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DE BEAUMONT Henry
Birth:          ABT 1048 Newbourg, Normandy
Death:          20 Jun 1119 Warwick Castle, Warwickshire, England
Burial:         Preaux Abbey, Pont-Audemer, Normandy

Notes
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jweber&id=I00306
Henry de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Warwick, so created between July and Dec 1088 and 
granted lands which up till two years previously had belonged to a Saxon Thane, 
Turkill or Turchil of Arden (an ancestor of William Shakespeare); born c1048; granted 
feudal Lordship of Gower, South Wales by Henry I some time between 1106 and 1116; 
married Margaret (died in or after 1156), daughter of Geoffrey, Count de Perche, and 
died most probably 20 June 1119. [Burke's Peerage]

- - - - -

Earldom of Warwick: Apart from the period 1618 to 1759 the various creations and 
descents of the Earldom of Warwick have been to and among grantees connected by 
blood, however tenuously. That is remarkable, given that the period stretches to 
nearly a thousand years. [Burke's Peerage, p. 2944]

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EARLDOM OF WARWICK (I) 1088

HENRY DE BEAUMONT, younger son of Roger DE BEAUMONT, seigneur of 
Beaumont, Pontaudemer, Brionne and Vatteville (in Normandy), by Adeline, sister and 
in her issue heir (of the whole blood) of Hugh, COUNT OF MEULAN, daughter of 
Waleran, COUNT OF MEULAN (in the Kingdom of France), was b. probably about 
1048. According to Orderic, when the Conqueror built Warwick Castle in 1068, he 
made Henry constable thereof; but in view of Henry's youth, it is likely that the 
historian is antedating a much later appointment. Henry attests a royal charter at Le 
Mans in 1073. In 1077 he was with the King at Caen; and in 1079 he was one of the 
nobles at Rouen who tried to reconcile the King and his eldest son. He was with 
William in Normandy in 1080 and 1082; and he was again in Normandy in 1086. Almost 
at the end of the reign he was with the King at Westminster. In 1088 he supported 
William Rufus against the rebels; and he was created, in 1088 (July-December), EARL 
OF WARWICK. To support the Earldom the King gave him the lands of an English 
thegn, Turchil of Arden, who had still held large estates in 1086. Probably by a family 
arrangement, he also obtained lands in co. Warwick which had been held in 1086 by 
his elder brother Robert, Count of Meulan. Probably in 1088 he witnessed, as Earl, a 
charter of Robert, Duke of Normandy. During the remainder of the reign he does not 
seem to have taken any active part in public affairs. On his father's death about 1094 
he succeeded to the Norman Barony of Annebecq, which at a later date comprised 
22¾ knights' fees, for which the service of 2½ knights' fees was due. He was probably 
in the royal hunting party when William Rufus was killed in the New Forest, 2 August 
1100; for next day, when the nobles met at Winchester to choose the King's 
successor, he was present and took a leading part in the election of Henry IV. 
Immediately after the Coronation at Westminster, 5 August Warwick witnessed Henry's 
charter of liberties. In June 1101, when Robert, Duke of Normandy, prepared to 
invade England, Warwick and his brother Robert were among the King's few 
supporters in Normandy. He remained loyal to Henry I for the rest of his life and often 
attested royal charters. Between 1100 and 1116 Henry I granted him the peninsula of 
Gower, Glamorgan. He founded a priory of Austin canons, at Warwick and was a 
benefactor of St. Mary's Church there and of the Abbeys of Préaux and St. Taurin, 
Evreux.

