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Robert II "The Devil" Of Normandy ANGEVIN, Duke Of Normandy

Robert II "The Devil" Of Normandy ANGEVIN, Duke Of Normandy[1, 2]

Male Abt 1008 - 1050  (~ 42 years)

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  • Name Robert II "The Devil" Of Normandy ANGEVIN 
    Suffix Duke Of Normandy 
    Nickname The Devil 
    Alt. Birth Abt 999 
    Alt. Birth 
    • Normandy, France
    Born Abt 1008  Normandie (Normandy), France Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Alt. Burial Alt. Burial 
    • , Nicaea, Bithynia, Turkey
    Titled Bef 6 Aug 1028 
    • Count of the Hiemois
    Titled 6 Aug 1028 
    • Duke of Normandy (after his elder brother Richard's death)
    Alt. Death 22 Jul 1035 
    Alt. Death 
    • , Nicea, Bithynia, Turkey
    FamilySearch ID LZL3-CTY 
    Name Robert I "The Magnificent" Duke Of NORMANDY  [3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
    _UID D61165CEEA574A27B4FD1AD5FF0E19AC3EA7 
    Died 22 Jul 1050  Nicaea, Bithynia, Turkey Find all individuals with events at this location  [4, 12
    Buried Nicaea, Bithynia, Turkey Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I22  Carney Wehofer Feb 2024 Genealogy
    Last Modified 30 Dec 2022 

    Father Richard II "The Good" Duke Of NORMANDY, 4rd,   b. 20 Nov 974, Normandie (Normandy), France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 28 Aug 1026, L'abbaye DE Fecamp Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 51 years) 
    Mother Judith Of Brittany DE BRETAGNE,   b. 982, Bretagne, Normandy, France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 16 Jun 1017, Normandie (Normandy), France Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 35 years) 
    Married 1000  , Normandy, France Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Alt. Marriage Abt 1000 
    Alt. Marriage 
    • , Normandie, France
    Family ID F11534  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 1 Tanners Daughter,   d. Yes, date unknown 
    Last Modified 29 Aug 2016 
    Family ID F18  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 2 Herleve (Arlette) Of FALAISE, Officer Of The Household,   b. 1012, Falaise, Calvados, France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1050, Normandie (Normandy), France Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 38 years) 
    Married Abt 1023  France - Not Married Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Friends 1023 
    • France (not married)
    Children 
     1. William II "The Conqueror" Of Normandy ANGEVIN, King Of England,   b. 14 Oct 1027, Falaise, Calvados, France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 9 Sep 1087, Hermenbraville, Rouen, Normandie Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 59 years)
     2. Adeliza Of Normandy, Countess Of Aumale,   b. 1029,   d. Yes, date unknown
     3. Godiva Of NORMANDY,   b. Abt 1034,   d. Yes, date unknown
    Last Modified 13 Apr 2019 
    Family ID F11481  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 3 Estrith (Margaret) Of Denmark,   d. Yes, date unknown 
    Married 1031 
    _STAT 1032 
    Divorced 
    Last Modified 13 Apr 2019 
    Family ID F11482  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • Robert I, by name ROBERT The MAGNIFICENT, or The DEVIL, French ROBERT le MAGNIFIQUE, or le DIABLE (d. July 1035, Nicaea), duke of Normandy (1027-35), the younger son of Richard II of Normandy and the father, by his mistress Arlette, of William the Conqueror of England. On the death of his father (1026/27), Robert contested the duchy with his elder brother Richard III, legally the heir, until the latter's opportune death a few years later.

      A strong ruler, Robert succeeded in exacting the obedience of his vassals. On the death of Robert II the Pious, king of France (1031), a crisis arose over the succession to the French throne. The Duke gave his support to Henry I against the party favouring his younger brother; in reward for his services he demanded and received the Vexin Fran?ais, a territory not far north of Paris. A patron of the monastic reform movement, he died while returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD '97]

      Sources: RC 89, 131; Kraent zler 1156, 1218, 1241, 1264, 1265, 1342, 1350;
      Coe; Dukes; AF; K & Q of Britai n; Norr; A. Roots 121, 121E, 130; France,
      Vol. 1 (1868), by M. Guizot and Mada me Guizot de Witt; AIS; Davis.
      Roots: Robert I, Duke of Normandy. Married (Dan ish wife) Arlette (or Herleve). Left issue by this mistress.
      K: Robert I "le Magnifique ou le Diable." Count d'Hieme. Duke of Normandy.
      In line 1350 he cal ls him erroneously calls him Richard I.
      Robert was called both "The Magnificen t" and also "Robert the Devil," because of his "reckless and violent deeds of audacity, whether in private life or in warlike expeditions."

