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Birth:          ABT 1158 Dunmow, Essex, England
Death:          9 Dec 1235 

Notes
from ancestry.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Fitzwalter
Robert Fitzwalter[c] (died 9 December 1235)[b] was the leader of the baronial 
opposition against King John, and one of the twenty-five sureties of Magna Carta.[3] 
He was feudal baron of Little Dunmow, Essex[4] and constable of Baynard's Castle, in 
London, to which was annexed the hereditary office of castellain and chief banneret 
of the City of London.[3] Part of the official aristocracy created by Henry I and Henry 
II, he served John in the wars in Normandy, in which he was taken prisoner by King 
Philip II of France and forced to pay a heavy ransom.[3]

Fitzwalter was implicated in the baronial conspiracy of 1212. According to his own 
statement the king had attempted to seduce his eldest daughter, but Robert's account 
of his grievances varied from time to time. The truth seems to be that he was irritated 
by the suspicion with which John regarded the new baronage. Fitzwalter escaped a 
trial by fleeing to France. He was outlawed, but returned under a special amnesty after 
John's reconciliation with the pope.[3]

Fitzwalter continued, however, to take the lead in the baronial agitation against the 
king, and upon the outbreak of hostilities in 1215 was elected "Marshal of the Army of 
God and Holy Church". It was due to his influence in London that his party obtained 
the support of the city and used it as their base of operations. The clause of the 
Magna Carta prohibiting sentences of exile, except as the result of a lawful trial, refers 
more particularly to his case. He was one of the twenty-five barons appointed to 
enforce the promises of Magna Carta, and his aggressive attitude was one of the 
causes which contributed to the revival of civil war later in 1215.[3]

Fitzwalter's incompetent leadership made it necessary for the rebels to invoke the help 
of France. He was one of the envoys who invited Prince Louis to England, and was 
the first of the barons to do homage when Louis entered London. Slighted by the 
French as a traitor to his natural lord, he served Louis with fidelity until he was 
captured at the battle of Lincoln in May 1217. Released on the conclusion of peace, 
he joined the Fifth Crusade, but returned at an early date to make his peace with the 
regency. The remainder of his life was uneventful, and he died peacefully in 1235.[b]
[3] He was the father of three children: Matilda, Robert, and Christina (who married 
William FitzGeoffrey de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of Essex). He is remembered as a 
champion of English liberty, and has also become associated with various legends, 
including that of Robin Hood.
Family[edit]

Robert Fitzwalter was the son of Walter Fitz Robert of Woodham Walter and his wife 
Maud (or Mathilde), the daughter of Richard de Lucy of Diss (a member of the de Lucy 
family).[5] Robert was a feudal baron of the fourth generation after the Norman 
conquest, great-grandson of Richard fitz Gilbert (d. c. 1090).[6] His paternal 
grandfather was Richard fitz Gilbert's son Robert Fitz Richard, steward of Henry I, to 
whom the king had granted the lordship of Dunmow and of the honour or soke of 
Baynard's Castle in the southwest angle of the City of London, to which the hereditary 
office of castellain and chief banneret of the City of London was annexed, both of 
which had become forfeited to the crown by William Baynard.[5] While steward Robert 
may have been descended from the powerful Norman counts of Brionne, among the 
higher ranks of the nobility of the Norman Conquest, the house of Fitzwalter belongs 
properly to the administrative families, who in the latter part of the twelfth century had 
stepped into the place of the old feudal houses. The house of Fitzwalter's possession 
of the soke of Baynard's Castle, which grew into an ordinary ward, brought it into 
intimate relations with the Londoners. Robert Fitzwalter was himself engaged in trade, 
and owned wine ships which received special privileges from King John.[5]

