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'''From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia''' [This article needs additi onal citations for verification.] Chief Justiciar of England. Chief J usticiar of England. In office: October 1155 – April 5, 1168 Monarc h Henry II Preceded by Roger, Bishop of Salisbury Succeeded by Richa rd de Luci Lord High Steward. In office: 1154 – 1168 Monarch Henr y II Preceded by The Earl of Leicester Born 1104 Died April 5, 116 8 Brackley Nationality Norman-French Spouse(s) Amice de Montfort Re lations Waleran de Beaumont, twin brother Robert de Beaumont, Count o f Meulan and 1st Earl of Leicester & Elizabeth de Vermandois, parent s Children Hawise, Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester, Isabel , Margaret Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester (1104 – 5 Apri l 1168) was Justiciar of England 1155-1168. The surname "de Beaumont " is given him by genealogists. The only known contemporary surname ap plied to him is "Robert son of Count Robert". Henry Knighton, the four teenth-century chronicler notes him as Robert "Le Bossu" (meaning "Rob ert the Hunchback" in French). '''Early Life and Education''' Rober t was an English nobleman of Norman-French ancestry. He was the son o f Robert de Beaumont, Count of Meulan and 1st Earl of Leicester and El izabeth de Vermandois. He was the twin brother of Waleran de Beaumont . There is no knowing whether they were identical or fraternal twins , but the fact that they are remarked on by contemporaries as twins in dicates that they probably were in fact identical. The two brothers , Robert and Waleran, were adopted into the royal household shortly af ter their father's death in June 1118 (upon which Robert inherited hi s father's second titles of Earl of Leicester). Their lands on eithe r side of the Channel were committed to a group of guardians, led by t heir stepfather, William earl of Warenne or Surrey. They accompanied K ing Henry I to Normandy, to meet with Pope Callixtus II in 1119, whe n the king incited them to debate philosophy with the cardinals. Bot h twins were literate, and Abingdon Abbey later claimed to have been R obert's school, but though this is possible, its account is not entire ly trustworthy. A surviving treatise on astronomy (British Library m s Royal E xxv) carries a dedication "to Earl Robert of Leicester, tha t man of affairs and profound learning, most accomplished in matters o f law" who can only be this Robert. On his death he left his own psalt er to the abbey he founded at Leicester, which was still in its librar y in the late fifteenth century. The existence of this indicates tha t like many noblemen of his day, Robert followed the canonical hours i n his chapel. '''Career at the Norman Court''' In 1120 Robert was de clared of age and inherited most of his father's lands in England, whi le his twin brother took the French lands. However in 1121, royal favo ur brought Robert the great Norman honors of Breteuil and Pacy-sur-Eur e, with his marriage to Amice de Montfort, daughter of a Breton intrud er the king had forced on the honor after the forfeiture of the Breteu il family in 1119. Robert spent a good deal of his time and resource s over the next decade integrating the troublesome and independent bar ons of Breteuil into the greater complex of his estates. He did not jo in in his brother's great Norman rebellion against King Henry I in 112 3-4. He appears fitfully at the royal court despite his brother's impr isonment until 1129. Thereafter the twins were frequently to be foun d together at Henry I's court. Robert held lands throughout the count ry. In the 1120s and 1130s he tried to rationalise his estates in Leic estershire. Leicestershire estates of the See of Lincoln and the Ear l of Chester were seized by force. This enhanced the integrity of Robe rt's block of estates in the central midlands, bounded by Nuneaton, Lo ughborough, Melton Mowbray and Market Harborough. In 1135, the twin s were present at King Henry's deathbed. Robert's actions in the succe ssion period are unknown, but he clearly supported his brother's decis ion to join the court of the new king Stephen before Easter 1136. Duri ng