(French-Latin) belonging to Belvoir = Fair View. [French bel, Latin bell-us, fair; French voir, Old French veoir, Latin videre, to view] Belvoir Castle, with its magnificent prospect, was founded, together with the old Priory, by Robert de Todeni, stand­ard-bearer to William I.

The surnamehas been largely corrupted into Beaver.

The first Lord of Belvoir, Robert de Todeni, is styled Robert de Belvedeir in the Coucher Book of Belvoir (v. Dugdale) and “Comes de Bever” in a grant to Belvoir Priory. Dugdale calls him only “a Noble Norman,” omitting all account of his lineage, and seems altogether unaware that Toeni and Todeni, which he enters as two distinct families, were in reality one and the same. The names are identical: Toeni is invariably spelt Todeni by Duchesne; and their arms betoken their relationship; for the two chevronels borne by the Lords of Belvoir, and the single chevron of the Staffords, are only distinguished by a counter-change of the tinctures, then commonly used to mark a different branch of the same house.

I have elsewhere See Toesni. given some account of this memorable family, which derived from Malahulc, an uncle of Rollo’s; and if any additional proof were needed that Robert de Todeni was of the royal blood of Normandy, it would be found in the splendid grants both he and his son received at the Conquest. “Though there is no direct evidence, there can be little doubt that he was the younger son of Randolph or Ralph, Sire de Toeni 1027, and brother of Roger, surnamed the “Spaniard” because he had married Godchilda, sister of Berengar Count of Barcelona, father of Ralph and Robert de Stafford.”—A. S. Ellis.

Robert’s great barony, as entered in Domesday, included lands in thirteen different counties, comprising eighty manors in all. His chief estate lay on the skirt of Lincoln and Leicestershire: and there, on “that stately ascent overlook­ing the beautiful valley adjacent, thence by him called Belvoir, from the fair view it hath of the Country there abouts,” he built his castle.

No more magnificent situation could be devised for a feudal fortress than this beacon-hill, overtopping the country round, from whence the eye of the Lord of the fief might travel over the whole broad sweep of domain unrolled and mapped out before him. Even now that eight hundred years have gone by, the Vale of Belvoir remains the patrimony of the Lord of Belvoir, and the representative of Robert de Todeni looks down from the same lofty eyry on the same bounteous inheritance that he first transmitted to the long line of his descendants.

He died about 1088, and was buried in the chapterhouse of a Priory he had founded near his castle, as a cell to the Abbey of St. Albans. Besides a daughter, married to Hubert de Rie, he left four sons: 1. William: 2. Berenger, who held a great barony, chiefly in Yorkshire, and d. s. p.: This is, I find, doubtful.

“It is suggestive of the solution of another interesting genealogical problem, that the Honour of Belvoir was, in 1114-16, not yet in the possession of William de Albini Brito, for, with one exception, all that Berenger de Todeni held under his father, Robert de Todeni, in Domesday, was then held by Robert de Insula, the husband of Albreda, who was almost certainly Berenger’s daughter.”—Survey of Lindsey, 1114-16; E. C. Waters. 3. Geoffrey, two of whose sons bore the name of De Chauveni: and 4. Robert. I have given their names as I have found them given by Dugdale, though it seems likely that Berenger was in reality the eldest brother. Yet the birth-right of William is spoken of as an unquestioned fact in the Baronage. “That this William was any other than the immediate Son and Heir, I doubt not at all; though it doth not appear for what respect he bore a different surname from his Father, being named William de Albany, with the addition of Brito: for that Robert de Todenei had a Son and Heir, named William, is evident enough; as also that he was heres honoris, the heir to this Barony.”

No one has explained why he took the name of De Albini, to which he could have no possible right; but it was retained by his remotest posterity, and borne continuously for close upon five hundred years. Brito, or Le Breton, was, according to Dugdale, added to distinguish him from his contemporary, William de Albini Pincerna. The name of Belvoir or Beauvoir, The author of The Norman People asserts that the ancestor of the great Cheshire families of Cholmondeley and Egerton, William le Belward, or de Belwar, who married the heiress of Malpas, was a son of Berenger de Toeni. In that case it is indisputable that he, rather than his sister’s husband, must have succeeded to Berenger's barony. He may very possibly have belonged to the family, though neither he nor his father John (temp. William Rufus) appear in their pedigree. The name of their Honour was again borne by William de Albini IV., who “was called William de Belvoir, during his father’s life-time.” probably borne by some of the descendants of his younger brothers, appears in the chartulary of the Priory during the twelfth century; others, it would appear, were styled De Chauveny and De Albini. Berenger alone used the patronymic of the illustrious Norman house from which they sprung.

