Individual Details
Robert de Burgo
(Ca 1031 - 1090)
thePeerage.com
Robert de Burgo, Count of Mortain1
M, #102197, b. between 1030 and 1031, d. 8 December 1090
Last Edited=28 Oct 2002
Robert de Burgo, Count of Mortain was born between 1030 and 1031.2 He was the son of Herluin de Conteville, Vicomte de Conteville and Herleva de Falaise. He married Matilda de Montgomery, daughter of Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury and Mabel de Bellême, before 1066.2 He married Almodis (?).2 He died on 8 December 1090.2 He was buried at Abbey of St. Grestain, France.2
He gained the title of Count of Mortain between 1049 and 1056.2 He gained the title of Earl of Cornwall between 1066 and 1067.2
Children of Robert de Burgo, Count of Mortain and Matilda de Montgomery
Emma de Mortain+1 b. c 1058
William de Mortain, Count of Mortain1 b. b 1084, d. a 1140
Citations
[S106] Royal Genealogies Website (ROYAL92.GED), online http://www.daml.org/2001/01/gedcom/royal92.ged. Hereinafter cited as Royal Genealogies Website.
[S11] Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy (London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999), page 40. Hereinafter cited as Britain's Royal Families.
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Robert, Count of Mortain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert ("Rotbert"), Count of Mortain (right) sits at the left hand of his half brother, William Duke of Normandy. Robert's full brother Odo ("Odo Ep(iscopu)s", "The Bishop") sits to William's right, implying his seniority. This scene in the Bayeux Tapestry occurs near Hastings, immediately before William ordered the building of a castle there, some time before the Battle of Hastings.
Robert, Count of Mortain, 2nd Earl of Cornwall (c. 1031–1090) was a Norman nobleman and the uterine half-brother of William the Conqueror. He was one of the very few proven companions of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings and as recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 was one of the greatest landholders in his half-brother's new Kingdom of England.
Contents
1 Life
1.1 Count of Mortain
1.2 Conquest of England
1.3 Lands granted by William the Conqueror
2 Later life
3 Character
4 Family
5 Portrayals on screen
6 Notes
7 References
Life
Robert was the son of Herluin de Conteville and Herleva of Falaise and brother of Odo of Bayeux.[1] Robert was born c. 1031 in Normandy, a half-brother of William the Conqueror.[2] and was probably not more than a year or so younger than his brother Odo, born c. 1030.[1][3] About 1035, Herluin, as Vicomte of Conteville, along with his wife Herleva and Robert founded Grestain Abbey.[4]
Count of Mortain
In c. 1049 his brother Duke William made him Count of Mortain,[5] in place of William Werlenc, who had been banished by Duke William; according to Orderic Vitalis, on a single word.[6] William Werlenc was a grandson of Duke Richard I[7] and therefore a cousin once removed to William, Duke of Normandy.[7] Securing the southern border of Normandy was critical to Duke William and Robert was entrusted with this key county which guarded the borders of Brittany and Bellême.[8]
Conquest of England
In early 1066, Robert was present at both the first council, that of William's inner circle, and the second larger council held to discuss the Duke's planned conquest of England. Robert agreed to provide 120 ships to the invasion fleet,[9] which was more than any other of William's magnates.[10] Robert was one of those few known to have been at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.[11] He is pictured at a dinner at Pevensey on the Bayeux Tapestry, seated with his brothers William and Odo on the day of the landing in England.[10] When granting the monastery of St Michael's Mount to the Norman monastery on the Mont Saint-Michel Robert recorded that he had fought at the Battle of Hastings under the banner of St Michel (habens in bello Sancti Michaelis vexillum).[12][13]