the first two years of the reign Robert is found in Normandy fighti ng rival claimants for his honor of Breteuil. Military action allowe d him to add the castle of Pont St-Pierre to his Norman estates in Jun e 1136 at the expense of one of his rivals. From the end of 1137 Rober t and his brother were increasingly caught up in the politics of the c ourt of King Stephen in England, where Waleran secured an ascendancy w hich lasted till the beginning of 1141. Robert participated in his bro ther's political coup against the king's justiciar, Roger of Salisbur y (the Bishop of Salisbury). '''Civil War in England''' The outbrea k of civil war in England in September 1139 brought Robert into confli ct with Earl Robert of Gloucester, the bastard son of Henry I and prin cipal sponsor of the Empress Matilda. His port of Wareham and estate s in Dorset were seized by Gloucester in the first campaign of the war . In that campaign the king awarded Robert the city and castle of Here ford as a bid to establish the earl as his lieutenant in Herefordshire , which was in revolt. It is disputed by scholars whether this was a n award of a second county to Earl Robert. Probably in late 1139, Ear l Robert refounded his father's collegiate church of St Mary de Castr o in Leicester as a major Augustinian abbey on the meadows outside th e town's north gate, annexing the college's considerable endowment t o the abbey. The battle of Lincoln on 2 February 1141 saw the captur e and imprisonment of King Stephen. Although Count Waleran valiantly c ontinued the royalist fight in England into the summer, he eventuall y capitulated to the Empress and crossed back to Normandy to make hi s peace with the Empress's husband, Geoffrey of Anjou. Earl Robert ha d been in Normandy since 1140 attempting to stem the Angevin invasion , and negotiated the terms of his brother's surrender. He quit Normand y soon after and his Norman estates were confiscated and used to rewar d Norman followers of the Empress. Earl Robert remained on his estate s in England for the remainder of King Stephen's reign. Although he wa s a nominal supporter of the king, there seems to have been little con tact between him and Stephen, who did not confirm the foundation of Le icester Abbey till 1153. Earl Robert's principal activity between 114 1 and 1149 was his private war with Ranulf II, Earl of Chester. Thoug h details are obscure it seems clear enough that he waged a dogged wa r with his rival that in the end secured him control of northern Leice stershire and the strategic Chester castle of Mountsorrel. When Earl R obert of Gloucester died in 1147, Robert of Leicester led the movemen t among the greater earls of England to negotiate private treaties t o establish peace in their areas, a process hastened by the Empress' s departure to Normandy, and complete by 1149. During this time the ea rl also exercised supervision over his twin brother's earldom of Worce ster, and in 1151 he intervened to frustrate the king's attempts to se ize the city. '''Earl Robert and Henry Plantagenet''' The arrival i n England of Duke Henry, son of the Empress Mathilda, in January 115 3 was a great opportunity for Earl Robert. He was probably in negotiat ion with Henry in that spring and reached an agreement by which he wou ld defect to him by May 1153, when the duke restored his Norman estate s to the earl. The duke celebrated his Pentecost court at Leicester i n June 1153, and he and the earl were constantly in company till the p eace settlement between the duke and the king at Winchester in Novembe r 1153. Earl Robert crossed with the duke to Normandy in January 115 4 and resumed his Norman castles and honors. As part of the settlemen t his claim to be chief steward of England and Normandy was recognise d by Henry. Earl Robert began his career as chief justiciar of Englan d probably as soon as Duke Henry succeeded as King Henry II in Octobe r 1154.