Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robert (d.1103)
ROBERT (d. 1103), crusader and martyr, was son of Godwine of Winchester, an Englishman of good family. The father held lands in Hertfordshire under Edgar Atheling [q. v.] When Edgar was accused of treason, Godwine maintained his innocence by judicial combat, slew his accuser, and received his lands. Robert, who was described as a knight and a worthy successor of a valiant father, accompanied Edgar Atheling and his nephew, Edgar (1072–1107) [q. v.], son of Malcolm Canmore [see Malcolm III, called Canmore], on their expedition to Scotland in 1097, and the defeat of Donald Bane, which gave the younger Edgar the Scottish kingdom, is ascribed to his valour. Edgar rewarded him with a grant of land in Lothian, where he began to build a castle. In 1099, at the instigation of Rannulf Flambard [q. v.], then bishop of Durham, the lords and other tenants of the bishopric set upon him during the absence of King Edgar in England, and, after a stout resistance, he was made prisoner. When Edgar returned from the English court, he brought an order for his release, carried him with him with much honour into Scotland, and, to punish the bishop, took away from the bishopric the town of Berwick that he had previously granted to it. Robert next appears as having joined the ætheling, who was crusading in Palestine. King Baldwin, who was besieged in Ramlah in 1103, made a desperate sally accompanied by five knights, of whom Robert was one. Robert rode before the king, hewing down the infidels in his path, and it was through his valour that Baldwin was enabled to gain the mountains and make his escape. As he pressed on with rash haste he dropped his sword, and was made prisoner, with three of his companions. He was taken to Cairo, and there, as he steadfastly refused to deny Christ, was brought into the market-place, bound, and shot to death with arrows.
[Fordun's Scotichron. iii. 669–73, 675, ed. Hearne; Sym. Dunelm. i. 263–5, ed. Hinde (Surtees Soc.); Domesday, f. 142; Will. of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum, iii. c. 251, iv. c. 384 (Rolls Ser.), comp. Fulcher of Chartres, c. 27, and Will. of Tyre, x. cc. 21, 22 (Gesta Dei per Francos, pp. 414, 788); Freeman's Norman Conq. v. 94, 820, and Will. Rufus, ii. 116–22, 615 sqq.]