Mon. Angl. vi. 1461–3 (St. George's), and 248–252 (Oseney), and v. 403 (Thame), the Domesday Survey, passim, but esp. Oxfordshire, pp. 154 a, 158 a, 158 b. The results are well put together in Freeman's Norman Conquest, iv. 44–7 and 728–34, and still better in Mr. James Parker's Early History of Oxford, with special reference to the buildings. The notices in Wood's City of Oxford (ed. Clark, i. 265–78), Kennett's Parochial Antiquities, i. 75–158, Dunkin's Bicester, &c., W. D. Bayley's House of D'Oyley, and J. K. Hedges's History of Wallingford, vol. i., do not distinguish with sufficient accuracy between facts, inferences, and conjectures.]
ROBERT of Mortain, Count of Mortain (d. 1091?). [See Mortain.]
ROBERT Losinga (d. 1095), bishop of Hereford. [See Losinga.]
ROBERT of Bellême or Belesme, Earl of Shrewsbury (fl. 1098). [See Bellême.]
ROBERT (d. 1103), crusader and martyr, was son of Godwine of Winchester, an Englishman of good family. The father held lands in Hertfordshire under Edgar Atheling [q. v.] When Edgar was accused of treason, Godwine maintained his innocence by judicial combat, slew his accuser, and received his lands. Robert, who was described as a knight and a worthy successor of a valiant father, accompanied Edgar Atheling and his nephew, Edgar (1072–1107) [q. v.], son of Malcolm Canmore [see Malcolm III, called Canmore], on their expedition to Scotland in 1097, and the defeat of Donald Bane, which gave the younger Edgar the Scottish kingdom, is ascribed to his valour. Edgar rewarded him with a grant of land in Lothian, where he began to build a castle. In 1099, at the instigation of Rannulf Flambard [q. v.], then bishop of Durham, the lords and other tenants of the bishopric set upon him during the absence of King Edgar in England, and, after a stout resistance, he was made prisoner. When Edgar returned from the English court, he brought an order for his release, carried him with him with much honour into Scotland, and, to punish the bishop, took away from the bishopric the town of Berwick that he had previously granted to it. Robert next appears as having joined the ætheling, who was crusading in Palestine. King Baldwin, who was besieged in Ramlah in 1103, made a desperate sally accompanied by five knights, of whom Robert was one. Robert rode before the king, hewing down the infidels in his path, and it was through his valour that Baldwin was enabled to gain the mountains and make his escape. As he pressed on with rash haste he dropped his sword, and was made prisoner, with three of his companions. He was taken to Cairo, and there, as he steadfastly refused to deny Christ, was brought into the market-place, bound, and shot to death with arrows.
[Fordun's Scotichron. iii. 669–73, 675, ed. Hearne; Sym. Dunelm. i. 263–5, ed. Hinde (Surtees Soc.); Domesday, f. 142; Will. of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum, iii. c. 251, iv. c. 384 (Rolls Ser.), comp. Fulcher of Chartres, c. 27, and Will. of Tyre, x. cc. 21, 22 (Gesta Dei per Francos, pp. 414, 788); Freeman's Norman Conq. v. 94, 820, and Will. Rufus, ii. 116–22, 615 sqq.]
ROBERT Fitzhamon (d. 1107), conqueror of Glamorgan. [See Fitzhamon.]
ROBERT de Beaumont, Count of Meulan (d. 1118). [See Beaumont.]
ROBERT Bloet (d. 1123), bishop of Lincoln. [See Bloet.]
ROBERT (d. 1139), first abbot of Newminster, was a native of Craven in Yorkshire, and is said to have been educated at Paris. He afterwards became rector of Gargrave in Yorkshire, but, choosing a monastic life, entered the Benedictine abbey at Whitby. Finding the Benedictine rule too lax, he joined the Cistercian order, which had been established in England three years before, and in 1132 was one of the monks who founded the abbey of Fountains [see under Richard, d. 1139]. Five years later he was one of the monks sent to colonise the abbey of Newminster in Northumberland, founded by Ralph de Merlay, and was elected first abbot. Newminster in its turn became parent of the abbeys of Pipewell, Roche, and Salley. While at Newminster Robert was a frequent visitor of St. Godric [q. v.] at Finchale; but his strictness seems to have caused some insubordination, and on one occasion he had to vindicate himself before St. Bernard from the imputations of the monks of his house. He died in 1139, probably on 7 June, the day on which his obituary was kept. The year 1139 given by the Bollandists is more probable than 1159, the date usually assigned for Robert's death. He is said to have written a treatise on the Psalms which is not known to be extant. Robert is often called a saint, but apparently he was only beatified and not canonised.
He has often been confused with Saint Robert (d. 1235?) of Knaresborough. The latter was eldest son of Robert ‘Flowers’ or ‘Flours,’ who was twice mayor of York during the reign of Richard I, and, sacrificing his father's inheritance, joined the Cistercian