Lands granted by William the Conqueror
Robert's contribution to the success of the invasion was clearly regarded as highly significant by the Conqueror, who awarded him a large share of the spoils; in total 797 manors at the time of Domesday.[14] However the greatest concentration of his honors lay in Cornwall where he held virtually all of that county and was considered by some the Earl of Cornwall.[a][14] While Robert held lands in twenty counties, the majority of his holdings in certain counties was as few as five manors. The overall worth of his estates was £2100.[15] He administered most of his southwestern holdings from Launceston, Cornwall, and Montacute in Somerset.[15] The holding of single greatest importance, however, was the rape of Pevensey (east Sussex) which protected one of the more vulnerable parts of the south coast of England.[15]
Later life
In 1069, together with Robert of Eu, he led an army against a force of Danes in Lindsay and effected great slaughter against them.[14] After that there is little mention of Robert who appears to have been an absentee landholder spending the majority of his time in Normandy.[16] Along with his brother Odo he participated in a revolt in 1088 against William II but afterwards he was pardoned.[14] On 8 December 1090 Robert died and chose to be buried at the Abbey of Grestain,[14] near his father and next to his first wife Matilda.[16]
Character
He was described by William of Malmesbury in his Gesta Regum as a man of stupid dull disposition (crassi et hebetis ingenii).[17] But William the Conqueror considered him one of his greatest supporters and trusted him with the important county of Mortain. This was a trust he would hardly place in someone who was in any way incompetent.[17] Further clues to his character are found in the Vita of Vitalis of Savigny, a very wise monk who Robert sought out as his chaplain.[17] One incident tells of Robert beating his wife and Vital, intervening, threatened to end the marriage if Robert did not repent.[18] In still another entry Vital tells of his leaving Robert's service abruptly and after being escorted back to him, Robert begged for Vital's pardon for his actions.[18] Overall, Robert was proficient in every duty William assigned him, he was a religious man yet ill-tempered enough to beat his wife, but not himself known as a man of great wisdom.[18]
Family
Robert was married to Matilda, daughter of Roger de Montgomery, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, before 1066[14] and together they had:
William, Count of Mortain, who succeeded him.[1]
Agnes who married André de Vitré, seigneur of Vitré.[1]
Denise, married in 1078 to Guy, 3rd Sire de La Val.[1]
Emma of Mortain, the wife of William IV of Toulouse.[1]
After Matilda de Montgomery's death c. 1085[19] Robert secondly married Almodis.[14] The couple had no children.
Portrayals on screen
On screen, Robert has been portrayed by Gordon Whiting in the two-part BBC TV play Conquest (1966), part of the series Theatre 625, and by Richard Ireson in the TV drama Blood Royal: William the Conqueror (1990).
Notes
His position of authority in the south west has therefore led many to consider him as the Earl of Cornwall, although it appears uncertain whether he was formally created as such. The Complete Peerage, III, 428 states while he may have been considered the earl he was only known officially as Comes Moritoniensis. According to Charles Henderson "Count Robert did not call himself Earl of Cornwall [but] enjoyed the power that in the following century belonged to the earls, and after them the dukes". See: Henderson, C. G. (1933) "Cornwall and her patron saint", In: his Essays in Cornish History. Oxford: Clarendon Press; pp. 197-201.
