The doubt of the Empress must therefore be attributed to her anxiety not to invade the comital rights of her cousin, in case he should deem that her creation of an earldom of Cambridgeshire would constitute such invasion. It is evident, we shall find, that he did so. The accepted view is, it would appear, that Aubrey, by virtue of this charter, became Earl "of Cambridge."[598] Mr. Doyle, indeed, in his great work, goes so far as to state that he was "cr. Earl of CAMBRIDGE by the Empress Maud (after March 2) 1141; ... cr. Earl of OXFORD (_in exchange_) 1155."[599] But in Cole's (unpublished) transcript of the Colne Cartulary (fols. 34, 37), we have a charter of this Aubrey, "Pro animâ patris mei Alberici de Vere," which must have passed between 1141 and 1147, for it is attested by Robert, Bishop of London, appointed 1141, and Hugh, Abbot of Colchester, who died in 1147. In this charter his style is "Albericus Comes Oxeneford." Here, then, we have evidence that, in this reign, he was already Earl "of Oxford," not Earl of Cambridge. Before quitting the subject of Aubrey's creation, we may note the bearing of the shifting clause on the creation of the earldom of Wiltshire. It implies that Patrick of Salisbury had not yet received his earldom. This conclusion is confirmed by a charter of the Empress tested at Devizes, which he witnesses merely as "Patricio de Sarum conestabulo."[600] The choice of Dorset is somewhat singular, as it suggests an intrusion on the Mohun earldom. But this rather shadowy dignity appears, during its brief existence, as an earldom of Somerset rather than of Dorset. The specific grant of the "tertius denarius," as in the creation charters of the earldoms of Essex and of Hereford, should also be noticed. The "Earl Gilbert" who is repeatedly mentioned in the course of this charter is Earl Gilbert "of Pembroke," maternal uncle to Aubrey. It is this relationship that, perhaps, accounts for the part he here plays. Of the remaining features of interest in the record, attention may be directed to the phrase concerning the knights' fees of William de Helion: "Ut ipse Willelmus teneat de Comite Alberico, et ipse Comes faciat inde michi servitium;" also to the implied forfeiture of William Peverel of Nottingham, he having been made prisoner at Lincoln, fighting on Stephen's side. Lastly, the promise to the earl of the chancellorship for his brother William becomes full of interest when we know that this was the Canon of St. Osyth,[601] and that he was to be thus rewarded as being the clerical member of his house. It enables us further to identify in William, the existing chancellor, the brother of John (fitz Gilbert) the marshal.