Robert, Count of Clermont

Robert of Clermont (1256 – 7 February 1317) was created Count of Clermont in 1268. He was the son of King Louis IX of France and Margaret of Provence. In 1272, Robert married Beatrice of Burgundy, heiress of Bourbon and had the following issue:

• Louis I, le Boiteux (1279–1342), first Duke of Bourbon.
• Blanche of Clermont (1281–1304); married in 1303 in Paris Robert VII, Count of Auvergne and Boulogne, grandmother of Joan I, Countess of Auvergne.
• John of Clermont (1283–1316), Baron of Charolais; married c. 1309 Jeanne d'Argues, widow of Hugh, Count of Soissons, and had issue.
• Mary of Clermont (1285–1372, Paris), Prioress of Poissy
• Peter of Clermont (1287 – aft. 1330), Archdeacon of Paris
• Margaret of Clermont (1289–1309, Paris); married firstly, in 1305, Raymond Berengar of Andria, and secondly, in 1308, John I, Marquis of Namur.

During his first joust, in 1279, Robert suffered head injuries which rendered him an invalid for the remainder of his life.

Robert is considered the founder of the House of Bourbon, a family which, with the passing of centuries came to govern as Kings of Navarre (1572-1830), Kings of France (1589–1848), Kings of the Two Sicilies (1735–1860), Dukes of Parma (1748–1796 and 1847–1859), grand dukes of Luxembourg (1964–present) and Kings of Spain (1700–present).

Robert is mentioned in the prologue of the Coutumes de Beauvaisis by Philippe de Beaumanoir.

He was buried in the now-demolished church of the Couvent des Jacobins in Paris.

Robert is a supporting character in Les Rois maudits (The Accursed Kings), a series of French historical novels by Maurice Druon. He was portrayed by Alexandre Rignault in the 1972 French miniseries adaptation of the series, and by Ioan Siminie in the 2005 adaptation.