References
Detlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band III Teilband 4 (Marburg, Germany: Verlag von J. A. Stargardt, 1989), Tafel 694B
George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant Extinct or Dormant, Vol. III, Ed. Vicary Gibbs (London: The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., 1913), p. 427
George Edward Cokayne, The complete peerage; or, A history of the House of lords and all its members from the earliest times., Vol. VII, Ed. H. A. Doubleday, Howard de Walden (London: The St. Catherine Press, Ltd, 1929), p. 124
David C. Douglas, William the Conqueror (Berkeley and Los Angeles: The University of California Press, 1964)p. 112
K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, A Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents 1066-1166, Volume I, Domesday Book (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1999)p. 371
Ordericus Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, Trans. Thomas Forester, Vol. II (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854), p. 79
Detlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band II (Marburg, Germany: Verlag von J. A. Stargardt, 1984), Tafel 79
Brian Golding, 'Robert of Mortain', Anglo-Norman Studies XIII; Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1990, Ed. Marjorie Chibnall (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1991), p. 120
Elisabeth M.C, van Houts, 'The Ship List of William the Conqueror', Anglo-Norman Studies X: Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1987, Ed. R. Allen Brown (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1988), p. 161
Brian Golding, 'Robert of Mortain', Anglo-Norman Studies XIII; Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1990, Ed. Marjorie Chibnall (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1991), p. 121
K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, A Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents 1066-1166, Volume I, Domesday Book (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1999)p. 372
The Cartulary of St. Michael's Mount, ed. P.L. Hull, Devon and Cornwall Record Society, New Series, Vol. V (1962), p. 1
Henderson, C. G. (1933) "Cornwall and her patron saint", In: his Essays in Cornish History. Oxford: Clarendon Press; pp. 197-201
George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant Extinct or Dormant, Vol. III, Ed. Vicary Gibbs (London: The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., 1913), p. 428
Brian Golding, 'Robert of Mortain', Anglo-Norman Studies XIII; Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1990, Ed. Marjorie Chibnall (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1991), p. 124
Brian Golding, 'Robert of Mortain', Anglo-Norman Studies XIII; Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1990, Ed. Marjorie Chibnall (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1991), p. 144
Brian Golding, 'Robert of Mortain', Anglo-Norman Studies XIII; Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1990, Ed. Marjorie Chibnall (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1991), p. 122
Brian Golding, 'Robert of Mortain', Anglo-Norman Studies XIII; Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1990, Ed. Marjorie Chibnall (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1991), p. 123
K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, A Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents 1066-1166, Volume I, Domesday Book (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1999), p. 372
Robert de Burgo, Count of Mortain1
M, #102197, b. between 1030 and 1031, d. 8 December 1090
Last Edited=28 Oct 2002
Robert de Burgo, Count of Mortain was born between 1030 and 1031.2 He was the son of Herluin de Conteville, Vicomte de Conteville and Herleva de Falaise. He married Matilda de Montgomery, daughter of Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury and Mabel de Bellême, before 1066.2 He married Almodis (?).2 He died on 8 December 1090.2 He was buried at Abbey of St. Grestain, France.2
He gained the title of Count of Mortain between 1049 and 1056.2 He gained the title of Earl of Cornwall between 1066 and 1067.2
Children of Robert de Burgo, Count of Mortain and Matilda de Montgomery
Emma de Mortain+1 b. c 1058
William de Mortain, Count of Mortain1 b. b 1084, d. a 1140
Citations
[S106] Royal Genealogies Website (ROYAL92.GED), online http://www.daml.org/2001/01/gedcom/royal92.ged. Hereinafter cited as Royal Genealogies Website.
[S11] Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy (London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999), page 40. Hereinafter cited as Britain's Royal Families.
***************
Robert, Count of Mortain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert ("Rotbert"), Count of Mortain (right) sits at the left hand of his half brother, William Duke of Normandy. Robert's full brother Odo ("Odo Ep(iscopu)s", "The Bishop") sits to William's right, implying his seniority. This scene in the Bayeux Tapestry occurs near Hastings, immediately before William ordered the building of a castle there, some time before the Battle of Hastings.
Robert, Count of Mortain, 2nd Earl of Cornwall (c. 1031–1090) was a Norman nobleman and the uterine half-brother of William the Conqueror. He was one of the very few proven companions of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings and as recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 was one of the greatest landholders in his half-brother's new Kingdom of England.
