Add Ch 47552

Confirmation by Petronilla [de Grandmesnil, d. 1212], countess of Leicester, for her soul and those of her parents, her bridegroom [sponsus] Earl Robert [de Beaumont, earl of Leicester, d. 1190], her sons and daughters, and all her ancestors, to Nuneaton Priory, of the donation of her son Robert [de Beaumont, d. 1204], earl of Leicester, of 9 virgates of land in Belgrave [Leicestershire], in exchange for land in Dadelinton which his father had given to the priory alongside his sister Hawise of pious memory. The 9 virgates had formerly been held by Aaron, a Jew of Lincoln; dated to between the younger Robert de Beaumont’s accession as earl of Leicester in 1190 and when Abbot Paul of Leicester left office in 1204.

Witnesses include: P., abbot of Leicester.

Endorsed: in a 12th-century hand, ‘Vi[r]gatis t[er]re in Belegue’; in a 13th-century hand, ‘Quiet[a] clam[acia] pet[ro]nell[e] comitisse / nov[em] virgat[is] si tn mansi sit’; in an 18th-century hand, ‘Petronilla comitissa Leyecestr / sans date’.

Affixed with an imperfect and indistinct seal of Petronilla, lozenge, cream, with a full-length image of a figure in profile, in a long gown and cloak, facing left, holding a lily and a staff, with the legend, 'sigill[u]m ...onel… ...isse leyerce'.

The original charter of Robert de Beaumont’s grant now survives as Add Ch 47551.