| Notes |
- Leader of the Magna Carta sureties. From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:
"Fitzwalter, Robert (d. 1235), magnate and rebel, lord of Dunmow, Essex and Baynard's Castle, London, was the son of Walter fitz Robert and Matilda, daughter of Henry II's justiciar Richard de Lucy. Henry I had granted the honours of Dunmow and Baynard's Castle to Walter's father, Robert, the king's steward, a younger son of Richard fitz Gilbert de Clare. The date of Fitzwalter's birth is unknown, as are the circumstances of his upbringing, though he may be the Robert Fitzwalter mentioned in the Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal as fighting in the Young King's retinue of over 200 knights at the great tournament at Lagny-sur-Marne in 1180.
"[...]
"The families of Quincy and Fitzwalter had long been linked, for Robert's father, Walter, and Saer (d. 1190) were half-brothers, the latter's father, also Saer, having married Maud de Senlis, the widow of Robert fitz Richard (d. 1134), and the Quincys held a fief of 1 1/2 fees from the barony of Dunmow. In a noted demonstration of alliance Fitzwalter and Quincy each bore the other's arms on their seals.
"[...]
"Fitzwalter's close involvement with the rebellion of 1215–17 and with Magna Carta has ensured his prominence, but historians have been sharply divided in their assessment of him. To Tout, Fitzwalter was 'the first champion of English liberty' (DNB), and prefigured Simon de Montfort. Others, like Norgate and Painter, reacting against this naive idealism, dismissed him as a haughty, selfish, but ultimately cowardly, feudal grandee, ready to obstruct justice by private warfare and to cloak treason with a series of makeshift justifications. Yet, given John's harsh and arbitrary rule, the king's opponents had little option save for conspiracy or armed rebellion, particularly after 1213 when Innocent III fully supported John. To see Fitzwalter falling short of the qualities of a great constitutional statesman is to be as anachronistic as Tout. He may have fought in large part to avenge personal wrongs and to regain lost rights, but he played an important role in sustaining the resistance which resulted in Magna Carta. Although Fitzwalter was resolute in his opposition to John, his participation on crusade and his conduct during Henry III's minority belie the image of a turbulent malcontent. Matthew Paris had little cause to praise Fitzwalter, but the final verdict is best left to him. He 'could match any earl in England; valiant in arms, spirited and illustrious, endowed with many possessions, generous, encompassed by a multitude of powerful blood relatives and strengthened by numerous relatives in marriage' (Gesta abbatum, 1.220–21)."
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- 1235
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Siblings