William de Albini Brito—the first of four great barons of this name—was one of the commanders at the battle of Tinchebray, where, according to Matthew Paris, his single-handed valour decided the fortune of the day. “In this encounter chiefly deserveth Honour the most valiant William de Albini the Britain; who with his sword broke through the Army and put an end to the Fight.” He was a lawyer no less than a swordsman, and, with Richard Basset, a Justice Itinerant in Stephen’s time; but having adhered to the Empress Maud, his castle of Belvoir, with his whole barony, were taken from him and given to the Earl of Chester. He had been a great benefactor to Our Lady of Belvoir, “desiring that he might be admitted into their Fraternity, as his Father and Mother had been.” He died not long after the accession of Henry II., having, it would seem, been reinstated in his barony, for William de Albini Brito II., sometimes called Le Meschin (the little), his son and heir, possessed it in 1165, and died two years afterwards. Nothing is recorded of the latter beyond his benefactions to the Church; but his son, William III., whom he left a minor in ward to the King, played a great part in the history of his time, and was one of the illustrious conservators of Magna Charta. He joined the insurgent barons under Lord Fitz Walter, Mareschallus Dei et Ecclesiæ, and was entrusted by them with the defence of Rochester Castle. “Which, when he entred,” writes Dugdale, “he found neither Armes, Ammunition, nor Victual therein: As also discerning, that those who accompanied him thither, had no minde to stay in it, he told them how dishonorable it would be so to leave it; and therefore suddenly got in all the provision of food that could be found in the Town. But, having not time to look out into the Countrey for more; in regard the King came within three days upon them with his Army, and begirt it with a straight seige: they defended themselves with all valour imaginable; making divers bold sallies; with hope to have relief from the rest of the Barons of their party, who then were in London. Howbeit, when they saw no likelyhood thereof, and that the King’s forces had, by undermining, thrown down their outer Walls, and made upon them a fierce assault; such was their valour (though wearied with long watchings, and weakened by hunger) that they courageously beat them off. And at the last this hardy William, and those other of the Nobles who were then with him, accounting it most dishonourable to perish by Famine, when they could not be vanquished by force (all their food being spent) came out of the Castle, and submitted themselves to the King, upon the feast day of S. Andrew the Apostle.

“But the King, by reason of the vast charge he had been at in that seige (which continued little less than three Months), and loss of many of his Souldiers, that had been slain therein: was so highly enraged, that without any mercy, he commanded that all the Noble men should be hanged. Which severe sentence was so distasted by Savaricus de Malloleone, a noble Poictevin (then one of the chief commanders in the King’s Army) that he boldly told the King, that the Warr being not yet ended, he ought well to consider the uncertain chance thereof; adding, that if he hanged these, the Barons (his adversaries) might upon the like advantage, deal as cruelly with those of his party, which might occasion a total desertion of him. Where upon the King, well weighing the Danger, forbore the execution of that his sharp sentence;” and committed William de Albini to the custody of Mauleon, who sent him to Corfe Castle.

One anecdote of him is preserved by Matthew Paris. “The King, with some of his chief commanders, one day going about this Castle of Rochester, to view the strength thereof, was discerned by an excellent Bowman, who there upon asked this William de Albini whether he should kill him with his Arrow, that he had then in readiness; and that he answered No. As also, that the Bowman replied, He would not spare us, if he had the like advantage. To whom William returned, ‘God’s will be done, who will dispose, and not he.’”

King John’s method of warfare was essentially different. He lost no time in marching to Belvoir, and summoning the castle, which its lord had left well garrisoned, well provisioned, and in trusty hands. His imperious demand for the “speedy delivery” of so strong and well-guarded a place might have been flung back in open defiance, but for one terrible threat that brought its defenders to their knees. He signified to them, “that if they insisted on any conditions, the Lord of the castle should never eat more. Whereupon Nicholas de Albini, one of his sons (who was a Clerk in Orders), taking with him Sir Hugh Charnels, Knight, to preserve his Father from this miserable Death, carried the Keys of this Castle to the King, and delivered them to his hands; upon condition, that his Father should be mercifully dealt with, and they with their Horse and Arms remain at peace.”

