Nielsen Hayden genealogy

Robert Curthose

Male 1050 - Abt 1134  (~ 83 years)


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  • Name Robert Curthose 
    Birth in or Aft 1050  [1
    Gender Male 
    Alternate birth Abt 1054  [2
    Death Abt 3 Feb 1134  Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Alternate death 10 Feb 1134  Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Alternate death 11 Feb 1134  Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Burial Gloucester Abbey, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2
    Siblings 8 siblings 
    Person ID I451  Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others
    Last Modified 28 Jun 2015 

    Father William I, King of England,   b. 1027-1028, Falais, Calvados, Normandy, France Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 9 Sep 1087, St. Gervais, near Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Normandy, France Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 59 years) 
    Mother Matilda of Flanders, Queen Consort of England,   b. 1032   d. 2 Nov 1083 (Age 51 years) 
    Marriage Abt 1050  [2, 3, 4
    Family ID F409  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Sibyl of Conversano   d. 1103 
    Marriage Sep 1100  Italy Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Children 
     1. William Clito,   b. 25 Oct 1102, Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Normandy, France Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 28 Jul 1128 (Age 25 years)
    Family ID F954  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 20 Jul 2015 

  • Notes 
    • Duke of Normandy. Eldest child of William the Conqueror.

      "Orderic Vitalis describes Robert as 'talkative...with a clear, cheerful voice and a fluent tongue. Round-faced, short and stout, he was commonly nicknamed Gambaron ("Fat Legs") and Curta Ocrea ("Short Boots")' [Ordericus Vitalis, Eccl. hist., 2.356], and it is Curthose, the Norman-French version of the latter name, as used by Wace, that has become attached to Robert's name." [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]

      "Probably in 1078, when Robert would have been about twenty-five, Rufus eighteen, and Henry ten, they were with their father at L'Aigle, on the south-east frontier of Normandy, when he was about to attack one of his neighbours. The two younger sons were lodging with the king in the house of the merchant Gunher, while Robert, who had his own household, was quartered on another burgess. Rufus and Henry paid Robert a visit, went upstairs, began to play dice, 'as soldiers do', made a great commotion and then urinated on the heads of Robert and his friends. Robert dashed upstairs to punish his juniors, and the brawl was so fierce that it brought the king onto the scene. He restored order and forced them to make friends. But Robert had lost face, and the following night he and his companions decamped and made for Rouen, probably about one day's forced march away, where they tried to seize the keep. When they failed and the king ordered their arrest, they fled from Normandy. In the following year both Rufus and his father were wounded when they attempted to expel Robert from the fortified town of Gerberoi, where he was living as a robber baron, and, since the father's wound was inflicted by Robert himself, this incident probably determined Rufus's future." [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry on William Rufus]

      "Robert was still estranged in September 1087 when his father lay on his deathbed. William had made no explicit arrangements for the succession beyond the designation of Robert as his heir in Normandy. The De obitu Willelmi, a not altogether reliable source which is largely copied from Carolingian exemplars, suggests that the Conqueror intended to disinherit Robert completely and was only persuaded against this course by the archbishop of Rouen. Robert himself may have expected to succeed his father in all the latter's lands, but ducal practice, dating back to the time of Robert's great-grandfather, Duke Richard (II), indicated that all sons should have some share in the inheritance. In the event William Rufus was dispatched to rule England with a letter addressed to Archbishop Lanfranc, and Robert was summoned from Abbeville to succeed only in Normandy." [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]

  • Sources 
    1. [S76] The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004-ongoing.

    2. [S142] Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families by Douglas Richardson. Salt Lake City, 2013.

    3. [S76] The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004-ongoing., "between October 1049 and 1051".

    4. [S145] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis and Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr. 8th edition, William R. Beall & Kaleen E. Beall, eds. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2004, 2006, 2008., "m. 1053".