Robert de Romille

Robert de Romille (also de Rumilly) was an adventurer from Brittany who joined the Normans in their Conquest of Britain. After 1086 King William I made him lord of the estates of Bolton Abbey. Romille built the first Skipton Castle in 1090 to repel the expansions of Malcolm III of Scotland. In 1102 Romille's lands were greatly increased by Henry I of England to include all of upper Wharfedale and upper Airedale. His male line died out before 1310; but by his daughters he has many descendants today.

Little is known of Robert de Romille's previous life except this paragraph in a 17th-century History of Normandy

“Romille, Romilli, Romilley, famille anciaenne et considerable en Bretagne et en Normandie. Le premier dont en a connaiscence par les histories en Robert de Romilles qui se trouve compris dans le catalogue des seigneures renommes Normadie qui accompanagnerent leur duc Guilliame le Batard dans sa conquete d'Angleterr en 1066."

"Romille, Romilli, Romilley, an old and respected family in Brittany and Normandy. The first mention of whom is in the stories of Robert de Romille, in a list of renowned Norman lords who joined their Duke, William the Bastard in his conquest of England in 1066".

The heraldic coat of arms of the town of Skipton is surmounted by a griffin holding a banner behind the image of a castle. The banner is horizontal bars of red on yellow and local tradition is that it is the arms of Robert Romille. Some describe the red bars as being on Or however they are often depicted on Argent.

It is uncertain where Robert de Romille came from. The oldest references state that the family was located in both Brittany and Normandy. Although there is a town in eastern Brittany named Romillé the heraldic arms of the Romillé family there are different: two golden leopards on blue. Robert may have been a younger son of Rainfred Rumille from Remilly-sur-Lozon (simply named Rumilleio at the end of the 11th century), 14 km from Saint-Lô in the County of Mortain () -- then third largest city in the Duchy of Normandy. The municipal canting heraldic arms display "Rumillé on Lozenges". When the commune was simply named Rumille when Robert was flourishing, it is likely there were no lozenges on the town shield of arms. Traditionally if the blazon of "barry" does not describe the number of bars, the heraldic artist decides quantity (yet always an even number).

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