Robert de Namur

Robert de Namur KG (* 1323 ; † April 1391 ) was a Dutch knight and nobleman in the 14th century from the House of Dampierre . He was a younger son of Margrave John I of Namur and his second wife Marie d'Artois. From the inheritance of his father, who died in 1330, he received the castles of Beaufort-sur-Meuse, Renaix, Ballâtre and Chièvre.

Robert de Namur reads a book while receiving a messenger from the King of France. Jean Froissart sits next to him working on his chronicle. Illustration from the late 15th century.

In keeping with the fashion of his time, Robert took a trip to Prussia to earn his knight spurs. Under the influence of his uncle Robert von Artois , at the outbreak of the Hundred Years War he chose the side of England, while his older brother, Margrave William I , remained on the side of France. During the siege of Calais (1346) , Robert joined King Edward III's entourage . from England and paid homage to this. On February 2, 1350 he married Isabella de Hainault, sister of the English Queen Philippa , with which he was related to the English cause. In the victorious sea ​​battle of Winchelsea (Battle of Les Espagnols sur Mer) against a Castilian fleet on August 3, 1350 for the English , Robert commanded the flagship La Salle du Roi and boarded alongside Edward III. an enemy ship. In 1363 Robert captured the Flemish castle Escanaffles (today Celles ) for his royal brother-in-law and in 1369 defended the English camp in Tournehem-sur-la-Hem against a French attack.

After Queen Philippa died in 1369, Robert took the historian Jean Froissart into his personal entourage and became his new patron. Through him, Froissart came back to the English royal court in London in the same year and on Robert's order he began shortly afterwards with the writing of the first book of his Chroniques de France, d'Angleterre, d'Ecosse, de Bretagne, de Gascogne, de Flandre et lieux circonvoisins . Robert himself was in 1369 in the Order of the Garter was added, where it meets the recently deceased Robert de Uffort, 1st Earl of Suffolk replaced. Robert fought for Duke Wenzel von Brabant on August 20, 1371 in the Battle of Baesweiler , in which he was captured from which he had to be ransomed. In 1373 Froissart finished his work on the first book of his chronicle and dedicated it to Robert. During the funeral of the French-minded Count Ludwig II of Flanders in 1384 in the Loos monastery near Lille , Robert was fully armed and ready to fight.

Robert died in April 1391. His first marriage was from 1350 to Isabella de Hainault († 1361), a daughter of Count Wilhelm III. from Holland-Hainaut . His second wife was Isabella de Melun († 1409) since 1380, who was a daughter of Hugues de Melun, Seigneur d'Antoing et Épinoy, from the Melun family . He had no legitimate offspring from either marriage, although he had several illegitimate children.

Web link

• The Medieval Combat Society: Robert de Namur, Lord of Beaufort, Renaix, Ballâtre and Chièvre 1323-1391