Robert de Say

Robert de Say, also called Robert Fitz-Picot, was a Norman knight who arrived in Shropshire after the Norman invasion.^[1]

Robert is most noted for the initial construction of Clun Castle, building it overlooking the lands he had seized from Edric the Wild after the invasion.^[2] The family name de Say comes from the Norman village of Sai, in Orne. Robert was an important vassal of Roger of Montgomery, the 1st Earl of Shrewsbury and a major early Norman magnate.^[3] Robert died in 1098.^[4]

Robert's son Henry de Say continued possession of Clun Castle. Robert's daughter married the Welsh lord Cadwgan ap Bleddyn, who acquired permission to move to England, probably Clun, in 1109.^[5]

Bibliography

• Brown, Reginald Allen. (1989) Castles From The Air. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-32932-3.
• Eyton, William. (1862) "The Castles of Shropshire and its Border." in Collectanea Archæologica: communications made to the British Archaeological Association Vol. 1. London: Longman.
• Liddiard, Robert. (ed) (2003) Anglo Norman Castles. Woodbridge: Boydell Press.
• Lieberman, Max. (2010) The Medieval March of Wales: The Creation and Perception of a Frontier, 1066-1283. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-76978-5.
• Pettifer, Adrian. (1995) English Castles: A Guide by Counties. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-0-85115-782-5.
• Suppe, Frederick C. "Castle guard and the castlery of Clun," in Liddiard (ed) 2003.

References

1. Eyton 1862, p.45.
2. Pettifer, p.211; Brown, p.92.
3. Brown, p.92.
4. Suppe, p.218.
5. Lieberman, p.44.