Contents
1 Life
1.1 Count of Mortain
1.2 Conquest of England
1.3 Lands granted by William the Conqueror
2 Later life
3 Character
4 Family
5 Portrayals on screen
6 Notes
7 References
Life
Robert was the son of Herluin de Conteville and Herleva of Falaise and brother of Odo of Bayeux.[1] Robert was born c. 1031 in Normandy, a half-brother of William the Conqueror.[2] and was probably not more than a year or so younger than his brother Odo, born c. 1030.[1][3] About 1035, Herluin, as Vicomte of Conteville, along with his wife Herleva and Robert founded Grestain Abbey.[4]
Count of Mortain
In c. 1049 his brother Duke William made him Count of Mortain,[5] in place of William Werlenc, who had been banished by Duke William; according to Orderic Vitalis, on a single word.[6] William Werlenc was a grandson of Duke Richard I[7] and therefore a cousin once removed to William, Duke of Normandy.[7] Securing the southern border of Normandy was critical to Duke William and Robert was entrusted with this key county which guarded the borders of Brittany and Bellême.[8]
Conquest of England
In early 1066, Robert was present at both the first council, that of William's inner circle, and the second larger council held to discuss the Duke's planned conquest of England. Robert agreed to provide 120 ships to the invasion fleet,[9] which was more than any other of William's magnates.[10] Robert was one of those few known to have been at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.[11] He is pictured at a dinner at Pevensey on the Bayeux Tapestry, seated with his brothers William and Odo on the day of the landing in England.[10] When granting the monastery of St Michael's Mount to the Norman monastery on the Mont Saint-Michel Robert recorded that he had fought at the Battle of Hastings under the banner of St Michel (habens in bello Sancti Michaelis vexillum).[12][13]
Lands granted by William the Conqueror
Robert's contribution to the success of the invasion was clearly regarded as highly significant by the Conqueror, who awarded him a large share of the spoils; in total 797 manors at the time of Domesday.[14] However the greatest concentration of his honors lay in Cornwall where he held virtually all of that county and was considered by some the Earl of Cornwall.[a][14] While Robert held lands in twenty counties, the majority of his holdings in certain counties was as few as five manors. The overall worth of his estates was £2100.[15] He administered most of his southwestern holdings from Launceston, Cornwall, and Montacute in Somerset.[15] The holding of single greatest importance, however, was the rape of Pevensey (east Sussex) which protected one of the more vulnerable parts of the south coast of England.[15]
Later life
In 1069, together with Robert of Eu, he led an army against a force of Danes in Lindsay and effected great slaughter against them.[14] After that there is little mention of Robert who appears to have been an absentee landholder spending the majority of his time in Normandy.[16] Along with his brother Odo he participated in a revolt in 1088 against William II but afterwards he was pardoned.[14] On 8 December 1090 Robert died and chose to be buried at the Abbey of Grestain,[14] near his father and next to his first wife Matilda.[16]
Character
He was described by William of Malmesbury in his Gesta Regum as a man of stupid dull disposition (crassi et hebetis ingenii).[17] But William the Conqueror considered him one of his greatest supporters and trusted him with the important county of Mortain. This was a trust he would hardly place in someone who was in any way incompetent.[17] Further clues to his character are found in the Vita of Vitalis of Savigny, a very wise monk who Robert sought out as his chaplain.[17] One incident tells of Robert beating his wife and Vital, intervening, threatened to end the marriage if Robert did not repent.[18] In still another entry Vital tells of his leaving Robert's service abruptly and after being escorted back to him, Robert begged for Vital's pardon for his actions.[18] Overall, Robert was proficient in every duty William assigned him, he was a religious man yet ill-tempered enough to beat his wife, but not himself known as a man of great wisdom.[18]
Family
Robert was married to Matilda, daughter of Roger de Montgomery, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, before 1066[14] and together they had:
William, Count of Mortain, who succeeded him.[1]
Agnes who married André de Vitré, seigneur of Vitré.[1]
Denise, married in 1078 to Guy, 3rd Sire de La Val.[1]
Emma of Mortain, the wife of William IV of Toulouse.[1]
After Matilda de Montgomery's death c. 1085[19] Robert secondly married Almodis.[14] The couple had no children.
Portrayals on screen
On screen, Robert has been portrayed by Gordon Whiting in the two-part BBC TV play Conquest (1966), part of the series Theatre 625, and by Richard Ireson in the TV drama Blood Royal: William the Conqueror (1990).
