The Beaumont Twins
A study of two magnates of the 12th century at the time of Stephen.
- The Beaumont Twins: the Roots and Branches of Power in the Twelfth Century
David Crouch - Cambridge University Press, 1986 – xxi + 242pp - £25
This book is a detailed and exhaustive study of the twin sons (there was a third and younger son, Hugh, Earl of Bedford) of Robert I, Count of Meulan, who died in 1118, viz Waleran, Count of Meulan, and Robert, Earl of Leicester, great magnates both in the time of Stephen and before and after. The first part, about a third of the book, is an interwoven political biography of each or a narrative of their careers, and the second is an analysis of their power and resources under the several headings of their honorial baronage, administration and revenues, their ecclesiastical patronage and their role in 'the wider world' including their intellectual life. It is packed with information and is clearly the result of a great deal of work and research.
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