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Geoffrey de Mandeville: A study of the Anarchy

Chapter 27: APPENDIX G. CHARTER OF THE EMPRESS TO ROGER DE VALOINES.
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About This Book

A detailed historical study focuses on the career of a prominent earl to illuminate the feudal ambition and lawlessness of the Anarchy, relying chiefly on surviving charters as documentary spine. It reconstructs his policies and conflicts, situating them within wider political and institutional questions such as succession claims to the crown, the origin and character of earldoms, fiscal and administrative development, and urban governance. The author scrutinizes episodes including an empress's appeal to Rome and a proposed coronation, an obscure Oxford intrigue, and the implications of castle-building, and supplements the narrative with genealogical research, charter analysis, and an essay on the creation of a neighbouring earldom.

APPENDIX G.
CHARTER OF THE EMPRESS TO ROGER DE VALOINES.

(See p. 87.)

As this charter is not included in Mr. Birch's Fasciculus, and is therefore practically unknown, I here give it in extenso from the Cartæ Antiquæ (K. 24). It will be observed that, of its six witnesses, five attest the Westminster charter to Geoffrey de Mandeville. The sixth is Humfrey de Bohun, a frequent witness to charters of the Empress. This charter is preceded in the Cartæ Antiquæ by enrolments of two charters to the grantee's predecessors from William Rufus and Henry I. respectively. The "service" of Albany de Hairon, a Herts tenant-in-capite, is an addition made by the Empress to these grants of her predecessors. The cartæ of 1166 prove that it was subsequently ignored.

"M. Imperatrix regis H. filia archiepiscopis episcopis abbatibus comitibus baronibus justiciariis vicecomitibus ministris et omnibus fidelibus suis Francis et Anglis tocius Anglie salutem. Sciatis me reddidisse et concessisse Rogero de Valoniis in feodo et hereditate sibi et heredibus suis Esendonam et Begefordiam et molendina Heortfordie et servitium Albani de Hairon et omnes alias terras et tenaturas patris sui sicut pater suus eas tenuit die qua fuit vivus et mortuus et preter hoc quicquid modo tenet de quocunque teneat. Quare volo et firmiter precipio quod bene et in pace et honorifice et libere et quiete teneat in bosco et plano in pratis et pascuis in turbariis in via et semita in exitibus in aquis et molendinis in vivariis et stagnis in foro et navium applicationibus infra burgum et extra cum socha et saka et thol et theam et infanenethef et cum omnibus libertatibus et consuetudinibus et quietantiis cum quibus pater suus melius et quietius et liberius tenuit tempore patris mei regis Henrici et ipse post patrem. T. R[oberto] Com[ite] Gloec[estrie] et M[ilone] Gloec[estrie] et Brientio fil[io] Com[itis] et Rad[ulfo] Painel et Walchel[ino] Maminot et Humfr[ido] de Buh[un] apud Westmonasterium."