General Notes

Robert fitz Walter, Leader of the Magna Charta Barons 1215, of Woodham, d. 9 Dec 1235, Lord of Dunmow Castle; m. Rohese.  [Magna Charta Sureties]

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Robert Fitz Walter, feudal Lord of Woodham Walter; foremost of the 25 Barons (magnates rather than peers of Parliament) enforcing the Magna Carta; killed at the siege of Damietta, Egypt, 9 Dec 1235.  [Burke's Peerage]

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Robert's daughter Maud (or Matilda) was the basis of the legendary Maid Marion of Robin Hood.  Leader of the Barons against King John.

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This feudal lord, upon the assessment of the scutage of Scotland in the 13th of John [1212], had the king's especial writ of acquittal for sixty-three knights' fees and a half, which were of his own proper inheritance; and for thirty knights' fees, and a third part which he had acquired by marriage. But the next year he was forced to fly with his family into France in order to avoid being arrested upon the first disposition of the barons to revolt; and was soon afterwards charged with treason and rebellion, when his house, called Baynard Castle, in the city of London, was demolished by order of the king.

"The primary occasion of these discontents," say Dugdale, "is by some thus reported: viz., -- that this Robert Fitz-Walter having a very beautiful dau. called Maude, residing at Dunmow, the king frequently solicited her chastity but, never prevailing, grew so enraged that he caused her to be privately poisoned, and that she was buried at the south side of the quire at Dunmow, between two pillars there."

FitzWalter, however, is said, subsequently, to have made his peace with King John by the great prowess and valour he displayed at a tournament, held in Normandy before the kings of France and England, where, running a tilt with his great lance, he overthrew his rival at the first course, which act of gallantry caused the English monarch to exclaim, "By God's Tooth, he deserves to be a king who hath such a soldier of his train;" and afterwards, ascertaining the name of the victorious knight, he immediately sent for him and, having restore his barony, gave him liberty to repair his castle of Baynard. In the 17th of King John, FitzWalter had so far regained the confidence of the crown that he was appointed governor of the castle at Hertford; but soon after, arraying himself under the baronial banner, his lands were all seized and those in Cornwall committed to Prince Henry, the king's son; a course of proceeding that had the immediate effect of riveting the haughty baron to the cause which he had espoused, while his high rank, tried courage, and acknowledged abilities soon gave him a lead amongst his compeers. We find him, therefore, amongst the first commissioners nominated to treat with the king when it was agreed that the city of London should be delivered up to the barons, and twenty-five of those powerful feudal chiefs chosen to govern the realm. The insurrectionary lords subsequently assembled at St. Edmundsbury, and there pledged themselves, by solemn oath at the high altar, that, if the king refused to confirm the laws and liberties granted by Edward the Confessor, they would withdraw their allegiance from him and seize upon his fortresses. After which, forming themselves into a regular army, they appointed this Robert FitzWalter their general with the title of Marshal of the army of God and the Church, and under his command they eventually extorted the Great Charters of Freedom from John on the plains of Runnymede, when FitzWalter was elected one of the celebrated twenty-five appointed to see the faithful observance of those laws. He continued, during the remainder of John's reign, equally firm to his purpose; and after the accession of Henry III until the battle of Lincoln, where the baronial army sustained a signal defeat under his command, and he became a prisoner himself after displaying a more than ordinary degree of valour. He does not appear, however, to have remained long under restraint, for we find him the very next year in the Holy Land, and assisting at the great siege of Damietta.

This eminent feudal baron m. 1st, Gunnora, dau. and heiress of Robert de Valoines, and had issue, Walter, his successor; Matilda; Christian, m. 1st to William Mandeville, Earl of Essex, and 2ndly, to Raymond de Burgh. He m. 2ndly, Rose ---, and dying at the siege of Damietta in 1234, was s. by his son, Walter FitzWalter. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 212, FitzWalter, Barons FitzWalter]