Though he escaped the slow agonies of a death by starvation, William de Albini must have undergone much tribulation in his dungeon at Corfe, for it is grievous to record that “his stout heart being at length humbled,” he instructed his wife Agatha (one of the three Trusbut heiresses) to raise the six thousand marks required for his ransom, and ever after “thought it his safest way to be quiet.” He was a faithful liegeman to Henry III., for though he was at first mistrusted, and his wife and son detained as hostages, these doubts soon vanished, and he was named one of the principal commanders at the battle of Lincoln in 1217, where he found himself in arms against his former friends and allies. He died “full of days” in 1236, leaving, by his first wife, Margery de Umfraville, four sons; William IV., Odonel, who was taken prisoner with him at Rochester, Robert, and Nicholas the priest William de Albini IV. was the last who possessed the magnificent appanage of Belvoir, and with it passed away the glory and greatness of his house. He was twice married; but the only child born to him was a daughter, Isabel de Albini, one of the most famous heiresses of her day. At his death in 1247, she was under age, and in ward to the King, who bestowed her in marriage (not “without a round compensation”) on Robert de Ros, Baron of Hamlake. According to the custom of feudal procedure, her uncles were shut out from all share in the succession, and Dugdale takes no further notice of them, passing on to a second baronial house, derived from Ralph, a younger son of the first William de Albini.

This Ralph, who held fifteen knight’s fees of the Honour of Belvoir in 1165, and founded a nunnery at Urford in Lincolnshire, died in the Holy Land in 1190. Philip, his successor, was greatly favoured by King John, who appointed him Constable of Ludlow and Bridgenorth, and Governor of Jersey and Sark, with a grant of all the lands in Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, and Somersetshire, forfeited by Maurice de Gant in 1215. Yet in that same year he joined the Barons that claimed their liberties, sword in hand; was present at Runnymede, and took the oath of fealty to the twenty-five Conservators of Magna Charta. Dugdale says he was among those who, “being most moderate, inclined to the King:” and not long after, he deserted his friends to follow John on his devastating northern campaign, and remained his ever faithful henchman to the day of his death. “Nor was he less obsequious to his Son and Successor, King Henry III.,” to whom he did good service at Lincoln and elsewhere. He was a scholar, praised by Matthew Paris as “a faithful Teacher and instructor of the King,” and so constantly in attendance upon him that he had to employ his nephew Philip as his deputy in the Channel Islands, of which he had been appointed Governor. In 1221 he was signed with the Cross and went to the Holy Land, where he spent two years; and he was making ready for a second pilgrimage thither at the time of of his death in 1232. He was followed by two nephews, Philip and Elias; the latter of whom was a baron by writ in 1294. Elias’ son Sir Ralph likewise received summons to parliament, but the next four generations were all passed over, and it is not till we reach Giles, the fifth in descent, that we find the title revived. It is curious to note, that these baronies by writ, which it has now become the practice to “call out of abeyance” after the lapse of centuries, were then so little considered hereditary that Giles, instead of being the sixth Baron by right of succession, was created Lord Daubeny in 1486. He had been instrumental in placing Henry VII. on the throne, and was one of his chief counsellors and most approved commanders. He served by sea no less than by land; was Captain of Calais; sent to Flanders with three thousand men in aid of the Emperor Maximilian; fought Lord Audley and the Cornish rebels at Blackheath, and routed Perkin Warbeck’s adherents at Taunton. He was a Knight of the Garter, Lord Chamberlain of the King’s Household, Justice Itinerant of the Royal Forests S. of Trent, and Constable of Bridgewater. He died in 1507, leaving one son and two daughters; Henry; Cecily, Countess of Bath: and Anna, married to Alexander Buller. Henry was created Earl of Bridgewater by Henry VIII. in 1538, but died without issue.

James, the only brother of Giles Lord Daubeny, was (according to Banks) the ancestor of the Daubenys of Wayford in Somersetshire, and Gorwell in Dorsetshire.

The name of Belvoir or Beauvoir is occasionally to be met with in official records. William de Beauvois and Richard de Beauver witness a grant of Philip Kyme to Belvoir Priory about 1177. John de Belvoir was Rector of Charlton, Oxfordshire, in 1361. The old Yorkshire family of Belver or Beevor, long seated in the parish of Peniston, that received a baronetcy in 1784, bear arms wholly different from those of the great Leicestershire house, with an allusive “beaver” as their crest.