ROBERT LOVELL

Robert, Lord of Breherval and Yvery in Normandy, a younger son, it is stated, of Eudes, sovereign Duke of Brittany, was the potent noble to whom this entry on the Roll of Battle Abbey refers. He received from the Conqueror a grant of the Lordships of Kary and Harpetre, in the county of Somerset; but returned eventually to his native Duchy; where be assumed the cowl, and died a monk in the abbey of Bec, leaving three sons, of whom the eldest, Ancelin Gouel de Perceval, succeeded his father as Lord of Breherval. This feudal chief held, like his predecessor, a distinguished place in the Norman army, and was rewarded for his services with divers manors, particularly Weston and Stawel, co. Somerset. He was a man of violent temper, and thence acquired the surname of "Lupus." Ordericus Vitalis gives the particulars of a long and extraordinary dispute which Ascelin had with the Earl of Bretevil, and which ended by his obtaining his own terms, after sustaining a seige of two months, in his castle of Breherval, against a powerful army, commanded by the ablest captains of the age, which terms included the retention of the fortress, and the hand of Isabella, the Earl of Bretevil's only daughter, in marriage. The issue of the union thus accomplished, were seven sons and one daughter. Of the former, the eldest, Robert, Earl of Yvery, died s.p. in 1121, and was s. by his brother WILLIAM, surnamed "Lupellus," or the little wolf, which designation was softened into lupel, and thence to luvel. By Auberice, his wife, sister of Walleran de Bellemonte, Earl of Mellent, William Lupellus had five sons; 1st, WALERAN, Lord of Yvery in Normandy; 2nd, RALPH, Lord of Castle Kary, in Somersetshire, died s.p.; 3rd, HENRY, ancestor of the Lords Lovel of Katy, whose heiress, Muriel Lovel, married Sir Nicholas St. Maur, Lord St. Maur; 4th, William, ancestor of the LOVELS of Tichmersh; and 5th, Richard, who retained the original surname of Perceval, and from whom descended the EARLS of EGMONT. The Lovels of Tichmersh, who had summons to Parliament, 26th January, 1297, were a baronial family of considerable distinction. The last baron, Francis, 9th Lord Lovel of Tichmersh, created Viscount Lovel, in 1483, wan an eminent military commander, and is said to have fallen at the battle of Stoke, fighting in support of the pretensions of Lambert Simnell. The circumstance, however, of his lordship's death at Stoke admits of doubt, for after the battle he was certainly seen endeavouring on horseback, to swim the river Trent; yet, from this period, no further mention in made of him by any of our historians. A rumour prevailed that he had, for the time, preserved his life, by retiring into some secret place, and that he was eventually starved to death, by the treachery or negligence of those in whom he had confided; which report seems, in later days, to be confirmed by a very particular circumstance related in a letter from William Cowper, Esq., clerk of the Parliament, concerning the supposed finding of the body of Francis, Lord Lovel:-

Hertingfordbury Park, 9 Aug. 1737. SIR - I met t'other day with a memorandum I had made some years ago, perhaps not unworthy of notice. You may remember, that Lord Bacon, in his history of Henry VII., giving an account of the battle of Stoke, says of the Lord Lovell, who was among the rebels, that he fled and swame over the Trent on horseback, but could not recover the further side, by reason of the steepnesse of the bank, and so was drowned in the river. But another report leaves him not there, but states that he lived long after in a cave or vault. Apropos to this; on the 6th of May, 1788, the present Duke of Rutland related in my hearing, that about twenty years then before -vis. in 1708 upon occasion of new laying a chimney at Minster Luvel, there was discovered a large vault under ground, in which was the entire skeleton of a man, as having been sitting at a table, which was before him, with a book, paper, pen &c.; in another part of the room lay a cap, all much mouldered and decayed, which the family and others judged to be the Lord Lovel, whose exit has hitherto been so uncertain.

W. COWPER.

Hence it may be inferred that this once powerful but ill-fated nobleman retired secretly to his own castle; and having entrusted himself to some friend or dependant, died either by treachery or neglect - a melancholy period to the fortunes of one of the greatest and most active personages of the era in which he flourished. In his lordship vested the baronies of Lovel, Holland, D'Eyncourt, and Grey of Rotherfield, all of which fell under the attainder that closed the last act of his life's tragedy. One of Lord Lovers manors - that of Bayons, co. Lincoln, has become, by subsequent grant and repurchase, the property of the right Honourable CHARLES TENNYS0N D'EYNCOURT, who descends from the heir-male of this distinguished warrior.

--(This name appears on the Battle Abbey Roll).