(Vol. ii., p. 442.).
In reply to the question of J., I send you some particulars about _Aumerle_
or Albemarle.
The first Earl of this place, which is the name of a small town or
territory in Normandy, was Otho, descended from the Earls of Champagne, and
nearly related to William the Conqueror, to whom he fled for protection,
having killed a great person in that country, and obtained this earldom and
the Isle of Holderness, in Yorkshire, for his maintenance. The title
remained in the heirs of Otho till the death of William, eighth Earl of
Albemarle, 44th Henry III., when it reverted to the Crown, with the
lordship of Holderness, and in the 9th of Richard II. he granted them to
Thomas of Woodstock, summoned to parliament as "Thomas, Duke of Albemarle,
the king's loving uncle."
Without enumerating the different persons upon whom our kings subsequently
conferred this title as often as it became extinct or vacant, it will be
sufficient for our purpose to show, that at the Restoration the dukedom of
Albemarle was given to General Monk, who, according to Banks (_D. and E.
Peerage_, vol. iii. p. 37.), had a certain degree of hereditary pretension
to the name {467} by which he was ennobled, inasmuch as he was descended
from Margaret, eldest daughter and co-heir of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of
Warwick and Albemarle; but this is not satisfactorily made out in Banks'
table. At all events, the dukedom became again extinct on the death of
Christopher Monk, the second Duke of Albemarle, in 1688, S.P.; but the name
was once more revived in 1695-6, by William III., in favour of Arnold Joort
Van Keppel, Lord of Voorst, who had attended the king in several campaigns,
and was his Master of the Robes, and on the 10th of February in that year
created "_Earl of Albemarle in Normandy_;" the title having been doubtless
selected as one so frequently enjoyed by persons of the highest
consideration, and not in any way resting upon an hereditary claim.