[316] Robert fitz Hildebrand witnessed the Empress's second charter to Geoffrey with that to the Earl of Oxford (_vide post_). See for his adultery, treason, and shocking death (? 1143), _Gesta Stephani_, pp. 95, 96, where he is described as "virum plebeium quidem, sed militari virtute approbatum." He is also spoken of as "vir infimi generis, sed summæ semper malitiæ machinator" (_ibid._, p. 93). He is affiliated by the editors of Ordericus (Société de l'Histoire de France) as "Robert fils de Herbrand de Sauqueville" (iii. 45, iv. 420), where also we learn that he had refused to embark upon the White Ship. He was perhaps a brother of Richard fitz Hildebrand, who held five fees from the Abbot of Sherborne and five from the Bishop of Salisbury in 1166. [317] As the closing names vary somewhat in the two transcripts, I give both versions:— DUGDALE MS. "Rad Lond' et Rad' painel et W. Maminot et Rob' fil. R. et Rob' fil. Martin et Rob' fil Heldebrand' apud Westmonasterium." ASHMOLE MS. "Rad lovell et Rad Painell et W. Maminot et Roberto filio R. et Roberto filio Martin Roberto filio _Haidebrandi apud Oxford_." The three last words are added in a different hand, and "Oxford" appears to have been substituted for "Westmr" by yet another hand. [318] William de Moiun (Mohun) had attested _eo nomine_ the charter to Glastonbury (_Journ. B. A. A._, xxxi. 389; _Adam de Domerham_) which probably passed soon after the election of the Empress (April 8) at Winchester (see p. 83). He now attests, among the earls, as "_Comite_ Willelmo de Moion." This fixes his Creation as April-June, 1141. Courthope gives no date for the creation, and no authority but his foundation charter to Bruton, in which he styles himself "Comes Somersetensis." Dr. Stubbs, following him, gives (under "dates and authorities for the empress's earldoms") no date and no further authority (_Const. Hist._, i. 362). Mr. Maxwell Lyte, in his learned and valuable monograph on _Dunster and its Lords_ (1882), quotes the _Gesta Stephani_ for the fact "that at the siege of Winchester, in 1140, the empress bestowed on William de Mohun the title of Earl of Dorset" (p. 6). But Winchester was besieged in (August-September) 1141, not in 1140, and though the writer does speak of "Willelmus de Mohun, quem comitem ibi statuit Dorsetiæ" (p. 81), this charter proves that he postdates the creation, as he also does that of Hereford, which he assigns to the same siege (cf. pp. 125, _n._, 194). Mr. Doyle, with his usual painstaking care, places the creation (on the same authority) "before September, 1141" (which happens, it will be seen, to be quite correct), and assigns his use of the above style ("comes Somersetensis") to 1142. See also, on this point, p. 277 _infra_. [319] See p. 143. [320] The grant of the earldom of Hereford to Miles of Gloucester. [321] "Erecta est autem in superbiam intolerabilem ... et omnium fere corda a se alienavit" (_Hen. Hunt._, 275).