ABSTRACT
Stephen at Dunstable at Christmas 1137 might well still have considered his position with a certain satisfaction, but as the year developed he would soon have found less and less to congratulate himself upon. His vigorous promotion of the Beaumont connection was already causing problems. Not far from Dunstable was the town and castle of Bedford. The castle had been committed to Simon de Beauchamp, the leading magnate of the shire and lord of the considerable honor of Eaton. Simon had joined Stephen as his steward early in the reign, and his family had a long-standing link with the town and castle of Bedford. His lineage included the Conqueror's sheriff of Bedfordshire. But Simon de Beauchamp had died at some time in 1137, leaving a young daughter as heir, and according to the Gesta Stephani, at the Christmas court the king had decided to use her as a piece of patronage to provide for Hugh Poer (that is, Hugh 'the Young') younger brother of the Beaumont twins, who was to be created earl of Bedford. 1 Hugh had been left after his father's death in 1118 with no English or Norman lands, just a substantial rent charge on his father's Parisian properties. Waleran, it seems, had applied himself to advance Hugh at no further cost to the family. 2
