Editing Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester (section)

== Earl of Gloucester ==
In either 1121 or 1122, his father created him the 1st Earl of Gloucester.<ref name=":0">Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Robert, earl of Gloucester". ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', 27 October 2021, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Earl-of-Gloucester. Accessed 11 December 2021.</ref> Robert became powerful in both the countries of Normandy and England with this act, as Caen may have remained his principal seat.<ref name=":1"/>{{Rp|page=199}}

Robert possessed many castles and land through grants made to him by his father, King Henry. He was the keeper of [[Gloucester Castle]], [[Canterbury Castle]] and fortresses of Bristol, Leeds and Dover.<ref name=":1"/>{{Rp|page=200}} [[Bristol Castle]] was Robert's principal seat in England and he constructed additions to its exterior fortifications and rebuilt the interior.<ref name=":1"/>{{Rp|page=200}} Robert held Gloucester Castle in right of his earldom, however, after [[Miles of Gloucester, 1st Earl of Hereford]] was created earl, Miles became the constable of it under Robert, his liege-lord, as [[Florence of Worcester]] called him.<ref name=":1"/>{{Rp|page=200}}

There is evidence in the contemporary source, the ''Gesta Stephani'', that Robert was proposed by some as a candidate for the throne, after his father's death, but his illegitimacy ruled him out:
{{quote|Among others came Robert, Earl of Gloucester, son of King Henry, but a bastard, a man of proved talent and admirable wisdom. When he was advised, as the story went, to claim the throne on his father's death, deterred by sounder advice he by no means assented, saying it was fairer to yield it to his sister's son (the future [[Henry II of England]]), than presumptuously to arrogate it to himself.}}
This suggestion cannot have led to any idea that he and Stephen were rivals for the Crown, as [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]] in 1136 referred to Robert as one of the 'pillars' of the new King's rule. 

For the first five years after the death of his father, Henry I, and usurpation of power by Stephen in 1135, Robert seems to have been an inactive spectator of the struggle between Stephen and Matilda.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Duncan|first=Jonathan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=43UEAAAAQAAJ|title=The Dukes of Normandy, from the Time of Rollo to the Expulsion of King John by Philip Augustus of France|publisher=Joseph Rickerby, Sherbourn Lane; and Harvey and Darton, Gracechurch Street|year=1839|location=London|author-link=Jonathan Duncan (currency reformer)}}</ref>{{Rp|page=211}}

In June 1138, [[Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou]] persuaded Robert to join the party opposing King Stephen through prayers and promises given to Robert when Geoffrey entered Normandy.<ref name=":1"/>{{Rp|pages=198-199}} It is said that when the hostilities first began, Robert acted with "great prudence, and still held aloof," but that his hostility to Stephen was not disguised.<ref name=":1"/>{{Rp|page=199}} Thus, while Robert sided in June 1138 with the party opposing Stephen's rule was a great change in the power dynamics in England, it may not have been quite as unexpected as some scholars make it out to be, as "his hostility to Stephen was scarcely disguised."<ref name=":1"/>{{Rp|page=199}} 

In 1139, Robert, along with Guy de Sablé and several others, took Matilda to England.<ref name=":0"/><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|author=Ordericus Vitalis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=03zYAAAAMAAJ|title=The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy|publisher=Henry G. Bohn|year=1856|editor-last=Forester|editor-first=Thomas|volume=IV|location=London|translator-last=Forester|translator-first=Thomas|author-link=Orderic Vitalis}}</ref>{{rp|212}} On August 31, 1139, they landed in England and were received at Arundel castle by their step-mother Adeliza, the queen-dowager.<ref name=":1"/>{{Rp|page=212}} Matilda was given leave from King Stephen to pass through England under safe conduct.<ref name=":1"/>{{rp|212}} Robert hosted Matilda after her arrival in England at [[Bristol Castle]] and led her forces against Stephen.<ref name=":0"/>

Robert commanded the empress's forces during the Battle of Lincoln, during which Robert's son-in-law [[Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester]] commanded his own forces for the empress.<ref name=":1"/>{{Rp|page=217}}

The capture of [[Stephen, King of England|King Stephen]] at the [[Battle of Lincoln (1141)|Battle of Lincoln]] on 2 February 1141 gave Empress Matilda the upper hand in her battle for the throne, but by alienating the citizens of London she failed to be crowned queen. Robert imprisoned Stephen in [[Bristol]].<ref name=":0"/> Her forces were defeated at the [[Rout of Winchester]] on 14 September 1141, and Robert of Gloucester was captured nearby at [[Stockbridge, Hampshire|Stockbridge]].<ref name=":0"/>

Without the Earl of Gloucester, the party of Matilda was powerless, so the two prisoners, King Stephen and Robert of Gloucester, were then exchanged.<ref name=":2"/>{{Rp|page=213}} But by freeing Stephen, Empress Matilda had given up her best chance of becoming queen. She would later return to France, where she died in 1167, though her son succeeded Stephen as King [[Henry II of England|Henry II]] in 1154.

With the success of Stephen in England, Robert and Matilda returned to Normandy, where the earl recruited fresh levies.<ref name=":2"/>{{Rp|page=214}} He soon crossed the channel again, taking with him his nephew, [[Henry II of England|Henry]], then ten years old. Robert was devoted to the education of his young charge and taught him English habits and culture.<ref name=":2"/>{{Rp|page=214}} Following their crossing of the channel, Robert went to [[Wareham, Dorset|Wareham]], [[Dorsetshire]] and sent Henry to [[Somerset]], where he was received by friends of his mother, Matilda.<ref name=":2"/>{{Rp|page=214}} 

The civil war continued on without much success, with alternate triumphs and defeats for three more years. However, it came to a quiet close in 1147 when Robert died and the queen and her son, now deprived of Gloucester's protection, returned to Normandy.<ref name=":2"/>{{Rp|pages=214-215}}

Robert of Gloucester died in 1147 at [[Bristol Castle]], where he had previously imprisoned King Stephen, and was buried at [[St James' Priory, Bristol]], which he had founded in 1129.