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DE BRUS Robert
Birth:          ABT 1093 Cleveland, Durham, England
Death:          11 May 1141 Skelton Castle, Yorkshire, England

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_de_Brus,_1st_Lord_of_Annandale
Robert I de Brus, 1st Lord of Annandale (c.?1070 – 1142) was an early 12th century 
Anglo-Norman baron and knight, the first of the Bruce dynasty to hold lands in 
Scotland. A monastic patron, he is remembered as the founder of Gisborough Priory in 
Yorkshire, in present-day Redcar and Cleveland, in 1119.[1]

Robert is given by some Victorian historians as a son of Adam de Brus, by his spouse 
Emma de Ramsay.[2][3]

Cockayne states that the family name is derived from Bruis, now Brix, in the 
arrondissement of Valognes.[4] Some modern historians contend that the name may 
have come from Brix, Manche, near Cherbourg in the Cotentin Peninsula, and that 
they came to England after King Henry I of England's conquest of Normandy (i.e.: at 
the same time as Alan fitz Flaad, the FitzAlan ancestor of the Stuart Royal Family, 
nowithstanding that they were Bretons).

What is known clearly is that this Robert de Brus is first mentioned during the period 
1094 and 1100, as a witness to a charter of Hugh, Earl of Chester, granting the 
church of Flamborough, Yorkshire, to the church of Whitby. Possibly the Earl of 
Chester about 1100–1104 enfeoffed Robert of certain portions of his Cleveland fee in 
Lofthouse, Upleatham, Barwick, Ingleby, and other places. Between 1103–1106 
Robert de Brus attested with Ralph de Paynel and 16 others a charter of William, 
Count of Mortain, to the abbey of Marmoutier. In 1109 at a Council of all England held 
at Nottingham, he attested the charter of King Henry 1st confirming to the church of 
Durham certain possessions which the men of Northumberland had claimed. During the 
period 1109–1114 he appears in early charters in possession of numerous other manors 
and lands in Yorkshire, and in the same period he attested a charter of Henry 1st 
issued at Woodstock, Oxfordshire. He appears in the Lindsey Survey made 1115–1118 
in possession of even further lands. There is a strong presumption that King Henry 1st 
had given Robert his Yorkshire fee soon after the battle of Tinchebrai (28 September 
1106). Robert was present at the great gathering of northern magnates at Durham in 
1121, and sometime during the period 1124–1130 he was with the King at Brampton. 
About 1131 Robert de Brus was in the retinue of Henry 1st at Lions, in Eure. About 
the same time he attested with three of his personal knights a confirmation with Alan 
de Percy to the monks of Whitby.[5] It is said that Robert had been given some 80 
manors in Yorkshire by King Henry. It is evident that Robert kept up his connexions 
with other Normans too. A member of the Feugeres family, of Feugeres, Calvados, 
arr.Bayeux, canton of Isigny, witnessed charters of this Robert de Brus circa 1135 in 
Yorkshire.[6]

Scotland[edit]

The friendship between Robert de Brus and David FitzMalcolm (after 1124 King David 
I of Scotland), who was present in France with King Henry and was granted much of 
the Cotentin Peninsula, may have commenced at least as early as 1120, at Henry's 
Court.[7] When David became king, he settled upon his military companion and friend 
the Lordship of Annandale, in 1124,[8] There is, however, scant evidence that this 
Robert ever took up residence on his Scottish estates.

After the death of King Henry, David refused to recognise Henry's successor, King 
Stephen. Instead David supported the claim of his niece and Stephen's cousin, 
Empress Matilda, to the English throne and taking advantage of the chaos in England 
due to the disputed succession there, he took the chance to realise his son's claim to 
Northumberland. These actions Robert de Brus of Annandale could not countenance 
and as a result he and King David parted company, with Robert bitterly renouncing his 
homage to David before taking the English side at the Battle of the Standard in 1138.
[9] Before the battle, Robert had made an impassioned plea to David, calling to his 
remembrance how he and other Normans had by their influence in Scotland, as far 
back as 1107, obliged King Alexander to give a part of the Scottish Kingdom to his 
brother David. The appeal was in vain. Robert, and his eldest son Adam, joined the 
English army, while his younger son, Robert, with an eye on his Scottish inheritance, 
fought for David.[10]

Marriage[edit]

Robert is said to have married twice: (1) Agnes, daughter of Geoffrey Bainard, Sheriff 
of York and (2) Agnes, daughter and heiress of Fulk de Paynel of Carleton, North 
Yorkshire.[11][12] Farrer mentions both marriages and in particular points out that the 
superior of Carleton Manor was de Brus, and that Paynel held it of him.

It is unclear by which spouse his sons were but authorities usually give her as Agnes 
de Paynel.
Adam de Brus (1), eldest son and heir upon whom devolved, under feudal law, all the 
English estates.[13] he only survived his father by 12 months, having married Jueta, 
daughter and heiress of William de Arches. She outlived her husband by decades, 
dying just after 1202.[14]
Robert de Brus, the younger son, upon whom his father had settled the Scottish 
Lordship of Annandale, plus several wheat-producing ploughates at Skelton, 
Yorkshire, in his lifetime.[15]
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jweber&id=I04896
Phil Moody gives the ancestry for Robert de Brus according to Collins Peerage, 1959, 
which I have followed. Except that I can't get all the generations that he has, given a 
birth date for this Robert of 1078. From the birth years of his descendants, it looks like 
Robert might have been born much later.

Note: Turton does not have the generation of Robert de Brus & Agnes de St. Clair in 
his pedigree. If that generation were not included, then the 1078 birth date for this 
generation of Robert would be reasonable.

Warning: John Ravilious states that Robert's father was most likely another Robert, 
not the Adam stated by Collins Peerage. Also he believes that the Collins Peerage 
pedigree was based on secondary sources, and cannot be documented. I have 
included it, but caveat emptor.

Parents
DE BRUS Adam (ABT 1073 - )
DE RAMSAY Emma (ABT 1072 - )

Siblings
DE BRUS Robert (ABT 1093 - 11 May 1141)

Marriage To PAYNEL Agnes (ABT 1095 - ) m. Notes Parents PAYNEL Fulk (ABT 1052 - 1138) ----- ----- () Children by PAYNEL Agnes ABT 1095 -
DE BRUS Adam I (ABT 1113 - 1143) DE BRUS Agatha (ABT 1120 - ) DE BRUCE Robert (1124 - 1194)
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