Notes
His position of authority in the south west has therefore led many to consider him as the Earl of Cornwall, although it appears uncertain whether he was formally created as such. The Complete Peerage, III, 428 states while he may have been considered the earl he was only known officially as Comes Moritoniensis. According to Charles Henderson "Count Robert did not call himself Earl of Cornwall [but] enjoyed the power that in the following century belonged to the earls, and after them the dukes". See: Henderson, C. G. (1933) "Cornwall and her patron saint", In: his Essays in Cornish History. Oxford: Clarendon Press; pp. 197-201.
References
Detlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band III Teilband 4 (Marburg, Germany: Verlag von J. A. Stargardt, 1989), Tafel 694B
George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant Extinct or Dormant, Vol. III, Ed. Vicary Gibbs (London: The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., 1913), p. 427
George Edward Cokayne, The complete peerage; or, A history of the House of lords and all its members from the earliest times., Vol. VII, Ed. H. A. Doubleday, Howard de Walden (London: The St. Catherine Press, Ltd, 1929), p. 124
David C. Douglas, William the Conqueror (Berkeley and Los Angeles: The University of California Press, 1964)p. 112
K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, A Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents 1066-1166, Volume I, Domesday Book (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1999)p. 371
Ordericus Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, Trans. Thomas Forester, Vol. II (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854), p. 79
Detlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band II (Marburg, Germany: Verlag von J. A. Stargardt, 1984), Tafel 79
Brian Golding, 'Robert of Mortain', Anglo-Norman Studies XIII; Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1990, Ed. Marjorie Chibnall (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1991), p. 120
Elisabeth M.C, van Houts, 'The Ship List of William the Conqueror', Anglo-Norman Studies X: Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1987, Ed. R. Allen Brown (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1988), p. 161
Brian Golding, 'Robert of Mortain', Anglo-Norman Studies XIII; Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1990, Ed. Marjorie Chibnall (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1991), p. 121
K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, A Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents 1066-1166, Volume I, Domesday Book (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1999)p. 372
The Cartulary of St. Michael's Mount, ed. P.L. Hull, Devon and Cornwall Record Society, New Series, Vol. V (1962), p. 1
Henderson, C. G. (1933) "Cornwall and her patron saint", In: his Essays in Cornish History. Oxford: Clarendon Press; pp. 197-201
George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant Extinct or Dormant, Vol. III, Ed. Vicary Gibbs (London: The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., 1913), p. 428
Brian Golding, 'Robert of Mortain', Anglo-Norman Studies XIII; Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1990, Ed. Marjorie Chibnall (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1991), p. 124
Brian Golding, 'Robert of Mortain', Anglo-Norman Studies XIII; Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1990, Ed. Marjorie Chibnall (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1991), p. 144
Brian Golding, 'Robert of Mortain', Anglo-Norman Studies XIII; Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1990, Ed. Marjorie Chibnall (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1991), p. 122
Brian Golding, 'Robert of Mortain', Anglo-Norman Studies XIII; Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1990, Ed. Marjorie Chibnall (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1991), p. 123
K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, A Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents 1066-1166, Volume I, Domesday Book (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1999), p. 372
Events
| Birth | Ca 1031 | ||||
| Title (Nobility) | Bet 1049 and 1066 | Count of Mortain | |||
| Title (Nobility) | 1066 | 2nd Earl of Cornwall | |||
| Military | 1066 | Fought at the Battle of Hastings | |||
| Death | 1090 | ||||
| Alt name | Robert, Count of Mortain | ||||
| Miscellaneous | William the Conqueror's half brother |
Families
| Spouse | Matilda de Montgomerie ( - ) |
| Child | Emma De Mortain (1058 - ) |
| Father | Herluin de Conteville ( - ) |
| Mother | Herleva of Falaise (1012 - 1050) |
| Sibling | Emma de Contville ( - ) |