Another irregularity was the admission to the title of earl of several persons unfitted to receive so great an honour, and whose only claim to distinction was that they were leaders of mercenaries. Stephen was not in a condition to endow all of them with the third penny of the revenues of a county, the usual appanage of an earl. Many of the earls created by Stephen stood, however, in a very different position. Such were Geoffrey de Mandeville, Lord of Plessy and Walden, who accepted the Earldom of Essex from both parties; Alberic de Vere, who built the noble keep of Hedingham, and was the first of the long line of the Earls of Oxford; Hugh Bigot, who held the Earldom of Norfolk; Richard de Clare, who held that of Hertford; D’Aumâle, of Yorkshire; Gilbert de Clare, of Pembroke; Robert de Ferrers, of Derby; and probably William de Ypres, the Earldom of Kent. Stephen seems to have created, in all, eight; and the Empress six,—Cambridge, Cornwall, Essex, Hereford, Salisbury, and Somerset. From Arundel, Matilda, it is said by Stephen’s courtesy, moved to Bristol, where her brother, Robert Earl of Gloucester, held his castle on the marshy confluence of the Frome with the Avon. Robert also at that time held the royal castle of Gloucester, long since destroyed, and a prison built on its site; and he was probably builder also of the shell-keep still standing upon the mound of Cardiff. At that time Matilda’s friends held Dover, with the square keep of Canterbury, placed just within the _enceinte_ of the yet older city ditch, and almost within bowshot of the still more venerable mound of Dane John. Mention is also made of the castles of Trowbridge and Cerne as recently erected. The latter was taken by Stephen by storm, before the attack on Malmesbury. Trowbridge held out with success. The great event of 1141 was the siege, or rather the battle, of Lincoln. The castle had been surprised, and was held by Ranulph Earl of Chester and his half-brother William de Roumare. As Stephen approached, Earl Ranulph left the place secretly to procure assistance from the Earl of Gloucester. This was afforded, and the two earls, with 10,000 men, some of them Earl Robert’s Welsh followers, crossed the Trent, and found Stephen drawn up to receive them. The result of the battle was the capture of Stephen, and the confirmation of Earl Ranulph in Lincoln Castle. On this Matilda went to her royal castle at Winchester, a part of the defences of the old Venta Belgarum, and characterised by a large mound, now removed. Here Bishop Henry, safe in his rectangular keep of Wolvesey, still standing near the Cathedral, in the opposite angle of the city, treated with her almost as equal with equal, but acknowledged her as Lady of England. Their accord, however, was neither cordial nor of long duration. Upon the Queen’s return, in some discredit, from London, an open quarrel broke out. She attacked Wolvesey, and the Bishop retaliated upon the royal castle with better success.