Nothing of Fitzwalter's birth and early life is recorded. A possible early record of him is 
a mention of a knight named "Robert Fitzwalter" at a tournament in Henry the Young 
King's retinue in 1180 at Lagny-sur-Marne.[6] Fitzwalter was married to Gunnor or 
Gunnora, daughter and heiress of Robert de Valognes, some time before his father 
died in 1198. His eldest son, named Robert Fitzwalter, junior, was taken prisoner 
along with him at Lincoln, but died before him. At his death, his heir, Walter, was 
under age, so that the son who fought with him at Lincoln must have been dead. This 
Sir Walter Fitzwalter (also known as Fitz Robert) of Dunmow Castle (c. 1222–1258), 
married to Ida Longespée,[d] must have been either a younger son or a grandson.[7]
[8] After the death of Gunnor (she was alive in 1207) it is said that Fitzwalter married a 
second wife, Rohese, who survived him. He had also a daughter, Christina, who 
married William FitzGeoffrey de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of Essex.[9][10]

Career[edit]

When Baron Walter died in 1198, Fitzwalter succeeded to his estates, being already 
more than of full age and married to his first wife, Gunnor. His marriage to Gunnor had 
brought him 30½ knight's fees, and he inherited more than 66 from his father.[11][6] 
He also acquired two knight's fees through Gunnor's uncle Geoffry of Valognes, and 
about 1204 obtained livery of seisin of the lands of his own uncle, Godfrey de Luci, 
bishop of Winchester.[11][6] Francisque Xavier Michel said that Fitzwalter came to be 
"one of the greatest men in England, and one of the most powerful".[6] His lands were 
mainly situated in the north, so that his interests now became close to those of a 
faction called the "Aquilonares", whom he would later lead in the struggle against 
King John.[11]

In the years following 1200, Fitzwalter is recorded as a participant in several lawsuits. 
In 1200 Fitzwalter was surety for half the fine incurred by his brother, Simon Fitzwalter, 
for marrying without royal licence. In 1201 he made an agreement in the curia regis 
with St Albans Abbey with respect to the wood of Northaw. Another suit sprang from 
his claim to the custody of the Hertford Castle as of ancient right. He withdrew this 
suit for a time, and in August 1202 King John made Fitzwalter warden of Hertford 
Castle by royal letters patent, releasing him from his family's debts to Jewish 
moneylenders as well.[12][6]

Early in 1203 Fitzwalter was in attendance on the king in Normandy, in February and 
March at Rouen. Fitzwalter was made joint-governor of the castle of Le Vaudreuil 
(near the mouth of the Eure) with Saer de Quincy, later Earl of Winchester. After 
Easter King Philip II Augustus of France took the field, and despite being well fortified 
and supplied, the governors of Vaudreuil surrendered at the first summons. Philip shut 
them up in close confinement at Compiègne, where they remained until redeemed by a 
heavy ransom of five thousand marks. On 5 July John issued letters patent from Rouen 
to certify that they had surrendered the castle by his precept, witnessed by William 
Marshal, but in late November Fitzwalter's cousin William d'Aubigny was still engaged 
in selling some of Fitzwalter's lands to raise the ransom. The surrender of Vaudreuil 
has been ascribed to the cowardice of Fitzwalter and de Quincy, which contemporary 
sources mocked greatly. However, the actual reason for their actions, and those of 
the two kings, was mysterious at the time, and remains unknown. In October 1206 
Fitzwalter witnessed the truce made between John and Philip Augustus at Thouars.
[12][6]

1212 Conspiracy[edit]

The misgovernment of John provoked Fitzwalter's profound resentment, and in 1212 
he entered into intrigues with Eustace de Vesci and the Welsh prince Llewelyn ab 
Iorwerth against the king.[12] According to his own statement the king had attempted 
to seduce his eldest daughter Matilda, but his account of his grievances varied from 
time to time.[3] Several other barons later made similar accusations, and these stories 
were well recorded by monastic chroniclers, so later the story of Matilda developed 
into a complex legend. Financial factors, "unjust exaction which reduced [the barons 
of England] to extreme poverty", as the monk Roger of Wendover put it, were more 
likely the primary reason for the dissatisfaction of barons such as Fitzwalter.[13]

