the First Crusade

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Family

He married Clementia of Burgundy, sister of Pope Callistus II. They had three children, but only the oldest survived to adulthood. He succeeded Robert as Baldwin VII of Flanders.

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Adhemar of Le Puy



A mitred Adhémar de Monteil carrying the Holy Lance in one of the battles of the First Crusade

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Adhemar (also known as Adémar, Aimar, or Aelarz) de Monteil (died August 1, 1098), one of the principal figures of the First Crusade, was bishop of Puy-en-Velay from before 1087. At the Council of Clermont in 1095, Adhemar showed great zeal for the crusade (there is evidence Urban II had conferred with Adhemar before the council) and having been named apostolic legate and appointed to lead the crusade by Pope Urban II, he accompanied Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, to the east. Whilst Raymond and the other leaders often quarrelled with each other over the leadership of the crusade, Adhemar was always recognized as the spiritual leader of the crusade.

Adhemar negotiated with Alexius I Comnenus at Constantinople, reestablished at Nicaea some discipline among the crusaders, fought a crucial role at the Battle of Dorylaeum and was largely responsible for sustaining morale during the siege of Antioch through various religious rites including fasting and special observances of holy days. After the capture of the city in June, 1098, and the subsequent siege led by Kerbogha, Adhemar organized a procession through the streets, and had the gates locked so that the Crusaders, many of whom had begun to panic, would be unable to desert the city. He was extremely skeptical of Peter Bartholomew's discovery in Antioch of the Holy Lance, especially because he knew such a relic already existed in Constantinople; however, he was willing to let the Crusader army believe it was real if it raised their morale.

When Kerbogha was defeated, Adhemar organized a council in an attempt to settle the leadership disputes, but he died on August 1, 1098, probably of typhus. The disputes among the higher nobles went unsolved, and the march to Jerusalem was delayed for months. However, the lower-class foot soldiers continued to think of Adhemar as a leader; some of them claimed to have been visited by his ghost during the siege of Jerusalem, and reported that Adhemar instructed them to hold another procession around the walls. This was done, and Jerusalem was taken by the Crusaders in 1099.

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Hugh I of Vermandois

Hugh I (1053 – October 18, 1101), called Magnus or the Great, was a younger son of Henry I of France and Anne of Kiev and younger brother of Philip I. He was in his own right Count of Vermandois, but an ineffectual leader and soldier, great only in his boasting. Indeed, Steven Runciman is certain that his nickname Magnus (greater or elder), applied to him by William of Tyre, is a copyist's error, and should be Minus (younger), referring to Hugh as younger brother of the King of France.

In early 1096 Hugh and Philip began discussing the First Crusade after news of the Council of Clermont reached them in Paris. Although Philip could not participate, as he had been excommunicated, Hugh was said to have been influenced to join the Crusade after an eclipse of the moon on February 11, 1096.

That summer Hugh's army left France for Italy, where they would cross the Adriatic Sea into territory of the Byzantine Empire, unlike the other Crusader armies who were travelling by land. On the way, many of the soldiers led by fellow Crusader Emicho joined Hugh's army after Emicho was defeated by the Hungarians, whose land he had been pillaging. Hugh crossed the Adriatic from Bari in Southern Italy, but many of his ships were destroyed in a storm off the Byzantine port of Dyrrhachium.

Hugh and most of his army was rescued and escorted to Constantinople, where they arrived in November of 1096. Prior to his arrival, Hugh sent an arrogant, insulting letter to Eastern Roman Emperor Alexius I Comnenus, according to the Emperor's biography by his daughter (the Alexiad), demanding that Alexius meet with him:

"Know, O King, that I am King of Kings, and superior to all, who are under the sky. You are now permitted to greet me, on my arrival, and to receive me with magnificence, as befits my nobility."[1]
Alexius was already wary of the armies about to arrive, after the unruly mob led by Peter the Hermit had passed through earlier in the year. Alexius kept Hugh in custody in a monastery until Hugh swore an oath of vassalage to him.

After the Crusaders had successfully made their way across Seljuk territory and, in 1098, captured Antioch, Hugh was sent back to Constantinople to appeal for reinforcements from Alexius. Alexius was uninterested, however, and Hugh, instead of returning to Antioch to help plan the siege of Jerusalem, went back to France. There he was scorned for not having fulfilled his vow as a Crusader to complete a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and Pope Paschal II threatened to excommunicate him. He joined the minor Crusade of 1101, but was wounded in battle with the Turks in September, and died of his wounds in October in Tarsus.

