Nielsen Hayden genealogy

Robert II de Bellême

Male 1057 - Aft 1129  (> 73 years)


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  • Name Robert II de Bellême 
    Birth 1057  Sées, Orne, Normandy, France Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Baptism 1057  Sées, Orne, Normandy, France Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Gender Male 
    Baptised St. Martin, Sées, Orne, Normandy, France Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Death Aft 1129  [1
    Alternate death Aft 1130  [3
    Alternate death Bef 8 May 1131  [2
    Person ID I8754  Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of AP, Ancestor of AW, Ancestor of DDB, Ancestor of DGH, Ancestor of DK, Ancestor of EK, Ancestor of JMF, Ancestor of JTS, Ancestor of LD, Ancestor of LDN, Ancestor of LMW
    Last Modified 5 Dec 2020 

    Father Roger de Montgomery,   b. of St. Germain de Montgommeri, Calvados, Normandy, France Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 27 Jul 1094, Shrewsbury Abbey, Shropshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Mother Mabel de Bellême   d. Dec 1077, Bures-sur-Dives, Normandy, France Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Marriage Abt 1050  [1
    Family ID F1554  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Agnes de Ponthieu   d. Aft 1100 
    Marriage Bef 9 Sep 1087  [2
    Notes 
    • Date of arrangement. According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, the actual marriage may not have taken place until about 1092.
    Children 
    +1. Guillaume III Talvas,   b. Abt 1093, of Alençon, Orne, Basse-Normandie, France Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 30 Jun 1171 (Age ~ 78 years)
    Family ID F5915  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 5 Feb 2023 

  • Notes 
    • Earl of Shrewsbury. Count of Ponthieu. Exiled and attainted 1102. Described by the ODNB as "a brilliant military architect but sadistically cruel."

      "Robert de Bellême, seigneur de Bellême (or Belèsme), seigneur de Montgomery, viscount of the Hiémois, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury and Count of Ponthieu, was an Anglo-Norman nobleman, and one of the most prominent figures in the competition for the succession to England and Normandy between the sons of William the Conqueror. He was a member of the powerful House of Bellême. Robert became notorious for his alleged cruelty. The chronicler Orderic Vitalis calls him 'Grasping and cruel, an implacable persecutor of the Church of God and the poor... unequalled for his iniquity in the whole Christian era.' The stories of his brutality may have inspired the legend of Robert the Devil." [Wikipedia]

      "The chroniclers have given Robert de Bellême an appalling reputation, though his actions as a man of violence and an oppressor of the church were probably little worse than those of his contemporaries. He was faced with an enormous task in trying to hold together his family's extensive lands, which lay in very unstable regions, and it proved to be impossible without the support of an effective ruler. Although Bellême was a capable soldier and an efficient administrator, it was his misfortune that he lacked political judgement, as his support of Robert Curthose and failure to establish satisfactory relations with Henry I indicate." [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]

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

    2. [S128] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant ed. Vicary Gibbs, H. A. Doubleday, Duncan Warrand, Howard de Walden, Geoffrey H. White and R. S. Lea. 2nd edition. 14 volumes (1-13, but volume 12 spanned two books), London, The St. Catherine Press, 1910-1959. Volume 14, "Addenda & Corrigenda," ed. Peter W. Hammond, Gloucestershire, Sutton Publishing, 1998.

    3. [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.