In 1212, John's quarrel with Pope Innocent III and Philip Augustus reached a breaking 
point, and Innocent absolved the barons of England from their allegiance to John. 
John was preparing to march at Nottingham against his rebellious son-in-law Llewelyn 
ab Iorwerth. His suspicions that his barons were plotting to capture him were aroused 
by private intelligence, and he turned back to London with his foreign mercenaries, 
disbanding his regular forces. He demanded that each baron send a relative to him as 
a hostage. Most of the barons did so, but Fitzwalter and de Vesci decided to flee, to 
France and Scotland respectively.[13] They were condemned to perpetual exile. But 
John was so much alarmed that he shut himself up from his subjects, and abandoned 
his projected Welsh campaign. John now seized upon Fitzwalter's estates, and on 14 
January 1213 destroyed Baynard's Castle. He also demolished Robert's castle of 
Benington and his woods in Essex. Fitzwalter remained in exile until John's submission 
to the pope.[12] Fitzwalter's sister, Alice Peche, was required to provide hostages to 
prove her loyalty. One hostage was her and Gilbert Peche's daughter, Alice.[14]

On 13 May 1213 John promised peace and security to him as part of the conditions of 
his reconciliation with Rome, and on 27 May issued letters patent informing him that 
he might safely come to England. On 19 July his estates were restored. John also 
granted a hundred marks to his steward as compensation, and directed a general 
inquest into his losses like those made in the case of the clerks who had suffered by 
the interdict.[12]

Magna Carta revolt[edit]
 
Fitzwalter, however, remained a vigorous opponent of John's later measures. Matthew 
Paris said that John specially hated him, Archbishop Stephen Langton, and Saer de 
Quincy. In August 1213, he was at St Paul's Cathedral in London when Archbishop 
Langton read a charter signed by Henry I and announced that services could be 
conducted ahead of the lifting of the interdict on England.[15] On 4 November 1214 
Fitzwalter met in secrecy with the Archbishop and the other barons at Bury St 
Edmunds. The assembled barons resolved to withdraw their fealty from King John and 
swore at the altar of the abbey church that they would wage war on John if he did not 
accept their demands of a charter by Christmas. The barons and the King both began 
to arm themselves, and John secured the support of the Pope and took up the cross 
as a crusader.[16] By January, John still refused to accede to the barons' demands 
and when Fitzwalter and several other barons visited him in armour at the 
headquarters of the Knights Templar in England in London (the modern Inns of Court) 
he asked for a truce until Easter.[12][16]

In 1215 Fitzwalter was the first mentioned in the list of barons who assembled on 
Easter week (19–26 April) at Stamford.[12][16] He accompanied the revolted lords on 
the march to Brackley in Northamptonshire on 27 April. But John now formally refused 
to accept the long list of demands which they forwarded to him at Oxford. Thereupon 
the barons elected Fitzwalter their general, with the title of "Marshal of the Army of 
God and Holy Church". They solemnly renounced their homage to John and proceeded 
to besiege Northampton.[12] They failed there and at Bedford, where Fitzwalter's 
standard-bearer was slain. But the adhesion of London secured their success. It was 
due to Fitzwalter's influence in London that his party obtained the support of the city 
and used it as their base of operations. On 17 May Fitzwalter entered the city at the 
head of the "army of God", though the partisans of John still held out in the Tower. 
Fitzwalter and the Earl of Essex specially busied themselves with repairing the walls of 
London, using for the purpose the stones taken from the demolished houses of the 
Jews.[12]

In June, John met the barons at Runnymede, where the two sides agreed to the Great 
Charter, and the barons renewed their vows of fealty.[3][17][18] In its final draft the 
Magna Carta contained a clause prohibiting sentences of exile, except as the result of 
a lawful trial, which refers more particularly to Fitzwalter's case.[3] Fitzwalter was one 
of the twenty-five executors appointed to see that its provisions were really carried 
out. For a short time nominal peace prevailed, and Fitzwalter now got back the 
custody of Hertford Castle. But the barons remained under arms, and Fitzwalter was 
still acting as "Marshal of the Army of God and Holy Church". He now made a 
convention with John, by which London remained in the barons' hands till 15 August.
[17] But Fitzwalter was so fearful of treachery that within a fortnight of the Runnymede 
meeting he thought it wise to postpone a tournament fixed to be held at Stamford on 
the Monday after the feast of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June) for another week, and 
chose as the place of its meeting Hounslow Heath, that the barons might be near 
enough to protect London.[17]

