[1] Although he played a minor role in his lifetime due to a head injury which left him handicapped at a young age, he had an important dynastic position as the founder of the House of Bourbon, to which he passed the rights to the throne of France from his father when all male-line branches descended from his elder brothers died out in 1589, nine generations after him.

Robert was born in 1256 as the sixth and youngest son of King Louis IX of France (Saint Louis) and Margaret of Provence.

[2] In 1272, Robert married Beatrice of Burgundy, heiress of Bourbon[1] and had the following issue: During his first joust, in 1279, Robert suffered head injuries which rendered him an invalid for the remainder of his life.

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

[5] Robert is a supporting character in Les Rois maudits (The Accursed Kings), a series of French historical novels by Maurice Druon.