[1] The office gave the earl supervision of the administratio n and legal process in England whether the king was present or absen t in the realm. He appears in that capacity in numerous administrativ e acts, and had a junior colleague in the post in Richard de Luci, ano ther former servant of King Stephen. The earl filled the office for ne arly fourteen years until his death,[1] and earned the respect of th e emerging Angevin bureaucracy in England. His opinion was quoted by l earned clerics, and his own learning was highly commended. He died o n 5 April 1168,[1] probably at his Northamptonshire castle of Brackley , for his entrails were buried at the hospital in the town. He was rec eived as a canon of Leicester on his deathbed, and buried to the nort h of the high altar of the great abbey he had founded and built. He le ft a written testament of which his son the third earl was an executor , as we learn in a reference dating to 1174. '''Church Patronage'' ' In addition to the abbey of St. Mary de Pré, in Leicester, the ear l founded in England the Cistercian abbey of Garendon in 1133, the Fon tevraldine priory at Nuneaton between 1155 and 1160, the priory of Luf field, and the hospital of Brackley. He refounded the collegiate churc h of St Mary de Castro as a dependency of Leicester abbey around 1164 , after suppressing it in 1139. Around 1139 he refounded the collegiat e church of Wareham as a priory of his abbey of Lyre, in Normandy. Hi s principal Norman foundations were the priory of Le Désert in the fo rest of Breteuil and a major hospital in Breteuil itself. He was a gen erous benefactor of the Benedictine abbey of Lyre, the oldest monasti c house in the honor of Breteuil. '''Family and children''' He marri ed after 1120 Amice de Montfort, daughter of Ralph, senior of Gael an d Montfort. They had four children: Hawise de Beaumont, who married W illiam Fitz Robert, 2nd Earl of Gloucester; Robert de Beaumont, 3rd E arl of Leicester; Isabel, who married: Simon de St. Liz, Earl of Hunt ingdon and had descendants. Margaret, who married Ralph V de Toeni ' ''Literary references''' He is a minor character in The Holy Thief, a nd Brother Cadfael's Penance, of the Brother Cadfael series by Ellis P eters. '''Notes''' ^ a b c Powicke ''Handbook of British Chronology' ' p. 69 '''References''' D. Crouch, ''The Beaumont Twins: the Roots a nd Branches of Power in the Twelfth Century'' (Cambridge, 1986). D. C rouch, ''The Reign of King Stephen, 1135-1154'' (London, 2000). E. Ki ng, "Mountsorrel and its region in King Stephen's Reign", Huntington L ibrary Quarterly, 44 (1980), 1-10. Leicester Abbey, ed. J. Storey, J . Bourne and R. Buckley (Leicester, 2006). Powicke, F. Maurice and E . B. Fryde ''Handbook of British Chronology'' 2nd. ed. London:Royal Hi storical Society 1961 British Library ms Royal E xxv. http://fmg.ac /Projects/MedLands/ENGLISH%20NOBILITY%20MEDIEVAL.htm ROBERT de Beaumo nt "le Bossu" (1104-5 Apr 1168, bur [Sainte-Marie de Pré]). Twin wit h Waléran. He and his twin brother were brought up at the court of He nry I King of England [1]. He succeeded his father in 1118 as Earl o f Leicester. He supported King Stephen during the civil war with Empre ss Matilda. Henry Duke of Normandy restored property to "Rodberto fili o comitis Legrec… Rodberti comitis" held by "patris sui… sicut com es Rodbertus de Mellend avus suus… Willelmus de Britolio", and grant ed him the property of "Willelmus de Pasci in Anglia et in Normannia " by charter dated to [Jan/Aug] 1153, witnessed by "…Guarino filio G eraldi, Henrico duo fratre…" [2]. He became Steward of England and N ormandy under King Henry II in 1154, and acted as Viceroy during the k ing's absence from England Dec 1158 to 25 Jan 1163 and again in 1165 [ 3]. Robert of Torigny records the death in 1168 of "Robertus comes Lee cestriæ" [4]. The necrology of the abbey of Saint-Denis records the d eath "Non Apr" of "Robertus comes Leecestrie" [5]. The necrology of Sa int-Nicaise de Meulan records the death of "Robertus comes Leicestrie" , undated but among other deaths listed in early April [6]. The necrol ogy of Lyre monastery records the death "5 Apr" of "Robertus comes Leg recestriæ" [7]. [1] CP VII 527. [2] ''Actes Henri II'', Tome I, XLV II, p. 52. [3] CP VII 529. [4] Robert de Torigny, Vol. II, p. 8. [5 ] ''Obituaires de Sens'' Tome I.1, Abbaye de Saint-Denis, p. 313. [6 ] ''Obituaires de Sens'' Tome II, Prieuré de Saint-Nicaise de Meulan , p. 239. [7] RHGF XXIII, ''Ex Obituario Lirensis monasterii'', p. 47 1.