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Family and children

He married Adele of Vermandois, the daughter of Herbert IV of Vermandois and Adele of Valois.They had nine children:

Count Raoul I of Vermandois
Henry, senior of Chaumont-en-Vexin, (d. 1130).
Simon, Bishop of Noyon
Elizabeth de Vermandois, married
Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester;
William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey
Matilde de Vermandois, married Raoul I of Beaugency
Constance de Vermandois, married Godefroy de la Ferte-Gaucher
Agnes de Vermandois, married Margrave Boniface del Vasto. Mother of Adelaide del Vasto.
Beatrix de Vermandois, married Hugh III of Gournay-en-Bray
Emma de Vermandois

References
^ http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Alexiad/Book_X chapter VII

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Robert Curthose

Robert Curthose or Robert II (c. 1051 or 1054–10 February 1134) was the Duke of Normandy from 1087 until 1106 and an unsuccessful claimant to the throne of the Kingdom of England. His nickname, Curthose, comes from the Norman French Courtheuse, meaning short stockings (or in English - curt [short] & hose [stockings] ), as it is sometimes translated, Shortstockings. William of Malmesbury and Orderic Vitalis report that Robert's father, King William, called him brevis-ocrea (short-boot) in derision.

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Robert Curthose's monument at Gloucester Cathedral
Duke of Normandy
Reign 9 September 1087 – 1106
Predecessor William I of England
Successor Henry I of England
 
Consort Sybilla of Conversano
DetailIssue
William Clito, Count of Flanders
Henry of Normandy
Father William I of England
Mother Matilda of Flanders
Born c. 1051 or 1054
Normandy, France
Died 10 February 1134 (aged c. 80–83)
Cardiff Castle, Glamorgan
Burial Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucestershire

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He was the eldest son of William the Conqueror, the first Norman king of England, and Matilda of Flanders, and a participant in the First Crusade. His reign as Duke is noted for the discord with his brothers in England, eventually leading to the absorption of Normandy as a possession of England.

His birthdate is usually given as 1054, but may have been 1051. As a child he was betrothed to Margaret, the heiress of Maine, but she died before they could be wed, and Robert didn't marry until his late forties. In his youth, he was reported to be courageous and skillful in military exercises. He was, however, also prone to a laziness and weakness of character that discontented nobles and the King of France exploited to stir discord with his father William. He was unsatisfied with the share of power allotted to him, and quarreled with his father and brothers fiercely.

In 1063 his father made him into the count of Maine, considering his engagement to Margaret. The county was presumably run by his father until 1069 when the county revolted and reverted to Hugh V of Maine.

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In 1077, he instigated his first insurrection against his father as the result of a prank played by his younger brothers William Rufus and Henry, who had dumped fetid water on him. Robert was enraged, and urged on by his companions, started a brawl with his brothers that was only interrupted by the intercession of their father. Feeling that his dignity was wounded, Robert was further angered when King William failed to punish his brothers. The next day Robert and his followers attempted to seize the castle of Rouen. The siege failed, but when King William ordered their arrest, Robert and his companions took refuge with Hugh of Chateauneuf-en-Thymerais. They were forced to flee again when King William attacked their base at Rémalard.

Robert fled to Flanders, to the court of his uncle Robert I, Count of Flanders before plundering the county of the Vexin and causing such mayhem that his father King William allied himself with King Philip I of France to stop his rebellious son. Relations were not helped when King William discovered that Robert's mother, Queen Matilda, was secretly sending her son money. At a battle in January 1079 Robert unhorsed King William in combat and succeeded in wounding him, stopping his attack only when he recognized his father's voice. Humiliated, King William cursed his son, then raised the siege and returned to Rouen.

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At Easter 1080 father and son were reunited by the efforts of Queen Matilda, and a truce lasted until she died in 1083. Robert seems to have left court soon after the death of his mother, Queen Matilda, and spent several years traveling throughout France, Germany and Flanders. He visited Italy seeking the hand of the great heiress Matilda of Tuscany (b. 1046), but was unsuccessful.

During this period as a wandering knight, Robert sired several illegitimate children. His illegitimate son, Richard, seems to have spent much of his life at the royal court of his uncle, William Rufus. This Richard was killed in a hunting accident in the New Forest in 1099, as his uncle King William was the next year. An illegitimate daughter was later married to Helias of Saint-Saens.

In 1087, the Conqueror died of wounds suffered during a riding accident during a siege of Rouen. At his death, he reportedly wanted to disinherit his eldest son, but was persuaded to divide the Norman dominions between his two eldest sons. To Robert, he granted the Duchy of Normandy and to William Rufus he granted the Kingdom of England. The youngest son Henry was given money to buy land. Of the two elder sons, Robert was considered to be much the weaker and was generally preferred by the nobles who held lands on both sides of the English Channel, since they could more easily circumvent his authority. At the time of their father's death, the two brothers made an agreement to be each other's heir. However, this peace lasted less than a year when barons joined with Robert to displace Rufus in the Rebellion of 1088. It was not a success, in part because Robert never showed up to support the English rebels.

