Robert Fitzwalter - Family

Family

Robert Fitzwalter was the son of Walter Fitz Robert of Woodham Walter and his wife Maud or Mathilde de Lucy. Maud was the daughter of Richard de Lucy of Diss, a member of the de Lucy family. Walter was the son of 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. 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.

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. 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 at the time under age, so that the son who fought with him at Lincoln must have been dead. This Sir Walter Fitzwalter of Dunmow Castle (c. 1222–1258) must have been either a younger son or a grandson. He was married to Ida de Longspree, daughter of William II Longespée. 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.