Robert of Gloucester's Mother and Sexual Politics in Norman Oxfordshire

Abstract

Abstract The discovery that the mother of Earl Robert of Gloucester (d. 1147), the illegitimate son of King Henry I, was a daughter of the Gay or Gayt family of north Oxfordshire allows us a new insight into the character of that complex king. We can now see how King Henry used Oxfordshire as his surrogate home in England from the ten‐eighties onwards: three of the Englishwomen who bore him children dwelt in the vicinity of Oxford. We can also now see why it was that he made Woodstock the third most important royal centre in England during his reign. The way that his chosen mistresses used their royal connection to their families' advantage is also more clear following this discovery.

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