[813] I have shown (p. 95 _n._) that William de Mohun was already an earl in June, 1141, though the _Gesta_ assigns his creation to the siege of Winchester, later in the year. [814] Buckingham is a most difficult and obscure title, and is only inserted here _cavendi causa_. Northampton, also, and Huntingdon are most troublesome titles, owing to the double set of earls with their conflicting claims, and the doubt as to their correct title. [815] This view is not affected by the fact that two or even more counties (as in the case of Waltheof's earldom) might be, officially, linked together, for where this arrangement had lingered on, the group might (or might not) be treated as one county, as regarded the earl. Warwick and Leicester are an instance one way; Norfolk and Suffolk the other. [816] _Select Charters_, pp. 20, 21. Cf. _Early Plants._, p. 37: "All property alienated from the Crown was to be resumed, especially the pensions on the Exchequer with which Stephen endowed his newly created earls." [817] _Const. Hist._, i. 451. [818] _Ibid._, i. 333, 334. [819] Robert de Monte. [820] _Select Charters_, p. 21. [821] The chroniclers are positive on the point. At the opening of 1155, writes Gervase (i. 161), "Guillelmus de Ypre et omnes fere Flandrenses qui in Angliam confluxerant, indignationem et magnanimitatem novi regis metuentes, ab Anglia recesserunt." So, too, Fitz Stephen asserts that "infra tres primos menses coronationis regis Willelmus de Ypra violentus incubator Cantiæ cum lachrymis emigravit." [822] Pipe-Rolls, 2 and 3 Hen. II. (published 1844). [823] Compare also the moralizing of Ordericus on the death of William fitz Osbern (1071): "Ubi est Guillelmus Osberni filius, Herfordensis comes et Regis vicarius," etc. [824] This is the date given for his death in the _Tintern Chronicle_ (_Monasticon_, O.E., i. 725). [825] "William of Salisbury" was a deceased magnate, but is mentioned by himself in the above passage because he was not an earl. As he is overlooked by genealogists, it may be well to explain who he was. He fought for the Empress at the siege of Winchester, where he was taken prisoner by the Earl of Hertford (_Will. Malms._, ed. Stubbs, ii. 587). He was also the "Willelmus ... civitatis Saresbiriæ præceptor ... et municeps" (_Gesta_, ed. Howlett, p. 96), who took part in the attack on Wilton nunnery in 1143, and "lento tandem cruciatu tortus interiit." This brings us to a document in the register of St. Osmund (i. 237), in which "Walterus, Edwardi vicecomitis filius, et Sibilla uxor mea et heres noster Comes Patricius" make a grant to the church of Salisbury "nominatim pro anima Willelmi filii nostri fratris comitis Patricii in restauramentum dampnorum quæ prænominatus filius noster Willelmus Sarum ecclesie fecerit." The paternity of William is thus established. [826] I have never found him attesting any charter as an earl, though this does not, of course, prove that he never did so.