General Notes

Source & Notes: Gary Boyd Roberts, The Royal Descents , 1993, p 396;  "Earl of Gloucester, 1121-2."  (1st Earl of Gloucester.)  Spouse: "Mabel, heiress of Gloucester. [married] 1119"
Source: Chris Given-Wilson and Alice Cuteis, The Royal Bastards of Medieval England, London (Routledge & Kegan Paul) 1984, p 74-75, 91-92;  It has been said that his mother was Sybil Courbet, the probable mother of another five of the king's [Henry I Beauclerc's] bastards, but this is almost certainly wrong.  In fact he was probably born to an unnamed woman of Caen, in Normandy, in about 1090.  Acknowledged by Henry from infancy, he was brought up in the royal household after his father became king, received a good education there under Henry's direct supervision, and by his early twenties had established himself as one of his father's chief military captains and most trusted councillors.  From 1113 onwards he was a regular winess to royal charters, as 'Robert the king's son'  .....  In 1107 the king provided handsomely for his favourite bastard's future by marrying him to Mabel, heiress to the valuable lands on the Norman side of the Channel.  Then in 1121-2 Robert's power and prestige were further augmented when Henry made him earl of Gloucester.  .....  The grant of this title to Robert was the only earldom which Henry created during his entire thirty-five-year reign.  .....  One of Robert's last acts was to found a Cistercian abbey at Margam in Glamorgan, in the summer of 1147. Throughout his life he had been a benefactor of the church .....  His death came quite suddenly.  In the autumn of 1147 ... news came that Robert had contracted a fever.  He had led a tremendously active life, and was still robust enough to lead an army on horseback, but he had now reached the age of fifty-seven, old by medieval standards.  The fever was a virulent one, and could not be checked. The end came quicly.  He died on 31 October 1147, at Bristol castle, with his wife Mabel by his bedside, and was laid to rest beneath a tomb of green jasper stone in the priory which he had founded.  (P) Robert's character is elusive.  The qualities for which he was praised by contemporaries were thoroughly conventional ones, and in many ways he comes across as a thoroughly conventional sort of man.  It may be that the quality of greatness which some men saw in him stemmed not so much from any especially distinguishing characteristics or talents as from an ability to do the basic things in life well.  The English political stage during King Stephen's reign was dominated by figures of proven mediocrity.  Against such a background, Robert stood for traditional virtues and traditional values.  From the time when he first began to hold military commands under his father, he stands out as a consistently successful military leader; during the civil war of Stephen's reign, he was the best general in England.  As a statesman he was more limited, lacking both the decisiveness to exploit an opening and the clear-sightedness to formulate successful policies. He was, however, regarded as an upholder of justice and honour, a man of integrity and trustworthiness, and these were uncommon virtues in Stephen's England.  He was an upright and pious man, a patron and respecter of the church and of scholars, 'a man of great cleverness and learning', according to the contemporary chronicler Walter Map, and even something of a scholar in his own right: it is said that he translated at least one book from Latin into French.  He used to 'regulate his day so wisely that he did not neglect his knightly duties for letters, nor letters for knightly duties', according to another contemporary.  Such an interest in learning, nurtured no doubt by his father, Henry I, was rare among even the greatest laymen at this time."


Source: Gesta Stephani, a monk of Saint-Bertin (c middle of 12th century), edited  & translated by K. R. Potter, along with introduction and notes by R H C Davis, Oxford (Clarendon) 1976, p 13, 15.
//And when at last these things were known [about Stephen becoming king of England] and spread over England freely by word of mouth almost all the chief men of the kingdom accepted him gladly and respectfully, and having received very many gifts from him and likewise enlargement of their lands they devoted themselves wholly to his service by a voluntary oath, after paying homage.  Among others came Robert, Earl of Gloucester, son of King Henry, but a bastard, a man of proved talent and admirable wisdom.  When he was advised, as the story went, to claim the throne on his father's death, deterred by sounder advice he by no means assented, saying it was fairer to yield it to his sister's son [the future Henry II], than presumptuously to arrogate it to himself.  So, when after being many times summoned to the king's presence by messages and letters he at length appeared, he was received with favour and distinction and obtained all he demanded in accordance with his wish, on paying homage to the king; and when peace finally had been made with him, almost the whole kingdom of England had gone over to the king's side.//  p 169:  "Also the sons of Robert Earl of Gloucester, men whose youth made them active and full of enterprise, and who were skilled by constant practice in the art of war, disturbed the southern part of the kingdom; inspired by their father's valour and resolution they built castles in some places which they saw to be suitable, in others stole them from their neighbors; sometimes boldly attacked their enemies in pitched battles, sometimes laid their lands waste far and wide with the sword and with plundering."