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People: Robert of Bellême
Topic: Henry of Bolingbroke's Revolt

Robert of Bellême

3rd Earl of Shrewsbury
Years: 1056 - 1130

Robert de Bellême (c. 1056– after 1130), seigneur de Bellême (or Belèsme), seigneur de Montgomery, viscount of the Hiémois, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury and Count of Ponthieu, is an Anglo-Norman nobleman, and one of the most prominent figures in the competition for the succession to England and Normandy between the sons of William the Conqueror.

He is a member of the powerful House of Bellême.

Robert becomes notorious for his alleged cruelty.

The chronicler Orderic Vitalis calls him "Grasping and cruel, an implacable persecutor of the Church of God and the poor... unequaled for his iniquity in the whole Christian era."

The stories of his brutality may have inspired the legend of Robert the Devil.