Geoffrey FitzGeoffrey de Mandeville, 2nd Earl of Essex
Geoffrey de Mandeville, 2nd Earl of Essex and 4th Earl of Gloucester (c. 1191 – 23 February 1216)[1] was an English peer. He was an opponent of King John and one of the Magna Carta sureties.
Geoffrey and his brother took the surname Mandeville because of the lineage of their mother, Beatrice, who was a granddaughter of Beatrice, the sister of Geoffrey de Mandeville, first earl of Essex (d. 1144). The elder Beatrice in 1189 inherited the Mandeville honor on the death of her nephew William de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of Essex. Richard I of England allowed her lands and the earldom to pass to her granddaughter's husband Geoffrey fitz Peter. In 1213 their eldest son Geoffrey inherited the earldom of Essex from his father.
His first marriage was to Matilda, daughter of Robert fitz Walter, a member of the Clare family and one of the leaders of the opposition to King John. She died childless.
In 1214 the new earl gained the earldom of Gloucester and much of the honor by right of marriage to Isabel of Gloucester. He was Isabel's second husband, her marriage to John I of England having been annulled many years before. The king charged Geoffrey 20,000 marks, an unprecedented amount, for her marriage and inheritance.[2]
On his death in Feb. 1216 in a tournament, Geoffrey was succeeded by his brother, William FitzGeoffrey de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of Essex. His widow Isabel was remarried to Hubert de Burgh, 1st Earl of Kent but died within weeks of the wedding.