General Notes

Titled Earl of Cornwall 4
Note:
Robert of Mortain, half-brother of William the Conqueror, became the wealthiest subject of the English crown in the generation after the Conquest. The second son of the Conqueror's mother, Herleve, and Herluin, vicomte of Conteville, Robert was appointed count of Mortain in south-west Normandy by William around 1055. Robert's elevation was part of William's policy of creating a close network of loyal nobles, often related to the ducal house, with and through whom William controlled his duchy and, later, was to conquer his kingdom (Robert's full brother, Odo, was bishop of Bayeux). Robert's prominent part in the invasion of England was remembered in his depiction in the Bayeux Tapestry advising William with his brother Odo after the landing at Pevensey. Both at Hastings and during the often difficult pacification of England 1066-69, Robert proved an effective military subordinate to William. His reward was massive. By 1086, with almost eight hundred manors from Sussex to Yorkshire to Cornwall, as well as valuable castles, such as Pevensey, Robert was the greatest secular landholder after the king and the church. Together, his and Odo's estates were worth £5,000: the next richest lay holding were valued at £750. However powerful his grip on his vassals, William preferred to keep power in the family. This presented problems; both his brother Odo of Bayeux and son Robert Curthose openly rebelled. Unlike the restless Odo, Robert of Mortain made little individual mark on events. He spent much time with his half-brother in a career, until 1087, conspicuous by its loyalty. In 1087, Robert persuaded the dying king to release Odo from prison and was probably one of those who insisted that Robert Curthose succeed to Normandy. Although initially accepting William Rufus as king, in 1088 Robert threw in his lot with Odo and Curthose. He held Pevensey for the rebels, withstanding a six-week siege by Rufus in person. After his submission, he was pardoned but withdrew to Normandy to die. Robert emerges dimly from the records, the least colourful or defined of a family of striking personalities. He seems to have been on close terms with both his brothers and to have harboured a soft spot for Robert Curthose. Alternatively, he wished to preside over his lands free from superior exactions, an independence fostered perhaps by his paternal inheritance (it was in his father's monastery at Grestain that he was buried), and later offered by the policies of Odo and the character of Curthose. Only the accident of his mother's liaison with Duke Robert I elevated this child of provincial aristocracy to the greatest heights of the Anglo-Norman baronage. In the eleventh century at least, nobility could be acquired by favour and fortune, not just by blood. [Source: Who's Who in Early Medieval England, Christopher Tyerman, Shepheard-Walwyn, Ltd., London, 1996]
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Robert de Moreton, Earl of Cornwall with a grant of 793 manors. In the time of William Rufus, this nobleman joining his brother, the Earl of Kent, raised the standard of rebellion in favour of Robert Curthose, and held the castle of Pevensey for that prince. He delivered it up, however, upon its being invested by the king, and made his peace. His lordship m. Maud, dau. of Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, and had issue, William, his successor, and three daus., whose christian names are unknown: the eldest m. Andrew de Vitrei; the 2nd m. Guy de Val; and the youngest m. the Earl of Thoulouse. The time of the Earl of Cornwall's death has not been ascertained, "but if he lived," says Dugdale, "after King William Rufus so fatally lost his life by the glance of an arrow in New Forest from the bow of Walter Tirell, then it was unto him that this strange apparition happened, which I shall here speak of; otherwise, it must be to his son and successor, Earl William, the story whereof is as followeth. In the very hour that the king received the fatal stroke, the Earl of Cornwall being hunting in a wood at a distance from the place and, left alone by his attendants, was accidentally met by a very great black goat bearing the king all black and naked and wounded through the midst of his breast. Adjuring the goat by the Holy Trinity to tell what that was he so carried, he answered, 'I am carrying your king to judgement, yea, that tyrant, William Rufus, for I am an evil spirit and the revenger of malice which he bore to the church of God, and it was I that did cause this his slaughter; the protomartyr of England, St. Alban, commanded me so to do, who complained to God of him for his grievous oppressions in the Isle of Britain, which he first hallowed. All which the earl soon after related to his followers." His lordship was s. by his son, William de Moreton, 2nd Earl of Cornwall. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 381, Moreton, or (more correctly,) de Burgo, Earls of Cornwall]
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Robert, Earl of Moreton, in Normandy, participating with his brother, the bishop of Bayeux, in the triumph of Hastings, was rewarded by his victorious kinsman, Duke William, with the Earldom of Cornwall (anno 1068), and grants of not less than seven hundred and ninety-three manors. This nobleman m. Maud, dau. of Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, and had issue, William, his successor, and three daus., one of whom m. Andrew de Vetre; another, Guy de La Nal; and the younger, the Earl of Toulouse, brother of Raymond, Count of St. Giles, who behaved so valiantly in the Jerusalem expedition. The period of the deceased of Robert, Earl of Moreton and Cornwall, is not ascertained, but he appears to have been s. by his son, William de Moreton, Earl of Cornwall. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, pp. 88-89, Burgh, Earl of Kent]