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 1056 - Aft 1130 (~ 75 years)
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| Name |
Robert of Bellême |
| Suffix |
3rd Earl of Shrewsbury, Count of Ponthieu |
| Born |
ca 1056 |
| Gender |
Male |
| Died |
Aft 1130 |
| Notes |
- Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_of_Bell%C3%AAme,_3rd_Earl_of_Shrewsbury
Having the titles of seigneur de Bellême (or Belèsme), seigneur de Montgomery, viscount of the Hiémois, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury and Count of Ponthieu, he was an Anglo-Norman nobleman, and one of the most prominent figures in the competition for the succession to England and Normandy between the sons of William the Conqueror. He was a member of the powerful House of Bellême.
Robert became notorious for his alleged cruelty. The chronicler Orderic Vitalis calls him "Grasping and cruel, an implacable persecutor of the Church of God and the poor... unequalled for his iniquity in the whole Christian era." The stories of his brutality may have inspired the legend of Robert the Devil.
Robert was the oldest surviving son of Roger of Montgomery, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury and Mabel de Bellême. In 1073 when William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, invaded Maine, Robert was knighted by him at the siege of Fresnai castle. By now probably of age and independent of his father he took part in the 1077 revolt of the young Robert Curthose against his father, Duke William.
When Robert's mother, Mabel, was killed c.?1079, Robert inherited her vast estates. But at this point Duke William took the added precaution of garrisoning the Bellême castles with his own soldiers, which was his ducal right. On hearing the news of William the Conqueror's death in 1087, Robert's first act was to expel the ducal garrisons from all his castles.
Robert Curthose has succeeded his father as Duke of Normandy. He was told of a plot to place him on the throne of England in his brother William II's (William Rufus) place, a plot that Duke Robert enthusiastically approved and supported. Robert de Bellême, his brother Hugh de Montgomery and a third brother, either Roger or Arnulf, participated in this rebellion in England. In the Rebellion of 1088, beginning at Easter the rebels burned and wasted the king's properties and those of his followers. Robert de Bellême was among the rebels who found themselves defending Rochester Castle. When William Rufus blockaded the town and built two counter-castles, the garrison began negotiating for surrender under honorable terms, being allowed to keep their lands and serve the king. This Rufus refused; he was furious and had initially wanted the traitors hanged "or by some other form of execution utterly removed from the face of the earth." Other great Anglo-Norman barons interceded with the King, until finally in July a semi-honorable surrender was negotiated between the king and the rebels. Rufus, albeit reluctantly, guaranteed the rebels life and limb and gave them safe conduct back to France.
Robert sailed back to Normandy in the company of Count Henry (later king Henry I), who had not been part a of the conspiracy against his brother William Rufus. They were destined to become bitter enemies. Robert de Bellême was a powerful and dangerous disruptive force in Normandy now free to do as he would. However, Duke Robert Curthose of Normandy had been convinced by Bishop Odo of Bayeux that both Henry and his travel companion Robert de Bellême were now conspiring with William Rufus against him. Both Henry and Robert were seized as they disembarked and, both placed in the Bishop's custody, were imprisoned; Henry at Bayeux and Robert at Neuilly-ll'Evêque, now Neuilly-la-Forêt.
On hearing his son was imprisoned Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury immediately went to Normandy and put all his castles in a state of readiness against the duke. At this point the Montgomery family was in a state of rebellion against Robert Curthose. Bishop Odo now instigated Duke Robert to take all the castles of Robert de Bellême by force and the duke gathered an army and proceeded against them. Earl Roger sent peace envoys to the duke and convinced him to release his son Robert which the fickle duke finally did.
By 1090 Robert was back in Robert Curthose's good graces, Orderic Vitalis calling him a "principal councilor" to duke Robert. He supported Curthose in putting down a revolt by the citizens of Rouen, in 1090, and took considerable numbers of the citizens captive throwing them into dungeons. The inhabitants of Domfront, long a Bellême-Montgomery stronghold, invited Henry, the duke's younger brother to take possession of Domfront. Apparently they had grown weary of Robert's oppressive and abusive style of lordship.
