POLITICAL HISTORY 



obtained in maritagio Tarrant Keynston and Coombe Keynes, with his wife 

 Alice, daughter of Hugh Maminot, the nephew and heir of Gilbert 

 Maminot bishop of Lisieux. The bishop's Dorset holding was a lay fief, 

 i.e. descended to his secular heir.^ William of Saint Clare ' was, at least 

 in 1 140, on Stephen's side, for he witnesses the first charter to Geoffrey de 

 Mandeville.' The castle of ' Cernei ' built by Miles of Gloucester,* as has i 

 been said, may have been Cerne (co. Dorset), or Cerney. Some of the 

 abbot's tenants in the vill of Cerne however owed duty of castle-ward at 

 Corfe Castle,^ not at Cerne. 



Robert of Gloucester in 11 37, after the Exeter rebellion of Baldwin of 

 Redvers, fortified Wimborne, Corfe, Dorchester and Wareham against 

 Stephen," probably encouraged by the king's absence in Normandy. When 

 he returned, at the end of that year, Stephen most probably landed in 

 Dorset.'' The following year, probably during the campaign in Somerset, 

 he took Wareham, making Robert de Nicole castellan.^ Robert of Gloucester 

 recaptured it in 1138.' Baldwin of Redvers, in August, 1139, landed there 

 with an advance army.^° He was now the empress's devoted adherent. 

 Stephen hurried down to cut him off, but he threw himself into Corfe 

 Castle, where the king laid siege to him ; but hearing of the approach of 

 the empress and Earl Robert, who had by this time landed in Sussex and 

 were making for Bristol, he raised the siege." On his way back Stephen 

 besieged and took ' Cernei ' castle, which Earl Robert however garrisoned 

 again the following year." 



Some time before 1141 the empress made de Redvers earl of 

 Devon, and Mohun earl of Dorset or Somerset — a fact noteworthy, since 

 to Stephen alone are sometimes attributed the creations of this period. 

 The status of the Mohun earldom is doubtful. The Gesta Stephanl states " 

 that he was made earl of Dorset. He founded Bruton Priory in 1142 

 as earl of Somerset.^* It was unimportant that he took his distinguishing 

 name from either county, for they were under one sheriff. But de Redvers 

 himself already held the manor of Puddletown,^^ which carried with it the 

 third penny of the pleas of the county." The empress's own charter of 1 142 

 to Aubrey de Vere, confirmed by her son Henry, offered de Vere a choice of 

 Dorset or Oxfordshire, Berkshire or Wiltshire, for his new earldom. ^^ 



Robert of Gloucester committed Wareham to the safe-keeping of his 

 eldest son William, and departed in June, 1142, also from Wareham, 'the 

 empress's family haven,' on his mission to Geoffrey of Anjou.'* Stephen, 

 recovered from his sickness, seized the opportunity to raid the enemy's own 

 country. He marched on Wareham, burned the town, and took the castle." 

 Sherborne Castle, built by the Justiciar, Bishop Roger of Salisbury, in 1137,'° 



' Liber Niger (ed. Hearne), i, 8; ; Pipe R. Dors. 14 Hen. II, m. 2. 



' Pipe R. Dors. 31 Hen. I. * Printed Round, G. Je Mandcville, 51,52. * Gesta Stefh. 58. 



' Dom. Bk. i, 76 ; Liber Niger, i, 77 ; Red Bk. of the Exch. (Rolls Ser.), i, 212. 



' Ann. Man. ii, 226. ' Jnct. Chart. (Pipe R. Soc. ed. Round), x, 37. 



" Ann. Theokeib. (Rolls Ser.), i, 46 ; Hen. Hunt. Hist. Engl 261 ; Jnn. JVav. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 229. 



' Ann. Wav. ii, 226. '" Gesta Stefh. 53, and Intr. xxi-xxv ; Round, G. de MandeviUe, 278, 279. 



" Gesta Steph. 53. " Will. Malms, op. cit. 557. "p. 80. 



" Round, G. de MandeviUe, 271, 274, 277. " Eyton, Dors. Dom. 75. 



" Dom. Bk. i, 75. " Round, op. cit. 180-3. 



'* Will. Malms, op. cit. 592. " Ibid. 593 ; Gesta Slefh. 93. 



" Ann. Winton, ii, 51 ; Will. Malms, op. cit. 547, 549 ; Gesta Steph. 49, 50. 



