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Birth:          ABT 1121 of Essex, England
Death:          ABT 1170 

Notes
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_of_Essex
Henry of Essex or Henry de Essex (died c. 1170) was an Anglo-Norman nobleman who 
held the honours of Rayleigh (by inheritance) and Haughley (by right of his second 
wife, Alice de Montfort). He was also one of the royal constables during the reigns of 
Kings Stephen and Henry II. That office included the duty of bearing the royal 
standard to indicate the location of the king when on campaign or in battle.
Life[edit]

Henry was the son and heir of Robert fitz Swein of Essex, a pre-conquest English 
landowner who was favoured by King Edward the Confessor. William the Conqueror 
allowed Robert to build Rayleigh Castle some time after 1066. He was a grandson of 
Swein, son of Robert fitz Wimarch, a kinsman of Kings Edward and William.

Henry is mentioned in several chronicles, including that of Jocelin of Brakelond. His 
influence at the royal court was greatest during the reign of Stephen, but it continued 
into the early years of Henry II's. He served Henry as Sheriff of Bedfordshire and 
Buckinghamshire from 1156 to 1159 and as a justiciar, as well as being his constable.
[1] Henry participated in the king's Toulouse campaign in the spring and summer of 
1159.[2]

After he dropped the royal standard in a Welsh ambush during Henry II's campaign 
into Wales of 1157, however, his political importance waned. As royal constable, his 
office required that he hold the standard to indicate the king's position during any 
military engagement. Dropping the standard seemed to signal the king's death. At the 
royal court held at Easter, 1163, Henry was accused of treason for that act by a 
claimant to the Montfort estate of Haughley. The two men fought a judicial duel a few 
months later. Jocelin details Henry's judicial duel with Robert de Montfort (a rival for 
Henry's wife's inheritance) on Fry's Island in the River Thames at Reading. Henry's 
body was carried senseless from the site of the duel by monks of the nearby Reading 
Abbey, but he survived and took the Benedictine cowl. As he was a convicted traitor, 
however, his estates and offices were forfeit, and his family was disgraced.[3] Henry 
was allowed to remain as a monk at Reading Abbey, where he remained for the rest of 
his life.[4]

Henry of Essex is thought to have died at Reading Abbey in the same year that 
Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered, 1170.

Family[edit]

Henry married firstly a woman named Cecily, by whom he seems to have had two sons, 
Henry and Hugh.[5] Henry's second wife Alice de Montfort (probably daughter of Hugh 
de Montfort of Haughley Castle) bore him at least one daughter, Agnes, who married 
Aubrey de Vere, first Earl of Oxford, as his third wife.[6]

Arms[edit]
 
Henry's arms were blazoned Argent, an Orle Gules.[7]

Parents
FITZ SWEIN Robert (ABT 1080 - BEF 1159)
BIGOD Gunnora (ABT 1096 - )

Siblings
DE ESSEX Henry (ABT 1121 - ABT 1170)

Marriage To DE MONTFORT Alice (ABT 1125 - )
    m.  

Notes

Parents
DE MONTFORT Hugh (ABT 1100 - )
----- ----- ()

Children by DE MONTFORT Alice ABT 1125 - 
OF ESSEX Agnes (ABT 1150 - AFT 1212)

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