Geoffrey de Mandeville

Geoffrey de Mandeville (d. 1144). An English baron whose stormy career caused controversy both in his own day and since. As keeper of the Tower of London and as possessor of large estates in Essex and East Anglia, he played a central role in the turbulent politics of Stephen's reign. Despite being created earl of Essex by the king in 1140, he joined Matilda in 1141 and was made hereditary sheriff of Essex. Like many others, swiftly disenchanted by her rule, by the late summer of that year he was back in Stephen's camp. Until mortally wounded while laying siege to Burwell, he did much of the damage which created the notion of Stephen's reign as ‘the anarchy’.

Geoffrey de Mandeville is the name of several important medieval English barons:

• Geoffrey de Mandeville (11th century), (d. c. 1100) was one of the great magnates of the reign of William the Conqueror
• Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1st Earl of Essex (d. 1144), changed sides several times during the reign of King Stephen; son of William de Mandeville and grandson of the Geoffrey de Mandeville above
• Geoffrey de Mandeville, 2nd Earl of Essex (d. 1160) was the eldest son of the 1st Earl above. He died without children and was succeeded by his brother William de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of Essex
• Geoffrey de Mandeville (d. 1216), opponent of King John of England
• Geoffrey de Mandeville (Marshwood) of Marshwood, Devon, minor landholder during the reign of Henry I, sometimes confused with the others of the same name, to whom he was not related

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