♀Beatrice de Mandeville

Beatrice de Mandeville (died 19 April, in or before 1197) was an English noblewoman, the only sister of Geoffrey de Mandeville^W, first Earl of Essex. She outlived her brother, her husband and her elder son, and in 1189, at a great age, she became heir to the lands of the Mandeville earls. She was the twenty-fifth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through her son William de Say (died 1177).

Two marriages

Beatrice was a daughter of William de Mandeville^W, who died in or just before 1130. She had first been married in Normandy to Hugh Talebot, and the marriage ended in divorce. Her brother Geoffrey then brought her to England and married her to William de Say, whom the chronicle of Walden Abbey^W calls “ferocis animi viro et bellicoso”, a man of fierce and warlike spirit. Beatrice and William had two sons, William de Say (died 1177) and Geoffrey de Say.

In August 1144, during his revolt against King Stephen^W, Earl Geoffrey was mortally wounded by an arrow at the siege of Burwell Castle^W in Cambridgeshire, and William de Say was killed at the same siege. Beatrice lost her brother and her husband within a few weeks.

Widow and benefactor

Walden Abbey had been founded by her brother, and Beatrice gave it the church of Elsenham “pro anima Galfridi Comitis Essexie fratris mei et Willelmi de Say sponsi mei et Willelmi filii mei”, for the soul of Geoffrey, Earl of Essex, her brother, of William de Say her husband and of William her son. In another gift she gave the abbey her half of the marsh called Stapelwell.

Heir to the earldom

When her nephew William de Mandeville^W, Earl of Essex, died childless in 1189, Beatrice was his heir, though she was then of a great age. In a charter to Walden she styled herself the sister of Earl Geoffrey “et heres tocius hereditatis ipsorum”, heir of all their inheritance. Her only surviving son, Geoffrey de Say, was allowed to take her place for a fine of 7,000 marks, but he paid none of it and was soon put out of the lands. They went instead to Geoffrey Fitz Peter, the husband of her granddaughter Beatrice de Say, who was found to be the rightful and nearest heir.

Beatrice probably died at Rickling, in Essex, where she lived, on 19 April in or before 1197, and she was buried in the chapter house of Walden Abbey.

Notes

Sources

Beatrice’s parentage, her two marriages, her sons, her gifts to Walden, the inheritance of 1189 and her death and burial are from the Complete Peerage (2nd ed., vol. 5, 1926, pp. 116 and 120–122, under Essex), which cites the chronicles of Walden and Ramsey, the cartulary of Walden Abbey and the pipe rolls.

Her date of death

The chronicle of Walden Abbey gives two dates, 1200 in one place and 19 April 1207 in another, and the first edition of the Complete Peerage (vol. 3, 1890, p. 281) followed 1207. The second edition sets both aside: another version of the chronicle places her death in the reign of Richard I, and a charter made after her death was witnessed by Eustace, elect of Ely, who was consecrated on 8 March 1197/8. The Complete Peerage gives Rickling as the probable place of her death because she lived there.

The descent through John Washburn

That the John whom the pedigrees give as a son of Joyce Botetourt’s great-granddaughter Joan Mitton was John Washburn of Bengeworth, who died in 1547, is the identification of the Washbournes’ historian, James Davenport, not a record’s, so the descent through him is probable.