The Making of a Super-Magnate

This chapter is a study of the sources, locations, and uses of the lands which made Earl Robert a super-magnate in England and lord of a barony which stretched from western Lower Normandy across England to South Wales. In Normandy, his marriage made him lord of Torigni-sur-Vire, Évrecy, and Creully well as prévôt of Caen. Robert’s English honor of Gloucester was the greatest source of his wealth. His demesne was concentrated in six Severn Valley and southwestern counties and notable for its urban holdings such as at Gloucester, Tewkesbury, Burford, London, and especially Bristol, the most valuable and militarily secure. In South Wales Robert was lord of the honor of Glamorgan and its dependency, the lordship of Gwynllŵg. Glamorgan gave the earl the jurisdictional rights of a Marcher lord.

The Earl and the Chronicler

Earl Robert fought for the Empress Matilda’s succession to England’s with quill as well as sword. He commissioned William of Malmesbury to write a history of their succession-fraught era. The result was the Historia Novella. The earl’s education and literary habits and previous patronage experience were among the likely influences behind this role. The work is an apologia for Matilda’s claim and for Robert’s sponsorship and, as such, biased; it also features other of the author’s faults but also his virtues as a historian. The first edition contains evidence that Robert, directly or indirectly, was one of Malmesbury’s sources; the second, in the form of the copy given to Margam Abbey, Earl Robert’s foundation, may well have been produced under the auspices of his son, Earl William (1147–83).

A King’s Illegitimate Son

Robert, the eldest and bastard son of the future Henry I of England, became the great earl of Gloucester of medieval history because of his father’s own successes in becoming king of England and the conqueror of Normandy. Robert’s birth status was a disability for him because of canonical notions of legitimate marriage which increasingly influenced Norman and English custom defining heirs. Henry, to provide a suitable life for his firstborn, created a magnificent lay baronial career for him. The key steps were admitting Robert to membership in the Norman ducal-royal family by recognizing him as his son, providing for his schooling and training in the use of arms capped off by knighting, and then by arranging a marriage to Mabel fitz Hamon, which made Robert a Norman lord, English tenant-in-chief, and Welsh Marcher lord.

Feudal Baron

Family affairs, land usage, and seigniorial status are the most visible elements of Earl Robert’s baronial life. There are examples of his children being reared and later maintained in his household. Several were provided with appanages and politically important marriages. Failure to provide at least part of such aristocratic advancement led to a son’s rebellion. As a landlord, Robert was a demesne developer, patron of the rising burgess class, and ally of its upper echelon. Subinfeudated lands also obtained various personal services and revenue. Robert developed a tiered, barony-wide administration which included household officers, a writing office, and, during the Anarchy, a die-producing mint at Bristol for his own coinage. Proprietary relationships with ecclesiastical lords involved him in treaty-making efforts.

The Empress’s Champion

Earl Robert of Gloucester became chief sponsor of the Empress Matilda’s claim to the throne of England in 1138 only after engaging in earlier disloyal political acts. He repudiated his homage to King Stephen mainly because of losing his former curial status and possibly from fear of Stephen’s seizure of his lands. As his sister’s commander-in-chief, the earl enjoyed both political and military authority. His military record is mixed. His great victories were at Lincoln, where Stephen was captured, and Wilton, which contributed to the earl’s establishment of a quasi-dominion in the southwest, where silver pennies were issued in his own name by barons who were members of his affiliate. However, Robert’s career included embarrassing defeats, one of which occurred just before his death. His efforts, nevertheless, made an Angevin succession possible.

A Second Career: Royal Counselor and Official

A second career for Robert resulted from the death of his half-brother William Aetheling and was advanced by Robert’s association with the cause of his widowed half-sister, the Empress Matilda, as their father’s heir. Components of this phase of Robert’s life involved his becoming most favored in court protocol and, by his father’s fiscal patronage, the award of a specially designed earldom of Gloucester, and service as one of the three most trusted royal counselors (familiares), and legate. The new earl’s baronial stature was increased and likely future role as protector of Matilda’s succession enhanced by receiving command of Dover and Canterbury castles in Kent and a major share of the barony of Countess Mabel’s uncle, Haimo II dapifer.