Robert I. de Craon

Robert the Burgundy (French: Robert le Bourguignon , lat .: Rotbertus Burgundus ; * around 1023, † 1098 ) was lord of Craon , by marriage lord of Sablé and the progenitor of the Craon family . He himself came from the House of Monceaux as the second son of Count Rainald I of Nevers and Adele, a daughter of King Robert II the Pious .

While his older brother Wilhelm I succeeded in his father's inheritance, Robert and his younger brothers Heinrich and Guido entered the service of Count Gottfried II Martel von Anjou , the second husband of their great aunt Mathilde of Burgundy , as milites . In the first half of the 1040s he was first mentioned as Alobros Robertus in the entourage of the Count . Between 1051/52 he was enfeoffed by the Count with Craon Castle, which was on the Maine border and whose previous lord had rebelled against the Count. Through a marriage with the heiress of Sablé Castle, he came into possession of another important border castle of Anjou . Because of this and due to his family ties to the Angevin counts up to the royal family, he established the outstanding position of his family in Anjou. He secured his influence in Maine through a marriage of his niece Ermengarde to Hubert, the Vice Count of Maine .

Robert took part in the first crusade , in the course of which he died.

Marriage and offspring

In 1068 he married Avoise, called "Blancha of Maine", daughter of Gottfried von Sablé and granddaughter of Vice Count Raoul III. from Maine. From this marriage he had three children:

• Renaud I († December 1101), Lord of Craon
• Robert II "Vestrol", († around 1110), Lord of Sablé
• Burgonde, ∞ Renaud III, lord of Château-Gontier

literature

• W. Scott Jessee: Robert the Burgundian and the counts of Anjou, ca. 1025-1098 . Catholic University Press of America, Washington DC 2000, ISBN 0-8132-0973-0 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cartulaire de l'abbaye du Ronceray d'Angers (1028-1184) , ed. by Paul Marchegay (Paris, 1900), no.237

predecessor	Office	successor
Guerin	Lord of Craon 1052-1098	Renaud I.
Geoffroy	Lord of Sablé (de iure uxoris ) 1068-1098	Robert II