Robert Mowbray

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Robert Mowbray (d. 1125), a Norman who was appointed earl of Northumberland between 1080 and 1082.

In 1088 he and his uncle Geoffrey, bishop of Coutances, sided with Robert, duke of Normandy, against William Rufus, but they were pardoned at the close of the rebellion. In 1091 Mowbray defeated Malcolm III of Scotland of Scotland, who had invaded England, and in 1093 surprised and slew this king near Alnwick; soon after this event he succeeded to his uncles vast estates.

In 1095 he led a rebellion which had for its object the transference of the crown from the sons of the Conqueror to Stephen of Aumale. Rufus marched against the earl in person, and Mowbray shut himself up in Bamborough Castle, but he was captured by treachery, escaped, and was captured again.

He was then deprived of his possessions and kept a prisoner for the rest of his life, nearly thirty years.Fellow conspirators, William of Eu and William of Aldrie, received harsher punishment.

See EA Freeman, William Rufus, especially Appendices C. C. F. F. (Oxford, 1882).


This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.