First Barons' War[edit]
 
On 26 August, John and the barons tried to arrange at a meeting at Staines. When 
this failed, the First Barons' War broke out. The twenty-five executors assigned to 
themselves various counties to secure them for their side. Fitzwalter, who with 
Eustace de Vesci was still the leading spirit of the movement, became responsible for 
Northamptonshire. On 17 September John granted Fitzwalter's Cornish estates to his 
young son Prince Henry. But the pope's annulling the charter had paralysed the 
clerical supporters of the popular side, and the thoroughgoing policy of the twenty-five 
under Fitzwalter's guidance had alienated of the more moderate men.[17]

Fearing Archbhishop Langton might be forced to surrender his castle of Rochester, 
Fitzwalter, with the assent of the warden of the castle, Reginald de Cornhill, secretly 
occupied it with a large force. John's troops soon approached, and strove, by burning 
Rochester bridge and occupying the left bank of the way, to cut off Fitzwalter from his 
London confederates. But Fitzwalter succeeded keeping his position, though before 
long he was forced on 11 October to retreat to London, allow the royalists to occupy 
the town besiege the castle. John now tried to deceive him by forged letters. 
Fitzwalter, conscious of the weakness of his position, sought to negotiate.[17]

On 9 November, Fitzwalter received with the Earl of Hertford and the citizens of 
London safe conduct for a conference, but nothing came of it. In vain the 
beleaguered garrison of Rochester bitterly reproached him for deserting them. On 10 
November they were forced to surrender. On 16 December the barons, including 
Fitzwalter, were excommunicated by name. French help was now their only refuge.[17]

Fitzwalter went over to France with the Earl of Winchester and offered the throne to 
Louis, the son of King Philip, putting into his hands twenty-four hostages and assuring 
him of the support of their party. Fitzwalter was back in England early in 1216. Louis 
landed in May, and as John made great progress in the east, Fitzwalter busied himself 
in compelling Essex and Suffolk, his own counties, to accept the foreign king. The 
tide of fortune now turned, but after John's death on 19 October Fitzwalter's 
difficulties increased. Gradually the English went over to the side of the new king 
Henry III. Those who remained in arms were not respected by the French, because of 
their betrayal of John.[17]

On 6 December Louis captured Hertford Castle from the followers of the new king 
Henry. Fitzwalter naturally asked for the custody of a stronghold that had already been 
so long under his care. The French urged that a traitor to his own lord was not to be 
trusted, and Louis told him he must wait until the end of the war. Fitzwalter was too 
deeply pledged to Louis to join the deserters.[17] He was sent from London on 30 April 
1217 at the head of a strong French force to raise the siege of Mountsorrel in 
Leicestershire, now closely pressed by the Earl of Chester. On his way he rested at St 
Albans, where his hungry troops ate up all the supplies of the abbey, according to 
abbey chronicler Matthew Paris. He raised the siege of Mountsorrel and advanced to 
Lincoln. He was met by the regent, William Marshall, whose forces were now joined by 
the Earl of Chester with the army that had besieged Mountsorrel. Fitzwalter was 
anxious for an immediate battle.[17]

On 20 May Fitzwalter fought in the Second Battle of Lincoln, in which the baronial 
forces were thoroughly defeated. Fitzwalter himself was taken prisoner along with his 
son and most of the leaders of his party. The Londoners still held out until Hubert de 
Burgh's great naval victory on 24 August. On 11 September the Treaty of Lambeth 
ended the struggle. But the reissue of the charter as the result of the treaty showed 
that Fitzwalter's cause had triumphed in spite of his personal failure. On 8 October 
1217 Fitzwalter's release from prison was ordered, and on 24 January 1218 the king 
granted him his scutage. In July he received the custody of his nephew, Walter 
Fitzsimon Fitzwalter, whose father had died.[17]

Later life[edit]
 
