Home / People / Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester

Historical person

Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester

1090–1147

Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester, was an illegitimate son of Henry I and the most important military supporter of his half-sister Empress Matilda during the Anarchy. A wealthy cross-Channel magnate, he provided troops, castles and political credibility to her claim.

Robert captured King Stephen at Lincoln in 1141 but was himself captured at Winchester and exchanged for the king. His death in 1147 seriously weakened Matilda’s cause. Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester was born in Caen and died in Bristol.

In Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael’s Penance, in late 1145, England remains divided between King Stephen and Empress Matilda, and an attempted peace meeting at Coventry fails to end the conflict. Brother Cadfael learns that Olivier de Bretagne, the son whose existence he has kept secret, disappeared after the surrender of Faringdon Castle and may be held by men whose loyalties have shifted during the war. Cadfael leaves Shrewsbury without formal permission and enters the contested country around Gloucester and the Thames Valley. In Derek Birks’ Rebel Sword, Robert, Earl of Gloucester, initially accepts Stephen’s rule, but the political settlement begins to fracture. Robert’s illegitimate son Thomas, raised in a Norman household but conscious of his Saxon mother’s heritage, is more interested in tavern fights and personal grievances than dynastic politics until a violent brawl leads to exile on the family estates in Normandy. Thomas’s journey south with his Saxon uncle brings him into the orbit of a young heiress whose future is being decided by more powerful men. Further fictional perspectives on Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester can be found in Elizabeth Chadwick’s The Love Knot, Sharon Kay Penman’s When Christ and His Saints Slept, Elizabeth Chadwick’s A Place Beyond Courage, Ellis Peters’ An Excellent Mystery, and Elizabeth Chadwick’s Lady of the English.

Periods

Periods linked to Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester

The Anarchy1135–1154 CE

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester (4 series)

Chronicles of Brother Cadfael in Order

by Ellis Peters 19 books 4.5(42,288)

The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael follow a former soldier and crusader who has become the herbalist of Shrewsbury Abbey. Between 1137 and 1145, Cadfael investigates deaths, disappearances and disputed identities while working within the rhythms of Benedictine life and the law of medieval England. The twenty novels unfold…

All books in this series

1. A Morbid Taste for Bones

First published 1977 · 4.4(5,667)

Read more Amazon

2. One Corpse Too Many

First published 1979 · 4.5(3,326)

Read more Amazon

3. Monk’s Hood

First published 1980 · 4.5(2,635)

Read more Amazon

4. Saint Peter’s Fair

First published 1981 · 4.6(2,579)

Read more Amazon

6. The Virgin in the Ice

First published 1982 · 4.6(2,403)

Read more Amazon

7. The Sanctuary Sparrow

First published 1983 · 4.5(1,975)

Read more Amazon

8. The Devil’s Novice

First published 1983 · 4.6(2,687)

Read more Amazon

9. Dead Man’s Ransom

First published 1984 · 4.5(1,978)

Read more Amazon

10. The Pilgrim of Hate

First published 1984 · 4.6(1,654)

Read more Amazon

11. An Excellent Mystery

First published 1985 · 4.5(1,772)

Read more Amazon

12. The Raven in the Foregate

First published 1986 · 4.6(1,734)

Read more Amazon

13. The Rose Rent

First published 1986 · 4.5(1,668)

Read more Amazon

14. The Hermit of Eyton Forest

First published 1987 · 4.6(1,688)

Read more Amazon

15. The Confession of Brother Haluin

First published 1988 · 4.5(1,841)

Read more Amazon

16. The Heretic’s Apprentice

First published 1989 · 4.6(1,413)

Read more Amazon

17. The Potter’s Field

First published 1989 · 4.5(1,420)

Read more Amazon

18. The Summer of the Danes

First published 1991 · 4.5(1,436)

Read more Amazon

19. The Holy Thief

First published 1992 · 4.6(1,467)

Read more Amazon

20. Brother Cadfael’s Penance

First published 1994 · 4.6(2,945)

Read more Amazon

Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine in Order

by Sharon Kay Penman 5 books 4.5(9,638)

The five Angevin novels trace the Plantagenet dynasty from the succession crisis after Henry I through Henry II and Eleanor’s turbulent marriage, their sons’ rebellions, Richard I’s crusade, captivity and final campaigns. The sequence combines royal family drama with the Anarchy, Angevin state-building, church–crown conflict and the Third…

All books in this series

1. When Christ and His Saints Slept

First published 1994 · 4.4(2,650)

Read more Amazon

2. Time and Chance

First published 2002 · 4.4(1,825)

Read more Amazon

3. Devil’s Brood

First published 2008 · 4.7(1,606)

Read more Amazon

4. Lionheart

First published 2011 · 4.3(1,818)

Read more Amazon

5. A King’s Ransom

First published 2014 · 4.6(1,739)

Read more Amazon

William Marshal in Order

by Elizabeth Chadwick 6 books 4.3(44,460)

Elizabeth Chadwick’s William Marshal cycle follows the Marshal family and the households bound to it from the civil war of the Anarchy to the crisis of King John’s reign. A Place Beyond Courage centres on William’s father, John Marshal, while The Greatest Knight and The Scarlet Lion trace…

All books in this series

1. A Place Beyond Courage

4.3(7,278)

Read more Amazon

2. The Greatest Knight

4.2(12,930)

Read more Amazon

3. The Scarlet Lion

4.4(9,532)

Read more Amazon

4. The Time of Singing

4.2(5,979)

Read more Amazon

5. To Defy a King

4.3(6,665)

Read more Amazon

6. Templar Silks

4.5(2,076)

Read more Amazon

The Anarchy Series in Order

by Derek Birks 1 book 4.3(106)

England in 1135 is thrown into a succession crisis when Henry I dies and his nephew Stephen seizes the crown despite earlier oaths to recognise the king’s daughter, Empress Matilda. Derek Birks follows Thomas, the illegitimate son of Robert, Earl of Gloucester, a young man whose Norman upbringing…