He married Margaret, daughter of Geoffrey, COUNT OF PERCHE, by Beatrice, 
daughter of Hilduin, COUNT OF MONTDIDIER and ROUCY. He died (probably 20 
June) 1119 and was buried at Préaux. His widow, who enjoyed a high reputation for 
piety and virtue, in 1125 witnessed the foundation charter of the Hermitage of Notre-
Dame-du-Désert by Robert, Earl of Leicester. She was a benefactor of Kenilworth 
Priory and the Knights Templars, and consented to a gift by her son Robert to the 
Abbey of Le Bec. She was living in 1156. [Complete Peerage XII/2:357-60, 
(transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]

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The first who bore the title of Earl of Warwick, after the Norman Conquest, was Henry 
de Newburgh (so called from the castle of that name in Normandy), a younger son of 
Roger de Bellomont, Earl of Mellent. When this eminent person obtained that earldom 
is not exactly ascertained, but Sir William Dugdale presumed the period to be toward 
the close of the Conqueror's reign, "for then," saith he, "King William, having begirt 
Warwick with a mighty ditch, for the precinct of its walls, and erected the gates at his 
own charge, did promote this Henry to the earldom, and annexed thereto the royalty of 
the borough, which at that time belonged to the crown." But, though Henry de 
Newburgh was made Earl of Warwick by the first Norman sovereign, he was not 
invested with all the lands attached to the earldom until the ensuing reign, as we find 
William Rufus, soon after his accession to the throne, conferring upon him the whole 
inheritance of Turchil de Warwick, a Saxon, who, at the coming of Duke William, had 
the reputation of earl; and thenceforth the "bear and ragged staff," the device of 
Turchil's family derived from the chivalrous Guy, Earl of Warwick, was assumed by the 
first of the Newburgh dynasty, and it has been continued ever since as a badge of the 
successive Earls of Warwick. The name of this Henry, Earl of Warwick, appears as a 
witness to the charter of King Henry I, whereby that prince confirmed the laws of 
Edward the Confessor, and granted many other immunities to the clergy and laity. His 
lordship m. Margaret, dau. of Geffrey, Count de Moreton, and sister of Rotrode, Earl of 
Perch, and had issue, two daus., whose names are not mentioned, and five sons, viz., 
Roger, his successor; Henry; Geffrey; Rotrode, bishop of Evreux; and Robert, 
seneschal and justice of Normandy, who was a great benefactor to the abbey of Bec 
in which he was afterwards shorn a monk and d. in 1123.

This Earl Henry commenced imparking Wedgenock, near his castle of Warwick, 
following the example of his sovereign, King Henry, who made the first park that had 
ever been in England, at Woodstock. His lordship, who was as memorable for pious 
foundations as distinguished for military achievements, d. in 1123 and was s. by his 
eldest son, Roger de Newburgh. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and 
Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 399, Newburgh, Earls of 
Warwick]

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The earldom of Warwick was created by William II in 1088 for Henry de Beaumont, 
who had held Warwick castle since its building by William the Conqueror 20 years 
before.

Henry, younger brother of Robert, count of Meulan, was lord of Neubourg, near 
Beaumont-le-Roger in Normandy, and Rufus gave him the great midland estate of the 
English noble, Thurkill of Arden. The new earl was an intimate friend of Henry I, 
whose succession he did much to promote. He died in 1123 and was buried at Preaux 
(Normandy). Roger, his eldest son, held the earldom until his death in 1153. 
[Encyclopædia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 23, p. 375, EARLS OF WARWICK]

Parents
DE BEAUMONT Roger (ABT 1022 - ABT 1094)
DE MEULAN Adeline (Adeliza) (ABT 1014 - 1081)

Siblings
DE BEAUMONT Robert (ABT 1046 - 5 Jun 1118)
DE BEAUMONT Henry (ABT 1048 - 20 Jun 1119)

Marriage To DU PERCHE Margaret (ABT 1075 - AFT 1156) m. Notes Parents ____ Geoffrey II (ABT 1042 - Oct 1100) DE MONTDIDIER Beatrice (ABT 1051 - AFT 2 Sep 1129) Children by DU PERCHE Margaret ABT 1075 - AFT 1156
DE BEAUMONT Roger (1102 - 12 Jun 1153)
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