert de C'i.are. He was slain at the siege of Burwell Castle, co. Cambridge, 11 Sep. 1 I t 1, being then excommunicated, outlawed and under forfeiture. He was however finally bur. by the Knight Templars in the porch of their church in London. His widow m. Pagan DE BkaOGHAMP, ..f Bedford Castle, with whom she waa joint founder of Chieksaud Priory, Beds, and 'was living Nov. 1165. II. 1155? 2. Geoffrey de Mandeyii.i.e, 2<l s., bnt on the death s.p. of his elder br. Ernulph (who had been banished in 1 1 (5"»J heir; he was b. before 1130 ; was cr. by King Henry II, probably about 1155 (or restored, as) EARL OF ESSEX : was joint Ch. Justice in Eyre 1 1 GO, and joint Commander against the- Welsh, 1109. He mi. Eustachia, said to bo a kinswoman of the Ring. She was however divorced by him-C) The Earl d. s.p. somewhat suddenly at Chester, 21 Oct. 1167 (11 Hen. II) and was bur. at Walden Abbey. III. 1167 3. "William (de Maxdeyillh), Earl of Essex, br. to and h., whose succession to the title seems to have been generally 1189. acknowledged. He was b. about 1135; was knighted by the Count of Flanders, before 1107 ; attended the King into France, 1173 ; took the cross, 11 70 ; became a crusader, 11 77 — 79, being joint Commander in Chief of their army, 1177. He m. 11 Jan. 11S0, at Plcshy, Essex, Hawise, suo jure, Countess op Albemarle, in whose right he assumed that Earldom, and as Karl of Albemarle and Essex, carried the great crown at the Coronation of Richard I. .lie d. s.p. at Konen in Normandy, 14 Nov. (or 12 Dec.) 1189, and was bur. in the Abbey of- Mortimer. His widow survived him many years. See *' Albemarle " Earldom of, under the 1th holder. [On the death of this Eail the Earldom of Essex probably revertal to the Crov:n. He is said, but probably in error, to have left a Rtster Alice, wife of Robert de Lacy (sometimes called Alice de Vere) who apparently would have been his father's da. by a first wife and so, being of the hut/ blood, not capable of inheriting. The heir to his estates was his aunt, Beatrice, widow of William de Say, which lady survived to a great age till April 1207, leaving Geoffrey de Say her 2d son (who inherited Sawbridgeworth, Herts, &c.), as her heir male and her two grandaughters, Beatrice and Matilda, the children of her eldest son, William, as her heirs general.] IV. 1199. -'f or 1. Geoffrey Fitzpiers, or Fitzpeter, whoso parentage is unknown but who probably was a yr. br. (or possibly s.) of Simon Fitzpeter (Sheriff of the counties of Northampton, Buckingham, and Bedford, temp- Hen. IT.), was 6. 1165 ; became Sheriff of co. Northampton, 11S5, and having »i. Beatrice, 1st da. and coheir of William de Say, which William (who d. v.p.) was 1st s. of another William de Say, by Beatrice, da. of Geoffrey (de Mandeyillu), (») Dugdale, vol. i, p. '201. (•>; " Oourlhopc," see also Selden's Titles of Honour, p. 047. ( c j Clutterbuck's " Herts," vol. iii, p. 104. ( d ) She to. secondly Anaelm de Campadeue, having obtained (by the lung's interest) the lordships of Waltham and Walden from her previous husband.