with Bellême. For reference to this chronicle, and for many other valuable suggestions utilised in this article, the writer is indebted to Mr. T. A. Archer.]
ROBERT, Earl of Gloucester (d. 1147), was a natural son of Henry I, king of England. A statement in one version of the ‘Brut y Tywysogion’ (a. 1110) that his mother was Nest [q. v.] is absent from the earlier text; and as Nest's own grandson, Giraldus Cambrensis, has left a minute account of her family (De Rebus, &c., l. i. c. 9; Itin. Kambr. l. ii. c. 7), which contains no mention of the Earl of Gloucester, it seems to be erroneous (cf. Freeman, Norman Conquest, v. 852, 853). The mention made by William of Malmesbury of Robert's ancestors, Norman, Flemish, and French (Will. Malm. Gesta Reg. l. v. c. 446), may possibly allude to his mother, but more probably refers to Henry's grandmother, Adela of France. Robert was a native of Caen (Ord. Vit. 920 B). He was born before his father's accession to the throne (Will. Malm. Hist. Nov. l. i. c. 452), and was the eldest of all Henry's sons (Cont. Will. of Jumièges, l. viii. c. 39).
Henry laid the foundation of Robert's fortunes by bestowing on him the hand of Mabel (called Matilda by Orderic, and Sybil by the Cont. of Will. of Jumièges), daughter of Robert FitzHamon (d. 1107) [q. v.], and with it the whole heritage of her father and her uncle, comprising the honour of Torigny and other property in Normandy, the lordship of Glamorgan in Wales, and considerable estates in England. Chief among these was the honour of Gloucester, which Henry formed into an earldom for his son. The rhyming chronicler called Robert of Gloucester (fl. 1260–1300) [q. v.] dates both these transactions in 1109 (vv. 8910–13); but recent criticism has shown that Robert did not become an earl till some time between April 1121 and June 1123 (J. J. Round, ‘The Creation of the Earldom of Gloucester,’ Genealogist, new ser. iv. 129–40; and Geoffrey de Mandeville, pp. 420 et seq.). In 1119 he was present with his father at the battle of Brémule against Louis VI of France, and in 1123, when a revolt broke out among the Norman barons, he brought up a force to assist in the reduction of the rebel castle of Brionne. In 1126 he was charged with the custody of the captive duke, Robert of Normandy, whom he kept in ward for a while in his castle at Bristol, and afterwards transferred to another stronghold at Cardiff, the capital of his Welsh lordship. On 1 Jan. 1127 he was called upon by his father to join the other barons assembled at Westminster in doing homage to Henry's only surviving lawful child, the widowed Empress Matilda, as heiress of England and Normandy. On this occasion a dispute arose between Robert and the king's nephew, Stephen, count of Boulogne, as to which was entitled to precedence in taking the oath; it was decided in favour of Stephen. Some six months later Robert shared with Brian FitzCount the duty of escorting Matilda over sea for her marriage with Geoffrey of Anjou. He was by his father's deathbed at Lions-la-Forêt at the opening of December 1135.
Whether or not Henry really did, as was afterwards asserted, revoke at the last moment his nomination of Matilda as his heiress, the bulk of the nobles, both in England and Normandy, now treated the succession as an open question, and while Stephen hurried off to seize the English crown Robert himself is said to have been urged by his friends to put in a counter-claim. This, however, he prudently refused to do (Gesta Steph. p. 10). For the moment, however, the chances of the legitimate heir seemed no better than his own, and when the Norman barons invited Stephen's brother, Count Theobald of Blois, to take possession of Normandy, Robert so far concurred in their scheme as to join them in a conference with Theobald at Lisieux on 21 Dec. The tidings of Stephen's election as king in England caused them to abandon their project and accept the new king as their duke, and to this also Robert assented, giving up Falaise to Stephen's representatives as soon as he had safely removed the late king's treasures. It was, however, not till after Easter 1136 that, in answer to Stephen's repeated invitations, he at length crossed over to England, and did homage for his estates there; and even then he did it on the express condition that it should be binding only so long as Stephen's own promises to him were kept, and he himself was left in undisturbed possession of all his honours and dignities.
Next year (1137) Robert accompanied the king on a visit to Normandy; there they quarrelled, and in spite of a nominal reconciliation Stephen, early in 1138, declared Robert's English and Welsh estates forfeited, and razed some of his castles. Soon after Whitsuntide the earl sent to the king a formal renunciation of his allegiance, and to his under-tenants in England orders to prepare for war. This message proved the signal for a general rising of the barons, in which, however, Robert took no personal share, although the garrison of his chief fortress, Bristol, played a considerable part in it under the command of his eldest son. He was himself occupied in furthering the interests of his half-