      For example the Duke of Normandy was looking out at his fortress. He saw a beautiful, tanner's daughter soaking animals skins in water. She had hiked up her skirt. The duke liked what he saw. He sent a soldier to pick her up. She said she would go to the duke's castle if she rode the soldier's horse. The soldier agreed. She borrowed a nice dress. Then rode the soldier's horse side-saddle. She and the duke had sex and the future William the Conqueror king of England was conceived.

      In 1034 or 1035, after a "fair life from the political point of view, but one full of turbulence and moral irregularity" he undertook a pilgrimage, barefoot, to Jerusalem " to expiate his sins..." The Norman prelates and barons urged him not to go because they believed he might die on the pilgrimage (they were right) and he had no successor. Robert, therefore, named his bastard son, William, as his successor and prevailed upon King Henry I of France to sanction the arrangement--a decision the king was later to regret.

      Guizot says Robert I was the fifth in succession from Rollo, the first ruler of Normandy. William was named after William Longsword, the son and successor
      of Rollo. So the Norman reign went from Rollo, to William Longsword, Richard I, Richard II, Richard III, Robert I and William, who would become William the Conqueror and, subsequently, William I, King of England.

      Richard III and Robert I were sons of Richard II, according to a chart in Butler.
      Robert instructed Herluin (another spelling) de Contevi lle to marry his mistress, Harlette, if he failed to return from the Crusade. Herluin did so, and they had children.
      Dukes says Robert's last years were ma rked by signs of "eccentricity, if not unsoundness of mind."
      AIS: Robert, Duk e of Normandy, born about 995, Normandy, France; died 2 July 1035, Nicaea, Turkey.
      Davis: Robert I, the Magnificent, Duke of Normandy 1027-1035.

      Sources: RC 89, 131; Kraentzler 1156, 1218, 1241, 1264, 1265, 1342 , 1350;
      Coe; Dukes; AF; K & Q of Britain; Norr; A. Roots 121, 121E, 130; Franc e,
      Vol. 1 (1868), by M. Guizotand Madame Guizot

      Note: Robert contributed to the restoration of Henry King of France to his throne, and received from the gratitude of that monarch, the Vexin, as an additional to his patrimonial domains. In the 8th year of his reign, curiosity or devotion induced him to undertake a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where the fatigues of the journey and the heat of the climate so impaired his consitution he died on his way home.

      ============================================

      CHAPTER I: THE CONQUEROR
      The Conqueror and His Companions
      by J.R. Planche, Somerset Herald. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1874.

      His father was Robert I, Duke of Normandy, styled by some "the Magnificent," from his liberalities and love of splendour; "the Jerusalemite," in consequence of his pilgrimage; and by others less courteously "the Devil," though wherefore or at what period has not been satisfactorily ascertained. From a passage in "L'Estoire de Seint ?dward le Rei," it would appear there was a tradition in the family of Rollo, of one of his descendants (Richard I?) having beaten and bound his Satanic majesty,

      "E Duc Richard de'apres li vint,
      Ki li diable ateint e tint
      E le venqait e le lia."

      Robert was the second son of Richard II, Duke of Normandy, by his wife Judith, daughter of Conan le Tort (the Crooked), Count of Rennes, and sister of the half blood to Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany; and it was during the lifetime of his father, and while Robert was only Count of the Hiemois, and it may be in his nonage that he first saw Herleve, Harlett, or Arlot (for it is written in all manner of ways), daughter of a burgess of Falaise, an accident the results of which were the subjugation of England and the succession of a line of kings unsurpassed for valour and power by the greatest sovereigns in Europe.


      The Conqueror and His Companions
      by J.R. Planche, Somerset Herald. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1874.

      "... Robert's lawful marriage with Estrith, sister of Canute the Great, and widow of UIf, a distinguished Dane, who was murdered by order of his brother-in-law in 1025. Robert is said to have ill used and repudiated her, at what exact period is unknown; but he had no issue by her, which might possibly be one cause of his displeasure."

  • Sources 
    1. [S397] J. K. Loren, J.K. Loren Dec 8 2003.

    2. [SAuth] Jim Carney, compiled by James H Carney [(E-ADDRESS), & MAILING ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE], Buderim, Queensland 4556 AUSTRALIA.

    3. [S289] Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th Edition, Charles M o s l e y Editor-in-Chief, 1999, 26 May 2003., cxiv (Reliability: 3).

    4. [S1063] Robert I.

    5. [S845] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, 7th Edition, by Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Shippard Jr., 1999, 212e-22 (Reliability: 3).

    6. [S732] 23 May 2002.

    7. [S734] 28 May 2002.

    8. [S844] 6 Oct 2000.

    9. [S735] 27 May 2002.

    10. [S736] 20 Jan 2000.

    11. [S737] 31 May 2002.

    12. [S845] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, 7th Edition, by Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Shippard Jr., 1999, 121e-22 (Reliability: 3).