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This is one of our members currently at the rank of Knight within the
L'Estrange retinue.
He has researched and taken on the persona of an actual character from the 13 century.
Sir Robert in Full Armour
Some shots of Sir Robert in Action
Sic Vos Non Vobis
(Thus not for ourselves)
Born the son of William Walerand and Isabella, eldest daughter and coheiress of Hugh of Kilpeck, the family claimed descent from Walerand the Huntsman of Domesday Book. Robert’s brother John, rector of Clent in Worcestershire, was in 1265 made seneschal and given joint custody of the Tower of London. His sister Alicia was the mother of Alan Plugenet while a second sister, also named Alice, was the abbess of Romsey in Wiltshire.
Walerand was one of King Henry III’s ‘familiares’ throughout his reign and as one of the knights of the royal household he was a friend of John Mansel (d.1265), keeper of the seal and counsellor to the king. In 1246 Robert received the custody of the Marshall estates and in the following year he received those of John de Munchanes. During Easter 1246 he was appointed as the sheriff of Gloucestershire and then in 1250 he was granted the castles of Carmarthen and Cardigan as well as the lands of Meilgwn ap Meilgwn and the governorship of Lundy.Then from June 1251 till August 1258 he was a regular justiciar and as early as 1252 he was described as seneschal of Gascony. In 1253 the accompanied King Henry III, sailing from Portsmouth on the 5th August and reaching Bordeaux on the 15th. He was later present during the siege of Benauges and was especially concerned with the affairs of Bergerac; he was noted as being one of the deputation sent by the king to the men of Gensac on the death of Lord Elie Rudel of Bergerac and Gensac. Throughout the Gascony campaign Robert Walerand steadily rose in the king’s favour and became one of the most important members of the king’s council in Gascony.
When the king accepted for his second son, Edmund, the crown of Sicily from Pope Innocent IV (1243-54) and Pope Alexander IV (1254-61) in 1255, when Robert was associated with Peter of Aigueblanche, bishop of Hereford (1240-68), as king’s envoy to conduct negotiations with the pope. He was an accomplice of Peter’s trick of persuading the prelates to entrust them with blank charters, which they filled up at Rome and so compelled the English church to pay 9,000 marks to Sienese and Florentine bankers who had advanced money to Alexander on the king’s account. During the parliament of Westminster on the 13th October Earl Richard of Cornwall, the Holy Roman Emperor (1257-72), bitterly rebuked the pair because they had ‘so wickedly urged the king to subvert the kingdom’.
In 1256 Robert resumed his career as a judge and was installed as the chief of the justices itinerant at Winchester. He was one of the commission of three appointed to investigate the crimes of William de l’Isle, sheriff of Northampton, in the famous case of 1256. On the 12th June Robert was associated with Earl Richard of Gloucester in an embassy to the princes of Germany. At this time he was entrusted with custody of St. Briavel’s castle and manor and a little later he was made steward of all the forests south of the Trent and governor of Rockingham castle. Then on the 20th February 1257 Earl Simon de Montfort of Leicester (1240-71) and Robert Walerand were empowered to negotiate peace between England and France.
At the beginning of the troubles between the king and the barons in 1258 Robert, though supporting the king took up a moderate attitude. On the 2nd May he witnessed the king’s consent to reform and he was so trusted by the barons that he was appointed as warden of Salisbury castle under the provisions of Oxford. Other preferments followed, some of which at least must have been given with consent of the fifteen. In 1259 he became warden of Bristol castle, while a little later he was again created warden of St. Briavel’s castle, and on the 9th July 1261 he became the sheriff of Kent, an office which he held until the 23rd September 1262. During this time he gained the governorship of the castles of both Rochester and Canterbury and then on the 10th March he was made a member of the embassy sent to negotiate peace with France. Both he and his associates made a report before the magnates in London with peace being finally made with king Louis.
Robert was rewards for his efforts and in 1261 he was installed as warden of the Forest of Dean and in the following year he was entrusted with the castles of Dover, Marlborough and Ludgershall as well as being made warden of the Cinque Ports. And in 1262 the great seal removed from the chancellor, Walter de Merton, later bishop of Rochester (1274-7) and placed into his hands. Then in the following year he assisted Prince Edward committed when he stole the money and jewellery upon the New Temple.
With discord having been rekindled between the king and the barons being in 1261 Robert, along with John Mansel and Count Peter of Savoy (d.1268), earl of Richmond and Marquis in Italy, acted as the chief advisers to the king. In 1263 the barons seized Robert’s lands, all but the castle of Kilpeck were later restored to him by the king, while Robert made himself indispensable during February 1263 as thus he was excused from duty as envoys to France. In 1264 the barons again attacked the king with Robert once again siding with the king and after the battle of Lewes both he and Warren of Bassingbourne still held Bristol castle in the king’s name. They marched on Wallingford and vigorously attacked the castle, but failed to gain the release of Richard of Cornwall and Prince Edward. After the battle of Evesham he was rewarded with large grants, which included most of the lands of Hugh de Neville and he pronounced the sentence of disinheritance against all those that took arms against the king at Evesham. During this time both he and Roger Leybourne (d.1271), who had on the 3rd December 1263 been made warden of the Cinque Ports having been steward of the king’s household, induced Londoners to pay a fine of 20,000 marks to the king for their transgressions. In 1266 Robert was one of the original six who by the dictum of Kenilworth were elected to settle the government. He now devoted himself to affairs in Wales, owning much land around the Welsh marches, he had necessarily been frequently employed in the Welsh wars and constantly consulted as to the treatment of the Welsh. On the 21st February a commission was issued that empowered him to make a three-year truce with King Llywelyn ap Gruffydd of Wales (1246-82), with Prince Edmund to make peace.
He now resumed his work as judge and from April 1268 till August 1271 he is noted in many records of assizes to be held before him. Yet when Prince Edward went to the Holy Land he placed on the 2nd August 1270 the guardianship of his lands in the hands of four people, which induced Robert. He died in 1273 before the king’s return. He was described by a chronicler as ‘virstrenuus’. During his career he had been hated as a royal favourite even though he was respected for his ability and strength. A curious political poem from the Cottonian manuscript refers to him:
Exhaeredati proceres sunt rege jubente
Et male tractati Waleran R. dicta ferente.
Robert had married in 1257 Matilda (d.1306-7), the eldest daughter and heiress of Ralph Russell; there was no issue. His nephew and heir was another Robert, who was described as an idiot, and as such never received livery of his lands, some of which passed to his sister’s son, Alan Plugenet (d.1299), the governor of Dunster castle, who had received estates from Robert since 1267. Robert de Walerand should not be confused with Walerand Teutonicus, custodian of Berkhamstead in 1241, who also gained the custody of several Welsh castles.
Arg, a bend engr, gu.
Shield: ar and az, an eagle displ. gu.
Motto: Fortis et Velox (Strong and Swift).
Shield: Arg, a bend, egr, gu, a crescent sa.