Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 4.djvu/595

APPENDIX D 577 (as had previously been the case in the Earldoms of Buckingham, Chester, Gloucester, Huntingdon, Leicester, Northampton, and Warwick, these seven being with Surrey, which was an exception to this rule, the eight existing Earldoms at the accession of King Stephen) " took their title wherever possible from the counties in which lay their chief territorial strength," or, if that county was already disposed of, from " the nearest county remaining vacant at that time." "It may have been observed" [adds Mr. Round] " that I assume throughout that each Earl is the Earl of a County. It would not be possible here to discuss the point in detail, so I will merely give it as my own conviction that while Comital Rank was at this period so far a personal dignity that men spoke of Earl Hugh, Earl Gilbert or Earl Geoffrey, yet that an Earl without a County was a conception that had not yet entered into the minds of men." The fifteen Earldoms created during the reign of Stephen (nine by the King himself and six by the Empress Maud, the latter being denoted by an asterisk) are, when arranged alphabetically (from the list given by Mr. Round), as under: [Albemarle, see York.] 1. Arundel, or Chichester, or Sussex (William d'Aubigny), before Christmas 1 141. 2. Bedford (Hugh de Beaumont), 1138. [" The dignity together with the fief itself lost in 1141."] Hugh appears to have fallen, subse- quently, into poverty, whence his nickname " Pauper." [Cambridge. The only mention of this Earldom appears to be in a charter of 1139, which mentions "William, Earl of Cambridge," and his brother, " Ranulf, Earl of Chester," as witnesses. Mr. Round, in his Feudal England (pp. 186-7), corrects Stapleton as to this William and identifies him (if the charter be genuine) as William de Roumare, afterwards Earl of Lincoln. Cambridge was also one of the alternative styles offered by the Empress Maud to Aubrey de Vere (who held lands in Cambridgeshire) when she created him an Earl in 1 142.] [Chichester, see Arundel.] 3. 'Cornwall (Reginald FitzRoy), 1141 .' 4. Derby (Robert de Ferrers), 1138. 5. *Devon (Baldwin de Reviers), before June 1141. [Dorset, see Somerset.] 6. Essex (Geoffi-ey de Mandeville), 11 40. 73