MANDEVILLE, GEOFFREY DE (d. earl of Essex, succeeded his father, William, as constable of the Tower of London in or shortly before 113o. Though a great Essex land owner, he played no conspicuous part in history till 114o. when Stephen created him earl of Essex in reward for his services against the empress Matilda. After the defeat and capture of Stephen at Lincoln (r 140 the earl deserted to Matilda, but before the end of the year, learning that Stephen's release was imminent, returned to his original allegiance. In 1142 he was again intriguing with the empress; but before he could openly join her cause he was detected and deprived of his castles by the king. In 1144 Geoffrey maintained himself as a rebel and a bandit in the fen-country, using the Isle of Ely and Ramsey Abbey as his head quarters. He was besieged by Stephen in the fens, and met his death in Sept. 1544 in consequence of a wound received in a
skirmish. His career is interesting for two reasons. The charters which he extorted from Stephen and Matilda illustrate the peculiar form taken by the ambitions of English feudatories. The most important concessions are grants of offices and jurisdictions which had the effect of making Mandeville a viceroy with full powers in Essex, Middlesex and London, and Hertfordshire. His career as an outlaw exemplifies the worst excesses of the anarchy which prevailed in some parts of England during the civil wars of and it is probable that Mandeville inspired the rhetorical description, in the Peterborough Chronicle of this period, when "men said openly that Christ and his saints were asleep." See J. H. Round, Geoffrey de Mandeville, a Study of the Anarchy