APPENDIX N.ROBERT DE VERE.(See p.128.)
(See p.128.)
Thispersonage, who, as charters show, was in constant attendance on Stephen, is usually, and very naturally, taken by genealogists, from Mr. Eyton downwards, for a younger brother of Aubrey de Vere (the chamberlain) and uncle of the first Earl of Oxford. He was, however, quite distinct, being a son of Bernard de Vere. He owed his position to a marriage with Adeline, daughter of Hugh de Montfort, as recorded on the Pipe-Roll of 1130. By this marriage he became possessed of the honour of Haughley ("Haganet"), and with it (it is important to observe) of the office of constable, in which capacity he figures among the witnesses to Stephen's Charter of Liberties (1136). In conjunction with his wife he founded, on her Kentish estate, the Cluniac priory of Monks Horton. They were succeeded, in their tenure of the honour, by the well-known Henry of Essex, who thus became constable in his turn. As supporting this view that the honour carried the constableship, attention may be drawn to itscompotusas "Honor Constabularie" in 1189-90 (Rot. Pip., 1 Ric. I., pp. 14, 15), just before that of the "Terra que fuit Henrici de Essex." It is therefore worth consideration whether Robert de Montfort, general to William Rufus—"strator Normannici exercitus hereditario jure"—may not have really held the post of constable.
The history of the Montfort fief in Kent is of interest from the Conquest downwards owing to its inclusion of Saltwood and other estates claimed by the Archbishops of Canterbury.[942]Dugdale is terribly at sea in his account of the Montfort descent, wrongly affiliating the Warwickshire Thurstan (ancestor of the Lords Montfort) to the Kentish house, and confusing his generations wholesale (especially in the case of Adeline, wife of William de Breteuil).
The fact that Henry of Essex was appealed of treason and defeated in the trial by battle by a Robert de Montfort (1163), suggests that a grudge on the part of a descendant of the dispossessed line against himself as possessor of their fief may have been at the bottom of this somewhat mysterious affair.
Note.—Since the above was in type, there has appeared (Rot. Pip., 15 Hen. II., p. 111) a most valuablecompotusof the 'Honor Constabularie' (with a misleading head-line) for 1169, proving that Gilbert de Gant had held it, at one time, under Stephen, and had alienated nearly a third of it.
[942]Saltwood was granted by the Conqueror to Hugh de Montfort, was recovered by Lanfranc in the greatplacitumon Pennenden Heath, was thereafter held by the Montforts from the archbishop as two knights' fees, was so held by Henry of Essex as their successor, was seized by the Crown upon his forfeiture, was persistently claimed by Becket, and was finally restored to the see by Richard I.
[942]Saltwood was granted by the Conqueror to Hugh de Montfort, was recovered by Lanfranc in the greatplacitumon Pennenden Heath, was thereafter held by the Montforts from the archbishop as two knights' fees, was so held by Henry of Essex as their successor, was seized by the Crown upon his forfeiture, was persistently claimed by Becket, and was finally restored to the see by Richard I.