In 1094 Robert's father, earl Roger, died. Robert's younger brother Hugh of Montgomery, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury inherited the English lands and titles, while Robert inherited his father's Norman properties, which included good part of central and southern Normandy, in part adjacent to the Bellême territories he had already inherited from his mother. In 1098 Robert's younger brother Hugh died, and Robert inherited, on payment of £3,000 in relief, the English properties that had been their father's, including Arundel in Sussux and the Earldom of Shrewsbury. Robert had also acquired the countship of Ponthieu and the parish of Tickhill; all of which combined made him the wealthiest magnate in both England and Normandy.
In 1096, Duke Robert of Normandy took up the cross on the First Crusade and left the custody of the duchy to his brother William Rufus, King of England. He returned from the First Crusade in triumph. He was encouraged to invade England and depose his brother Henry I. Robert de Bellême was one of the great magnates who joined Robert's 1101 invasion of England, along with Bellême's brothers Roger the Poitevin and Arnulf of Montgomery and his nephew William, Count of Mortain. This invasion, however, which aimed to depose Henry I, ended bloodlessly in the Treaty of Alton which called for amnesty for the participants but allowed traitors to be punished.
Henry I took a year compiling charges against Robert and his brothers and Robert's unlicensed castle building. Henry had a series of charges drawn up against Robert in 1102, and when Robert refused to answer for them, gathered his forces and besieged and captured Robert's English castles. Robert lost his English lands and titles (as did his brothers), was banished from England, and returned to Normandy.
In 1106 Robert was one of Curthose's commanders at the Battle of Tinchebrai commanding the rear division and, when the battle turned in Henry's favour, he and most of those with him avoided capture by fleeing the field. With Normandy now under Henry's rule, Robert de Bellême submitted and was allowed to retain his Norman fiefs and his office as viscount of the Hiémois. But Henry was still wary of Robert and placed his followers in key positions in Normandy.
Robert married Agnes of Ponthieu, before 9 Sep 1087, and they had one child, William III of Ponthieu, who via his mother inherited the county of Ponthieu.
Orderic Vitalis portrays Robert de Bellême as a villain, especially when compared to Henry I, whose misdemeanors the chronicler felt were excusable. Orderic calls Robert "Grasping and cruel, an implacable persecutor of the Church of God and the poor... unequaled for his iniquity in the whole Christian era." The basis for Orderic's animosity towards Robert and his de Bellême predecessors was the longstanding and bitter feud between the Giroie family, patrons of Orderic's Abbey of Saint-Evroul, and the de Bellême family. William Talvas (de Bellême), Robert's grandfather, had blinded and mutilated William fitz Giroie
He did at times appropriate church properties and was not a major donor to any ecclesiastical house. But Robert's attitudes toward the church are typical of many of his contemporaries; certainly no worse than the secular rulers and other magnates of his day. According to William Hunt in the Dictionary of National Biography, various stories of his brutality were circulated after his death.
Robert de Bellême was typical of his generation, the sons of William's companions who had earned their great honors and titles at the battle of Hastings in 1066. This newer generation did not share the values and attitudes of their fathers but rather had different experiences altogether. They had inherited their wealth and status, not earned it. Yet this next generation expected royal favor and patronage without attending court or serving the king in any capacity. They often rebelled when they felt they were not being treated with the dignity and respect they deserved. [Charlotte A. Newman, The Anglo-Norman Nobility in the Reign of Henry I, The Second Generation (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988), pp. 17-18; also: William M. Aird, Robert Curthose', Duke of Normandy (C. 1050?1134) (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2011), pp. 69-70, 83.]
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| Person ID |
I36085 |
Master File |
| Last Modified |
12 Sep 2016 |
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