Robert Welles, 8th Baron Willoughby de Eresby

Robert Welles, 8th Baron Willoughby de Eresby
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Bourchier
Father	Richard Welles, 7th Baron Welles
Mother	Joan Willoughby, 7th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby
Died	19 March 1470 Doncaster

Robert Welles, 8th Baron Willoughby de Eresby and Baron Welles (died 19 March 1470), was the son of Richard Welles, 7th Baron Welles, and Joan Willoughby, 7th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby. He was the prime mover in an uprising against Edward IV in 1470, although his actions were possibly orchestrated by Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick.

Robert Welles was the only son of Richard Welles, 7th Baron Welles, and Joan Willoughby, in her own right Lady Willoughby, the only daughter and heiress of Robert Willoughby, 6th Baron Willoughby de Eresby, by his first wife, Elizabeth Montagu, daughter of John Montagu, 3rd Earl of Salisbury. He had an only sister, Joan Welles, 9th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, who married Sir Richard Hastings.

Welles was ordered to be arrested with his mother on 11 May 1461. He was a Justice of the Peace for Lincolnshire from 4 February 1467.

By 1470 discontent with Edward IV's rule had already led to open rebellion under Robin of Redesdale, resulting in the deaths of several senior Yorkists. The King pardoned the rebels, but there was continuing unrest in Lincolnshire. Historian Richard W. Kaeuper argues that the promotion of "parvenu Yorkist loyalists" in the area, and the King's toleration of their violent behaviour and defiance of the law provoked Sir Robert Welles and his father, Richard Welles, 7th Baron Welles, into resistance to the regime. Sir Robert Welles issued a series of proclamations throughout Lincolnshire, calling on men to resist the King who, he claimed, was coming to punish local people for supporting the earlier rebellion of Robin of Redesdale, in breach of the pardon he had given.

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