about 1139. Accordingly, as "Comes Albericus," he obtained early in 1142(a)[1] a charter from the Empress Maud, which confirmed him in his English possessions, and created him EARL OF CAMBRIDGE(b)[2], if the King of Scotland did not possess that Earldom(c)[3], but that, if he did so, he should be Earl of one of these 4 counties, viz, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire or Dorsetshire according to the discretion of the Earl of Gloucester, brother of the said Empress. This was confirmed by her son (the future King Henry II.) between July and Nov. 1142(a)[1], tho' at that time aged but 9 years. His political influence is further shown from the grants made by the Empress to his two brothers, Geoffrey snd Robert, and by her promise of the Chancellorship of England to his br., William de Vere.(d)[4] He was cr. EARL OF OXFORD(e)[5] soon afterwards, and was styled "Albericus, Comes Oxeneford," in a charter dat. between 1141 and 1147.(f)[6] being after the accession of Henry II. confirmed (1155?) in that Earldom and granted the third penny of the pleas of that county(a)[1] "ut sit inde Comes." (g)[7] He and his son contributed to the ransom of King Richard I. He m. firstly, about 1139, Beatrice, suo jure Countess of Guisnes, as abovementioned. Her, however, by
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 (a) The charter of the Empress and its confirmation by her son, Henry, as also the Charter of the said Henry (then King Henry H.) creating the Earldom of Oxford are all three printed in Vincent's Brooke pp. 397 100 and are commented on in Round's "Mandeville" pp. 180-190.
- ↑ (b) The theory of the principle of selection of titles for early Earldoms is ably discussed in Round's "Mandeville" (ut supra), p. 191, as under "The axiom from which I start is this. When a feudatory was created an Earl, he took, if he could, for his comitatus the county in which was situated the chief seat of his power, his Caput Buroniæ. If this county had an Earl already, he then took the nearest county that remained available. Thus Norfolk fell to Bigod, Essex to Mandeville, Sussex to Albini, Derby to Ferrers, and so on. De Clare, the seat of whose power was in Suffolk (tho closely adjoining Essex) took Herts, probably for the reason that Mandeville had already obtained Essex, while Bigod's province being in truth the old Earldom of the East Angles (Comes de Estangle, as Henry of Huntingdon terms him) took in Suffok. So now, Aubrey de Vere probably selected Cambridgeshire as the nearest available county to his stronghold at Castle Hedingham, [tho'] at the same time we must remember that he held a considerable fief in Cambridgeshire which, if he could not have Essex, might lead him to select that county." Round adds (p. 278), "So, too, Miles of Gloucester, must have selected Hereford, because Gloucester was already the title of his Lord."
- ↑ (c) The shifting relations in the Saxon times of the counties of Northampton, Huntingdon, Cambridge and Northumberland are treated of by Freeman, in "The Great Earldoms under Edward." Huntingdon was the Earldom held by the royal family of Scotland, the Earl thereof holding as late as 1205 the third penny of Cambridgeshire; so that the two counties were held to form but one Earldom, just as Norfolk with Suffolk, and, possibly, Doreet with Someraet, and Derbyshire with Notts. See Round's "Mandeville" (ut supru), p. 192-193.
- ↑ (d) Nichols's "Earldom of Oxford." The promise as to the Chancellorship was not fulfilled, as Henry II. gave it to Thomas Becket.
- ↑ (e) The Earldom of the county of Cambridge was evidently considered as united with that of Huntingdon. Of the four counties to which De Vere's choice was restricted that of Oxford was the nearest (tho' indeed it was a considerable way) from his possessions, thus confirming Round's theory as in note "b" next above. He had, indeed, little, if any lands in the county from which he derived his title, but had considerable property in Middlesex (e.g. Kensington, &c.), and one might have expected that, failing Cambridgeshire, he would have been offered the Earldom thereof, but Round ("Mandeville," pp. 317–373), shows that Middlesex was never separate from London" and London was the stronghold of King Stephen's party and not likely to receive an Earl of the creation of the Empress, to whom, on the other hand, the western counties (named for De Vere's future Earldom) were friendly.
- ↑ (f) Round's "Mandeville," p. 194.
- ↑ (g) "The Norman keep of Hedingham, one of the most perfect in existence, was built by this Earl, or (perhaps) by his father. Stephen's Queen died there 8 May 152." [J. H. Round.]
