Simon II de Senlis, Earl of Huntingdon-Northampton explained

Simon II de Senlis (or Senliz, St. Liz, etc.), 4th Earl of the Honour of Huntingdon and Northampton (1098–1153) was an Anglo-Norman nobleman. He was the son of Simon I de Senlis, Earl of Huntingdon-Northampton and Maud, Countess of Huntingdon. He married Isabel, daughter of Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester and they had a son Simon.

He was prominent in the Anarchy, fighting for Stephen of England in 1141 at the Battle of Lincoln. He continued to support Stephen's side; R. H. C. Davis calls him 'staunch' and 'consistently loyal'^[1] and surmises that Simon calculated that if the Empress Matilda won, his earldom of Northampton would be taken over by her uncle David I of Scotland.^[2]

Simon was rewarded by becoming Earl of Huntingdon. He died in 1153 just before Henry II of England took over, whereupon the king restored the Earldom of Huntingdon-Northampton to his ally Malcolm IV of Scotland.^[3]

References

R.H.C. Davis, King Stephen, 1st edition (Longman, London 1977), p.112, p.135.
Davis, King Stephen, p.70.
D. Crouch, The Image of Aristocracy: In Britain, 1000-1300 (Routledge 2005), page=49 (Google).

Source

K. Stringer, 'Senlis, Simon (II) de, earl of Northampton and earl of Huntingdon (d. 1153)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004), accessed 20 May 2007.

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