He inherits Meulan from his uncle,
and Beaumont from his father.
His earldom of Leicester.
His exploits at Senlac.
His fame for wisdom the spoils of England.[1] Great, like his namesake, in France, Normandy, and England, Robert passed through a long life unstained by any remarkable crime, though it was hinted that, of his vast possessions on both sides of the sea, some were not fairly come by.[2] He is known in history by the name of his French county of Meulan, which he inherited from his mother's brother, Count Hugh, son of Count Waleran, who withdrew to become a monk of Bec.[3] From his father, when he too had gone to end his days in his father's monastery of Preaux, Robert inherited the lordship of Beaumont, called, from his father's name, Beaumont-le-Roger.[4] He shared in the Conqueror's distribution of lands in England, and in after days he received the earldom of Leicester from King Henry, as his less stirring brother Henry had already received that of Warwick from the Red King. That he was a brave and skilful soldier we cannot doubt; his establishment in England was the reward of good service done at one of the most critical moments of the most terrible of battles.[5] But the warrior of Senlac hardly appears again in the character of a warrior; he lives on for many years as a cold and crafty statesman, the counsellor of successive kings, whose wisdom, surpassing that of all men between Huntingdon and
- ↑ Will. Malms. v. 407. "Homo antiquæ simplicitatis et fidei, qui crebro a Willelmo primo invitatus ut Angliam veniret, largis ad voluntatem possessionibus munerandus, supersedit, pronuncians patrum suorum hæreditatem se velle fovere, non transmarinas et indebitas possessiones vel appetere vel invadere." (Cf. N. C. vol. iv. p. 448.) We have heard of him already; N. C. vol. ii. p. 201; iii. 288, 380, 386; iv. 82, 192, 475, 645.
- ↑ See the story in p. 186.
- ↑ Will. Malms. u. s.; Will. Pict. 134; Will. Gem. vii. 4; Ord. Vit. 709 A.
- ↑ This Norman Beaumont must be distinguished from the French and Cenomannian Beaumonts which we shall meet with, just as there is a Norman, a French, and a Cenomannian Montfort.
- ↑ See N. C. vol. iii. p. 487.
