ROBERT OF

See also:

• ROBERT OF BELESME (fl. moo)

BELESME (fl. moo)  , earl of Shrewsbury . From his mother Mabel Talvas he inherited the fief of Belesme, and from his father, the Conqueror's companion, that of Shrews-bury . Both were march-fiefs, the one guarding Normandy from Maine, and the other England from the Welsh; consequently their lord was peculiarly powerful and independent . Robert is the typical feudal noble of the time, circumspect and politic, persuasive and eloquent, impetuous and daring in battle, and an able military engineer; in person, tall and strong; greedy for land, an oppressor of the weak, a systematic rebel and traitor, and savagely cruel . He first appears as a supporter of Robert's rebellion against the Conqueror (1077); then as an accomplice in the English conspiracy of ro88 against Rufus . Later he served Rufus in Normandy, and was allowed to succeed his brother Hugh in the earldom of Shrewsbury (1098) . But at the height of his power, he revolted against Henry I . (11o2) . He was banished and deprived of his English estate; for sometime after he remained at large in Normandy, defying the authority of Robert and Henry alike . He betrayed Robert's cause at Tinchebrai; but in 1112 was imprisoned for life by Henry I . See E . A .

Freeman's William Rufus and his Norman Conquest, vol. iv.; and J . M . Lappenberg's History of England under the Norman Kings, trans . B . Thorpe ([857) .