In 1096, Robert de Beaumont, Count of Meulan reputed to be "the wisest man in his time between London and Jerusalem" insisted, in defiance of the laws of the church, on marrying a very young Elizabeth, he being over fifty at the time. In early 1096 Bishop Ivo, on hearing of the proposed marriage, wrote a letter banning the marriage and preventing its celebration on the grounds the two were related within prohibited degrees. In April of the same year, Elizabeth's father count Hugh left on Crusade, his last act being to see his daughter married to count Robert. The crusader was able to convince Pope Urban to issue a dispensation for the marriage which then went forward. Her husband was a nobleman of some significance in France, having inherited lands from his maternal uncle Henry, Count of Meulan. He gained renown fighting in his first battle, in command of the right wing, at the Battle of Hastings as a companion of William the Conqueror. He was rewarded with ninety manors in the counties of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and Wiltshire. The count of Meulan was one of Henry I's "four wise counsellors and was one of the king's commanders at the Battle of Tinchebray" 28 September 1106. In 1107 Robert became Earl of Leicester.
Countess of Surrey
Elizabeth, Countess of Meulan is reputed to have had an affair and left her husband when he was near death. The historian James Planché claimed that the Countess was seduced by or fell in love with a younger nobleman, William de Warenne. There is no evidence that her second husband, William II de Warenne, second earl of Surrey, was that lover and only later rumors that she had a lover at all during her first marriage. William had sought a royal bride in 1093, but failed in his attempt to wed Matilda of Scotland also known as Edith, who later married Henry I. He obtained a bride of royal blood when he married Elizabeth in 1118, very soon after the death of Earl Robert. Elizabeth survived her second husband William to later die in 1131.
Family
By her first husband, Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester,, Elizabeth had three sons and five or six daughters:
Lady Emma de Beaumont, betrothed as an infant to Aumari de Montfort, nephew of William, Count of Évreux, but the marriage never took place. She probably died young, or entered a convent.
Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester, married and left issue.
By her second husband, William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey, Elizabeth had three sons and two daughters:
William de Warenne, 3rd Earl of Surrey
Ralph de Warenne
Reginald de Warenne, who inherited his father's property in upper Normandy, including the castles of Bellencombre and Mortemer. He married Alice de Wormegay, daughter of William de Wormegay, Lord of Wormegay in Norfolk, by whom he had a son, William de Warenne.
