Belvoir, to be continued for eight days. During the changeful reigns
of Stephen and Henry II., the castle fell into the hands of the
crown, and was granted to Ranulph de Gernons, Earl of Chester; but
repossession was obtained by de Albini, who died here about the year
1155. William de Albini, (alias Meschines and Britto,) the next
possessor of Belvoir, endowed the Priory hero with certain lands, and,
in 1165, certified to Henry II. that he then held of him thirty-two
knights' fees under the old feoffments, whereby he was enfeoffed
in the time of Henry I. William de Albini, the third of that name,
accompanied Richard I. during his crusading reign, into Normandy: he
was also one of the sureties for King John, in his treaty of peace
with Philip of France. He was too, engaged in the barons' wars in the
latter reign, and was taken prisoner by the king's party at Rochester
Castle; his own castle at Belvoir also falling into the royal hands.
He was likewise one of the twenty-five barons, whose signatures were
attached to Magna Charta and the charter of Forests at Runnemede. This
lord richly endowed the priory of Belvoir, and founded and endowed a
hospital at Wassebridge, between Stamford and Uffingham, where he was
buried in 1236. Isabel, of the house of Albini, now married to Robert
de Ros, or Roos, baron of Hamlake, and thus carried the estates into a
new family. The bounds of the lordship of Belvoir, at this time, are
described by a document printed in Nichols's History. This new lord
obtained a license from Henry III. to hold a weekly market and annual
fair at Belvoir. He died in 1285, and his body was buried at Kirkham,
his bowels before the high altar at Belvoir, and his heart at Croxton
Abbey; it being a practice of that age for the corporeal remains of
eminent persons to be thus distributed after death. The next owner,
William de Ros was, in 1304, allowed to impark 100 acres under
the name of _Bever_ Park, which was appropriated solely to the
preservation of game. He died in 1317: his eldest son, William de Ros,