158 LANDOWNERS IN CORNWALL, 1165. 



5. Roger de Mandavill holds 4 Knights' fees. 



" The estate of Roger de Mandeville," Lysons says, "must 

 have been that which belonged to Queen Matilda, wife of 

 William the Conqueror, and was part of the honour of 

 Gloucester." The Queen, according to the Exeter Domesday, 

 had four manors in her own hand, viz : — Conarditone (Conarton), 

 Bennartone, Godeford and Melledham. She died in 1083, and 

 the Exchequer Domesday of 1086, states that the King was 

 possessed of those manors which had been settled on Queen 

 Matilda. These manors formed parcel of the large possessions of 

 Algar, Earl of Gloucester, whose estates descended to his son 

 Brihtric, called " Brihtric 'Meaw" (snow) from the extreme 

 fairness of his complexion. The career of Brihtric was most 

 unfortunate. Having been sent to the Court of Elanders as an 

 ambassador from England, Matilda, Princess of Flanders, 

 became enamoured of him, but he declined her advances. She 

 afterwards married William, Duke of Normandy, and upon the 

 conquest of England by the latter, treasuring up the mortification 

 she had suffered through Brihtric in her youth, she induced her 

 husband to deprive Brihtric of all his possessions and confer 

 most of them upon herself, Brihtric being cast into a dungeon at 

 Winchester, where he perished, not without suspicion of poison. 

 Thus we find that the four manors mentioned above, which, in 

 the time of King Edward had been held by Brihtric, were, at 

 the time of the Exeter Domesday, held by the Queen. The 

 manors of Carnarton, in Gwithian ; Bennarton (Binnerton) in 

 Crowan ; are readily identifiable. Of Melledham, called Melioton 

 in a charter of Eenry II, we find in 1283, that Alan Basset was 

 Lord of Malenelidan (Melidan) the same, probably, as Menalida, 

 fldrich Cecilia, daughter of Alan de Dunstanville, brought to 

 William Basset, it is said as a marriage portion. This William 

 and Cecilia were the parents of Alan Basset, before mentioned. 



In 1211, Robert Tintaiol (Tintagel) accounted for the scutage 

 of Scotland for four fees which had belonged to Roger de 

 Mandeville. 



The Mandevilles were Earls of Essex, by special charter of 

 King Stephen. William de Mandeville was 3rd Earl of Essex, 

 and died in 1190. He had a younger brother named Robert. 



