churchmen devotion even greater than his father's. In the great crisis at the council of Northampton (October 1164) he strove, with the Earl of Cornwall, to reconcile the primate with the king, pleading hard with Becket when they visited him (12 Oct.) at his house. The following day they were commissioned to pronounce to him the sentence of the court; but when Leicester, as chief justiciary, commenced his address, he was at once cut short by the primate, who rejected his jurisdiction (Gervase, i. 185; Rog. Hov. i. 222, 228; Materials, ii. 393, &c.) Early the next year (1165) he was again, on the king's departure, left in charge of the kingdom, and, on the Archbishop of Cologne arriving as an envoy from the emperor, refused to greet him on the ground that he was a schismatic (R. Dic. i. 318). He appears to have accompanied Henry to Normandy in the spring of 1166, but leaving him, returned to his post before October, and retained it till his death, which took place in 1168 (Rog. Hov. i. 269; Ann. Wav.; Chron. Mailros.). It is said, in a chronicle of St. Mary de Pré (Mon. Ang. ut infra), that he himself became a canon regular of that abbey, and resided there fifteen years, till his death, when he was buried on the south side of the choir; but it is obvious that he cannot thus have entered the abbey. This earl was known as le Bossu (to distinguish him from his successors), and also, possibly, as le Goczen (Mon. Ang. 1830, vi. 467). He founded, in addition to St. Mary de Pré, the abbey of Garendon (Ann. Wav. 233), the monastery of Nuneaton, the priory of Lusfield, and the hospital of Brackley (wrongly attributed by Dugdale to his father), and was a liberal benefactor to many other houses (see Dugdale). His charter confirming to his burgesses of Leicester their merchant-gild and customs is preserved at Leicester, and printed on p. 404 of the Appendix to the eighth report on Historical MSS., and copies of his charters of wood and pasture are printed in Mr. Thompson's essay (pp. 42-84). He is also said to have remitted the 'gavel-pence' impost, but the story, though accepted by Mr. Thompson (p. 60) and Mr. Jeaffreson (Appendix to 8th Report, ut supra, pp. 404, 406-7), is probably false.
[Ordericus Vitalis, lib. xii.,xiii.; Roger Hoveden (Rolls Series); Gervase of Canterbury (ib.) R. Diceto (ib.); Materials for History of Thomas à Becket (ib.); Monasticon Anglicanum, ii. 308 (ed. 1830, vi. 462-69); Dugdale's Baronage, i. 85-87; Lyttelton's Henry II (1767); Nichols's History of Leicester (1795), pp. 24-68, app. viii. p. 15; Thompson's History of Leicester (chap. vi.), and Essay on Municipal History (1867); Foss's Judges of England (1848), i. 190; Eyton's Court and Itinerary of Henry II.]
BEAUMONT, ROBERT de, Earl of Leicester (d. 1190), baronial leader, was son of Robert de Beaumont, earl of Leicester [q. v.], who died in 1168. He joined the rebellion against Henry II in favour of Prince
Henry, which broke out in April 1173 (Ben. Abb. i. 45), and having obtained permission to
visit Normandy, shut himself up in his castle
of Bréteuil (R. Dic.) His English fiefs were
confiscated in consequence, and an army sent
against his town of Leicester, which was
taken and burnt (28 July), with the exception
of the castle, after a siege of three weeks
(ib.) Henry II himself marched on Bréteuil,
8 Aug., and (the earl having fled before him)
captured and burnt the place on 25-6 Sept.
1173. The earl is said to have been present
at Gisors during the fruitless negotiations
between the two kings, and to have upbraided Henry with his grievous losses. But
this seems incompatible with the fact that
he landed from Flanders, at Walton, Suffolk, 29 Sept. 1173, at the head of a force of
Flemings (R. Dic.), and having been joined
by Hugh (Bigod), earl of Norfolk, plundered
Norwich, and besieged and took the castle
of Hagenet on 13 Oct. Setting out for
Leicester, he was intercepted at Fornham,
near Bury St. Edmunds, by Richard de
Luci and other supporters of the king
(17 Oct.), and taken prisoner, with his wife
(Rog. Hov. ii. 54-5). They were sent over
to Henry (Rot. Pip.) and imprisoned by him
at Falaise, till his return to England, 8 July
1174, when he brought them with him (Rog. Hov. ii. 54-5). Meanwhile the earl's castellan
had broken forth from Leichester, and ravaged
the country round, and Henry now (31 July
1174) extorted the surrender of his castles,
Leicester, Mountsorrel, and Groby (ib. ii. 65).
The king took his prisoners back with him
to Normandy on 8 August, but by the treaty
with Louis on 30 Sept. 1174 the earl's liberation was provided for (ib.) His castle of
Leicester was, however, demolished (R. Dic.
i. 404), and it was not till January 1177 that
in the council of Northampton he was restored in blood and honours (ib. ii. 118), and
his castles (except Mountsorrel) returned to
him. He accompanied the king to Normandy
in the summer, but is not again heard of till
the spring of 1183, when, with the earl of
Gloucester, he was arrested and imprisoned.
He was, however, in attendance on the king
at Christmas 1186, when he kept his court
at Guildford, and on the accession of Richard
(July 1189) he was completely reinstated
(ib. iii. 5) and appointed at the coronation,
