Welcome New Member Andrew Lancaster, who joined the project on 3 March.
Project Profile of the Month: Robert Roppesley
The Illustrious Men - this description is from the preamble to the Magna Carta - were advisers to King John in 1215. They were a varied group, ranging from a semi-independent ruler of a large part of Scotland who had lands in England to Barons to royal officials. Robert de Roppesley was one of the officials. It might be tempting to think that, as listed royal advisers, their loyalties were firmly to the king. Subsequent events showed that, for some of them, this was not so: this was a time when allegiances could rapidly change, as they did with Robert.
He came from Lincolnshire. He was in royal service by 1201, and was probably then already a household knight of King John. He was clearly greatly trusted: the important castles of Bristol and Kenilworth were given into his care for several years, and in 1207 he received the income of the Earldom of Leicester on King John‘s behalf as settlement of a debt to the Crown, and sold off a large amount of timber from the estates of the Earl, Simon de Montfort (father of the Simon de Montfort who led opposition to Henry III). The Patent Rolls show him collecting other monies for the king. Some senior royal officials served as county sheriffs - Robert was Sheriff of Leicestershire and Warwickshire from 1207 to 1209. His rewards for his service were not just the official perquisites of office but also the grant of lands, and he acquired estates scattered across several counties.
Soon after being recorded as an adviser of King John at the time of the Magna Carta, Robert switched sides and joined in baronial rebellion. Like other leading rebels, he was excommunicated. He co-led the baronial forces which captured the city of Lincoln, but failed to gain control of the castle.
In 1217 Robert was captured in the rebel defeat at the second battle of Lincoln. The royal commander was William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, then aged about 70. According to a poetic account of the battle, Robert was struck hard by William Marshal, and
slid to the ground
and, out of fear, went to hide
as quickly as he could in an upper room.
The poem was written to glorify William Marshal, and we should allow for a bit of biased distortion of events.
We know nothing about Robert's life after this, except that he was dead by 1226.
Team News
The Magna Carta Project has established a new Resource Team to encourage people to help respond to queries about profiles, identify sources, firm up dates and relationships, etc without having to do a full overhaul of a profile to bring it up to Project standards. More details are on the Resource Team page.
New Project members will be able to join this new Team once they have fulfilled the obligation to bring a certain number of profiles up to Project standards. More established Project members who wish to join it should contact Michael Cayley or Jen Hutton.
The trail development team badged the following trail in March 2023:
