the property of the
Manners family, who have continued to possess it to the present time.

As the possessors of this castle and lordship have been chiefly
persons of considerable eminence, and many of them numbered among the
great men of history, it may be as well to interweave a few notices
of them with a brief chronological account of the noble structure.
Robert, the first Norman lord, died in 1088, and was buried in the
chapter-house of the Priory, where Dr. Stukely discovered the stone
already named, to his memory. "By a general survey taken at the
death of Robert, it appears that he was in possession of fourscore
lordships: many of which, by uninterrupted succession, continue still
to be the property of the Duke of Rutland. In Lincolnshire his domains
were still more numerous. In Northamptonshire he had nine lordships;
one of which, Stoke, acquired the additional name of Albini, when it
came into the possession of his son." William de Albini, son of the
above, succeeded to these lordships; and, like his father, was a
celebrated warrior: according to Matthew Paris, he valourously
distinguished himself at the battle of Tinchebrai, in Normandy,
September 27, 1106; where Henry I. encountered Robert Curthose, his
brother. This lord obtained from Henry the grant of an annual fair at
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