Robert de Ros, Lord of Wark

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The remains of Wark Castle, the castle of Robert de Ros

Robert de Ros , Lord of Wark († around 1270) was an English nobleman.

Origin and heritage

Robert was a younger son of his father of the same name, Robert de Ros of Helmsley Castle in Yorkshire and of his wife Isabella, an illegitimate daughter of King William I of Scotland. The Anglo-Norman family Ros, named after Roos in Yorkshire, had acquired the barony of Helmsley in 1158, and towards the end of Henry II's reign they had received the barony of Wark in Northumberland from the king . After the death of Robert de Ros the Elder, who may also have retired to a convent, his eldest son William de Ros inherited Helmsley, while the younger Robert inherited Wark as a vassal of his older brother. Robert owed the Crown 2.5 Knight's Fees for his possessions . In addition, as a vassal of the Scottish King, Robert inherited holdings at Haltwhistle and estates in Cumberland that King John had given his father to replace goods in Normandy lost in the war with France and from which Robert received an annual income of £ 30.

Rise as a baron

Robert is first mentioned in 1206 when his father had to hold him hostage to King John and the king placed him in the care of Aubrey de Vere, 2nd Earl of Oxford . From 1227 at the latest he received from King Heinrich III. an annual pension of £ 20. In 1230 he took part in Henry III's campaign. to France . Afterwards he attested several times to documents of the king, among them 1237 an agreement between Henry III. and the Scottish King Alexander II. From 1234 to 1235 he served as a royal judge in northern England. From November 1236 to May 1249 he held the lucrative office of judge of the royal forests north of the Trent . In this capacity he was accused of abuse of office in 1241, but acquitted.

Served as a council in Scotland

In 1244 Ros belonged to the English army, which was called up for a campaign against Scotland, which ended without blood. After the marriage of Margarete , a daughter of Henry III., With the Scottish King Alexander III. In 1251 he was accepted into the Scottish Regency Council with John de Balliol to advise the young king. However, their roles and powers were not clearly defined. Ros came increasingly into conflict with the young Queen Margaret, who in 1255 entrusted her complaints to the English doctor Master Reginald of Bath . He fell seriously ill shortly afterwards and died, reported King Heinrich III. but previously in a letter from Margarete's allegations against Ros. Thereupon the king sent Richard de Clare, 5th Earl of Gloucester and John Mansel to Scotland, who gained access to Edinburgh Castle and Queen Margaret by a trick . Margarete told them that Ros would treat her like a prisoner and even refuse to share a bedchamber with her husband. As early as the beginning of August 1254, King Henry, who was staying in Gascony at the time , asked Ros and Balliol to end their service at the Scottish royal court, but the two obviously did not follow this order. In September 1255 there was a coup when Alan Durward, with the support of the English king, forced the members of the Regency Council to resign. Then Ros and Balliol had to leave Scotland. The English king now made serious, surely exaggerated accusations against them. Ros had the support of Scottish barons, and in England Roger Bigod, 4th Earl of Norfolk openly defended him against the king. Back in England, Ros defended Queen Margaret's allegations that he found the 15-year-old and her 14-year-old husband to be too young to consummate the marriage. Henry III. however, refused to hear Ros' defense and had his properties confiscated. He even wanted to permanently deprive him of Wark, since he considered it a fiefdom of the crown, while Ros claimed to keep it as his brother's fiefdom. In addition, Ros was supposed to pay the king the extraordinary sum of 100,000 marks , which by far exceeded his possibilities. Although he received Wark Castle back in May 1256, in March 1258 the king ordered him, on the pretext of defending the border against Scotland, to hand over the outer bailey to a royal administrator.

Role in the war of the barons

When in the summer of 1258 large parts of the nobility rebelled against Heinrich III. came, it is not surprising that Ros joined the rebels. In November 1259, the Council of State, dominated by opposition barons, declared the accusations raised by the king against Ros in 1255 to be completely unfounded. Thereupon the king had to withdraw the fine of 100,000 Marks, in addition he waived all claims against Wark. Nevertheless, in December 1263, Ros was still one of the supporters of Simon de Montfort , the leader of the aristocratic opposition, shortly before the open war of the barons . In June 1265 he was one of the barons who had to surrender to the siege of Lord Edward , the heir to the throne, at Gloucester Castle . He was pardoned and finally got his possessions back after the king's victory over the barons.

Perhaps he died before October 1268, at the latest before November 1270.

Family and offspring

Ros had married Christina, a sister of Roger Bertram from Northumberland. After the death of her brother, his wife inherited part of his property. With her, Ros had at least two sons:

  • William († before 1270)
  • Robert de Ros of Wark († around 1274)

His heir became his son Robert, after his death his son of the same name inherited Robert Wark.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ DER Watt: The minority of Alexander III of Scotland . In: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Vol. 21 (1971), p. 12.
  2. ↑ DER Watt: The minority of Alexander III of Scotland . In: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Vol. 21 (1971), p. 11.
personal data
SURNAME Robert de Ros
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English nobleman
DATE OF BIRTH before 1206
DATE OF DEATH before 1270