Later in the year 1218 Fitzwalter witnessed the undertaking that the Great Seal of 
England was to be affixed to no letters patent or charters until the king came of age. 
But the Fifth Crusade must have offered a convenient opportunity to him and others. 
In 1219 he sailed for the Holy Land along with Earl Saer of Winchester and Earl 
William d'Aubigny of Arundel. He departed from Genoa in August, shortly after the 
main force of the crusade left Brindisi, and arrived in Acre some time in September.
[19] Before he arrived the crusading host had been diverted to the siege of Damietta. 
There he seems to have arrived along with Saer de Quincy and other English 
crusaders, at the same time as the cardinal legate Pelagius in the autumn of 1219. 
Saer de Quincy died on 3 November. This date makes impossible the statement of 
Walter of Coventry that they only arrived after Damietta had been captured. The town 
fell into the crusaders' hands on 6 November. Fitzwalter, therefore, though he is not 
mentioned, must have taken part in the latter part of the siege.[9]

The crusaders remained in Egypt until August 1221. But Fitzwalter had gone home 
sick, probably at some earlier period. He spent the rest of his life peaceably in 
England, thoroughly reconciled to the government of Henry III. He must have by this 
time become well advanced in years. On 11 February 1225 Fitzwalter was one of the 
witnesses of Henry III's third confirmation of the great charter. In June 1230 he was 
one of those assigned to hold the assize of arms in Essex and Hertfordshire.[9] 
According to Matthew Paris, he died on 9 December 1235,[b] and was buried before 
the high altar at Priory Church in Little Dunmow. Administration of his goods and 
chattels was granted to his executors on 16 December 1235. He was described by 
Paris as a "noble baron, illustrious by his birth, and renowned for his martial deeds".[9]

Legacy[edit]

A large legendary and romantic history gradually gathered round the memory of 
Fitzwalter, as the first champion of English liberty. A picturesque tale, first found in the 
manuscript chronicle of Dunmow, tells how Fitzwalter had a very beautiful daughter 
named Matilda, who indignantly rejected the immoral advances of King John. At last, 
as the maiden proved obdurate, John caused her to be poisoned, so that the bitterest 
sense of personal wrong drove Fitzwalter to take up the part of a constitutional leader. 
So generally was the story believed that an alabaster figure on a grey altar-tomb in 
Priory Church, Little Dunmow is still sometimes pointed out as the effigy of the 
unfortunate Matilda.[9][21]

Several poems and plays have been based upon this picturesque romance. In them, 
Matilda is curiously mixed up with Maid Marian, the mistress of Robin Hood. Such are 
the 1601 plays by Henry Chettle and Anthony Munday called The Downfall of Robert, 
Earl of Huntingdon, afterwards called Robin Hood, with his Love to Chaste Matilda, 
the Lord Fitzwater's daughter, afterwards his faire Maid Marian, and The Death of 
Robin Hood with the lamentable Tragedy of Chaste Matilda, his faire Maid Marian, 
poisoned at Dunmowe by King John. Michael Drayton also published in 1594 a 
poetical account, called Matilda, the faire and chaste Daughter of the Lord Robert 
Fitzwalter, as well as two letters in verse, purporting to be written between her and 
King John. Before 1639 Robert Davenport wrote another play, The Tragedy of King 
John and Matilda. It was also believed in the seventeenth century that Robert 
Fitzwalter, "or one of his successors", was the founder of the flitch of bacon custom 
in Little and Great Dunmow.[22][9] Fitzwalter and King John are the two central 
characters in the comic monologue Magna Charter by Marriott Edgar.[23]

Parents
FITZ ROBERT Walter (ABT 1124 - 1198)
DE LUCY Maud (Matilda) (ABT 1128 - ABT 1223)

Siblings
FITZ WALTER Robert (ABT 1158 - 9 Dec 1235)
FITZ WALTER Maud (ABT 1161 - AFT 1196)
FITZ WALTER Alice (ABT 1170 - AFT 1213)

Marriage To DE VALOINES Gunnora (ABT 1169 - BEF 1203)
    m.  

Notes

Parents
DE VALOINES Robert (ABT 1120 - 1184)
____ Hawise (ABT 1140 - )

Children by DE VALOINES Gunnora ABT 1169 - BEF 1203
FITZ WALTER [FITZ ROBERT] Christine (Christiana) (ABT 1190 - BEF 17 Jun 1232)

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