Robert took as his close advisor Ranulf Flambard, who had been previously a close advisor to his father. Flambard later became an astute but much-disliked financial advisor to William Rufus until the latter's death in 1100.

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In 1096, Robert left for the Holy Land on the First Crusade. At the time of his departure he was reportedly so poor that he often had to stay in bed for lack of clothes. In order to raise money for the crusade, he mortgaged his duchy to his brother William for the sum of 10,000 marks.

Robert and William had agreed to name each other the Heir Presumptive of England and Normandy respectively. Therefore, when William II died on 2 August 1100, Robert should have inherited the throne of England. But he was on his return journey from the Crusade, marrying a wealthy young bride to raise funds to buy back his duchy. As a result, his brother Henry was able to seize the crown of England for himself.

Upon his return, Robert, urged by Flambard and several Anglo-Norman barons, led an invasion of England to retake the crown from his brother Henry. In 1101, Robert landed at Portsmouth with his army, but his lack of popular support among the English as well as Robert's own mishandling of the invasion tactics enabled Henry to resist the invasion. Robert was forced by diplomacy to renounce his claim to the English throne in the Treaty of Alton. It is said that Robert was a brilliant field commander, but a terrible general in the First Crusade. His government (or misgovernment) of Normandy as well as his failed invasion of England proves that his military skills were better than his political skills.

In 1105, however, Robert's continual stirring of discord with his brother in England, as well as civil disorder in Normandy itself, prompted Henry to invade Normandy. Orderic reports on an incident at Easter 1105, when Robert was supposed to hear a sermon by the venerable Serlo, Bishop of Sées. Robert spent the night before sporting with harlots and jesters, and while he lay in bed, sleeping off his drunkenness, his unworthy friends stole his clothes. He awoke to find himself naked, and had to remain in bed and missed the sermon.

In 1106, Henry defeated Robert's army decisively at the Battle of Tinchebray and claimed Normandy as a possession of the English crown, a situation that endured for almost a century. Captured after the battle, Robert was imprisoned in Devizes castle for 20 years, before being moved to Cardiff.

In 1134, he died in Cardiff Castle, in his early eighties. Robert Curthose, sometime Duke of Normandy, eldest son of the Conqueror, was buried in the abbey church of St. Peter in Gloucester. The exact place of his burial is difficult to establish - legend states the he requested to be buried before the High Altar. His effigy carved in bog oak, however, lies on a mortuary chest decorated with the attributed arms of the Nine Worthies (missing one - Joshua, and replaced with the arms of Edward the Confessor). The effigy dates from about 100 years after his death, and the mortuary chest much later. The church subsequently has become Gloucester Cathedral.

The name 'Curthose' can still be seen today, in France as Courtoise and in Britain as Curthoys.

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Robert Curthose at the Siege of Antioch (1097-1098).

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Family

Robert married Sybilla, daughter of Geoffrey of Brindisi, Count of Conversano (and a grandniece of Robert Guiscard, another Norman duke) on the way back from Crusade. Their son, William Clito, was born 25 October 1102 and became heir to the Duchy of Normandy. Sybilla, who was admired and often praised by the chroniclers of the time, died shortly after the birth. William of Malmesbury claims she died as a result of binding her breasts too tightly; both Robert of Torigny and Orderic Vitalis suggest she was murdered by a cabal of noblewomen led by her husband's mistress, Agnes Giffard. William Clito was unlucky all his life; his attempts to invade Normandy failed twice (1119) and (1125), his first marriage to a daughter of the count of Anjou was annulled by his uncle's machinations, and even his late inheritance of the county of Flanders was mishandled. William Clito died in 1128 leaving no issue, thus leaving the field clear in the Norman succession (at least until Henry I died).

Robert also had at least two illegitimate children - Richard who died hunting in the New Forest in 1099 (like his uncle a year later) and a daughter who married Helias of Saint-Saens (a worthy and loyal protector of his young brother-in-law in 1112).

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In popular culture
Robert was portrayed by actor Simon Dutton in the TV drama Blood Royal: William the Conqueror (1990).

Robert Curthose
House of Normandy
Born: ? c. 1051 Died: 10 February 1134
English royalty
Preceded by
William Rufus Heir to the English Throne
as heir presumptive
1087 - 2 August 1100 (or 1103) Succeeded by
William Adelin
French nobility
Preceded by
William I of England Duke of Normandy
1087–1106 Succeeded by
Henry I of England

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