Robert de Windsor

  General Notes:

K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday Descendants, Vol. II, Robert de Windresor, p. 789

1st s. Feudal baron (2nd class) of Little Easton, Essex.

  Information about this person:

• From Gen-Medieval Archives: Hasting Pedigree. ¹⁹³
From: Richard Borthwick <rgbor@cyllene.uwa.edu.au>
Subject: Re: Hastings Pedigree (corrections)
Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 22:27:04 +0800

The connection between the two Flamville families is not known, but little doubt that they are the same family group. Roger (II) de F. (d.1169) and his wife Juetta de Arches (d.about 1206) had a daughter Maud (d.after 1219) who married Robert de Hastings (d.about 1190). If Robert has a wife Isabel (and there is some doubt about this - Sanders expresses some caution) she would have been his first wife as Moriarty points out in his earlier paper. In that paper Moriarty makes Isabel the mother of Alice (p.48). I think Moriarty is right in his second corrective paper in thinking Maud to be the mother of Alice (p.294).

Robert was son of William (d.1162/66) and Hawise ? de Guerres (d.after 1219). William was the son of Robert fitz Walter (d.about 1128). Debate has centred on whether his father Walter was Walter fitz Other (Windsor) or Walter the Deacon (otherwise known as Walter fitz Tedric). Moriarty opts for the second alternative and then in the course of an later extended note of correction he opts for the first alternative. Moriarty, however, leaves open the real possibility of Robert fitz Walter's father being Walter the Deacon (the position he first espoused). Keats-Rohan *Domesday People* I:454 says that Walter the Deacon was brother and heir of Tedric (Theoderic) in the lands in Essex which became known as the barony of Little Easton and that Robert fitz Walter (aka de Windsor) was Walter's son. Moriarty and Keats-Rohan both agree that Walter was heir of his brother Tedric, but Keats-Rohan does not mention Walter and Tedric being sons of an earlier Tedric. Moriarty (2nd paper) and Keats-Rohan both rely on the work of L Landon "The Barony of Little Easton and the Family of Hastings" in *Trans. Essex Arch. Soc.* vol xix. In addition K-R cites B Dodwell "Charters relating to the Honour of Bacton" in *A Medieval Miscellany for Doris Mary Stenton* eds. P M Barnes & C F Slade, Pipe Roll Society NS 36 for 1960 (London, 1962) pp.147-165.

The problem of which Walter to give as father of Robert fitz Walter hinges on the fact that Robert is the successor of Walter the Deacon. It is quite odd that Walter's putative son-in-law would succeed him when he (Walter the Deacon) already had sons to do so. It is this feature which would seem to point overwhelmingly to Robert being Walter's eldest son and not his son-in-law. This point is obscured to modern eyes by Robert being sometimes known as Robert de Windsor (the toponym used by his putative wife's family).

It is likely that Robert fitz Walter married a dau. of Walter fitz Other according to Moriarty and both he and K-R note that Robert fitz Walter's sister, Edith married Maurice de Windsor, brother-in-law of William de Hastings. K-R has this as a second marriage and her first was to Ralph the steward of St Edmunds.

Why the names 'Windsor' and 'Hastings' were used by members of Robert's family is something of a mystery. The Fitz Other (or Windsor) family linked Robert's family and that of Hastings and the adoption of such surnames was a very fluid matter at this stage of surname development.

The first Moriarty paper is "The Origins of the Hastings" in NEHG Register 96 (1942) pp.36-48. Part II of this paper (pp.46-48) is entitled "the Barons of Little Eston of the Family of Hastings". The second paper is "Hastings, Barons of Little Eston, Co. Essex, England" in NEHG Register 101 (Oct. 1947) pp.291-295.

Robert married Lady de Windsor, daughter of Walter Fitz Otho and Gwladus verch Rhiwallon.