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- “Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial & Medieval Families,” Douglas Richardson (2013):
“ROBERT, Count of Mortain (in Cotentin), Domesday lord of Pitstone and West Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, Blisland, Boyton, Lancarffe, Poundstock, Treroosel, and Truthwall, Cornwall, Bere Ferrers, Bolberry, Bratton Fleming, Buckland Brewer, Densham, Dunsdon, Fardel, and Weare Giffard, Devon, Ashill, Barton St. David, Bishopston, Brompton Regis, Bruton, Crewkerne, Curry Rivel, Kingstone, Shepton Montague, Stoke sub Hamdon, Swell, and Tintinhill, Somerset, etc.,
Born about 1040. He was an uterine half-brother of William the Conqueror, King of England.
He was created a count about 1060.
He married (1st) before 1066 MAUD DE MONTGOMERY, daughter of Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, by his 1st wife, Mabel, daughter and heiress of William, seigneur of Alencon and Bellême.
They had one son, William [Count of Mortain], and four daughters:
Agnes,
Denise (wife of Guy III, seigneur of Laval),
Emma (wife of William IV, Count of Toulouse), and Sibylle [Abbess of Saintes].
About 1082 he and his wife, Maud, founded a collegiate church at St. Evroult at Mortain. His wife, Maud, died 21 Sept. 1082, and was buried in Grestain Abbey.
He married (2nd) ALMODIS ___. They had one son, Robert, and one daughter, Almodis (wife of Raimon Berenguer III of Barcelona).
In the period, 1082-84, he granted land in Dorset to Marmoutier Abbey at Tours. He joined the rebellion against King William Rufus in 1088, which was soon put down. He was a benefactor of many religious houses, including the abbeys of Grestain, Marmoutier, Caen, Préaux, Fécamp, Mont-St-Michel, St.- Nicholas, Angers and St. Albans.
ROBERT, Count of Mortain, died 8 Dec. 1090.
L'Art de Vérifier les Dates 2 (1784): 790 (sub Montgomeri). Rud Coelicum Manuscriptorum Ecclesia Cathedralis Dunelmensis (1825): 214 ("Nomina quae in Kalendario (supra Tr. 5.) occurrunt: XI. Kal. Octobr. [21 September] - Obiit Mathildis Comitissa de Moretonio."). Dugdale Monasticon Anglicanum 6(2) (1830): 1090-1091 (Robert, Count of Mortain, styled "brother" [fratris] of King William the Conqueror in charter dated 1189). Guerard Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Saint-Bertin (Coll. des Cartulaires de France 3) (1840): 462-463 (Count Robert, brother of the King [i.e., King William the Conqueror] witness to doc. dated c.1066-87). Le Prévost Notes pour servir el la Topographie et a l'Histoire des Communes du Département de l'Eure (1849): 30-31 (charter dated April 1066 witnessed by William, Duke of Normandy, his wife, Maud, and his "brother" [fratris], Robert). Desroches Annales civiles, militaires et généalogiques du Pays d'Avranches (1856): 58. Munford Analysis of the Domesday Book of the County of Norfolk (1858): 7-8. Delisle Rouleaux des Morts du IXe au XVe Siècle (1866): 207-208, 289-290. Delisle Chronique de Robert de Torigni 1 (1872): 319 ("Siquidem Robertus, comes Moritonii, uterinus frater Willermi regis qui regnum Angliæ subjugavit, habuit unum filium Guillermum, qui ei successit ... et tres filias, quarum unam duxit Andreas de Vitreio, aliam Guido de Laval, terciam comes Tolosanus, frater Raimundi comitis Sancti Ægidii, qui in expeditione Ierosolimitana viriliter se habuit. Genuit autem ex ea comes Tolosanus unam solummodo filiam, quam Guillermus, comes Pictavensis et dux Aquitanorum, mortuo patre prædictæ puellæ, cum hereditate propria, scilicet urbe Tolosa et comitatu Tolosano, duxit uxorem; ex qua genuit idem Guillermus filium Guillermum nomine, qui ei successit, qui pater fuit Alienor, reginæ Anglorum."). Planché The Conqueror & his Companions 1 (1874): 107-116 (biog. of Robert, Comte de Mortain and Earl of Cornwall). Le Fizelier Mémoire chronologique de Maucourt de Bourjolly seer la Ville de Laval 1 (1886): 122-128. Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France 23 (1894): 583 (Ex Obtuario Ecclesiæ Moretoniensis: "8. Dec. Obiit Robertus comes Moretonii fundator istius ecclesi"). Two Cartularies of the Augustinian Priory of Bruton & Cluniac Priory of Montacute (Somerset Rec. Soc. 8) (1894): 119-120 (foundation charter of William, Count of Mortain for Montacute Cartulary dated 1102; charter names his parents, Count Robert and Countess Matilda). Round Cal. of Docs. Preserved in France 918-1206 (1899): 108, 256 (charter of Robert, Count of Mortain dated ?1085), 256-257 (charter of Robert, Count of Mortain and Almodis his wife dated 1087-91), 359, 433. Notes & Oueries 9th Ser. 8 (1901): 525-526. Bréard L’Abbaye de Notre-Dame de Grestain (1904.) Rpt. & Trans. of the Devonshire Assoc. for the Advancement of Science, Lit. & Art 2nd Ser. 8 (1906): 338-339. D.N.B. 13 (1909): 1014 (biog. of Robert of Mortain, Count of Mortain). VCH Somerset 2 (1911): 111-115. C.P. 3 (1913): 427- 428 (sub Cornwall). Douglas Domesday Monachorum (1944): 33-36. Hull Cartulary of St. Michael's Mount (Devon & Cornwall Rec. Soc. n.s. 5) (1962): 3-4. Douglas William the Conqueror (1964). D. Bates "Herluin de Conteville et sa famille" in Annales de Normandie 23 (1973): 21-38. Brown Angle-Norman Studies III (1981): 74-75. Hull Cartulary of Launceston Priory (Devon & Cornwall Rec. Soc. n.s. 30) (1987): 2-4 (charter of Robert, Count of Mortain, Earl of Cornwall brother [frater] of William King of the English, and Maud his wife dated 1076). Bates and Gazeau `L'Abbaye de Grestain & la Famille d'Herluin de Conteville,' in Annales de Normandie 40 (1990): 5-30. Anglo-Norman Studies 13 (1991): 119-144. Haskins Soc. Jour. 3 (1991): 161-162. Bates & Curry England & Normandy in the Middle Ages (1994): 136-137. Cownie Religious Patronage in Anglo-Norman England, 1066-1135 (1998): 197-199. Fleming Domesday Book & the Law (1998).
Children of Robert, Count of Mortain, by Maud de Montgomery:
i. AGNES OF MORTAIN
ii. EMMA OF MORTAIN, married WILLIAM IV, Count of Toulouse
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