Robert de Chesney
Robert de Chesney was a medieval English Bishop of Lincoln. He was the brother of an important royal official and the uncle of Gilbert Foliot. He served as a royal justice in Lincolnshire during his bishopric. He became embroiled in a dispute with St Albans Abbey in the diocese of Lincoln, over his right as bishop to supervise the abbey.
About Robert de Chesney in brief
Robert de Chesney was a medieval English Bishop of Lincoln. He was the brother of an important royal official and the uncle of Gilbert Foliot. Chesney’s family originated from Quesnay-Guesnon in the Calvados region of Normandy near Bayeux in France. He served as a royal justice in Lincolnshire during his bishopric. He became embroiled in a dispute with St Albans Abbey in the diocese of Lincoln, over his right as bishop to supervise the abbey. More than 240 documents relating to his episcopal career survive. He died in December 1166, probably on the 27th, and was buried in Lincoln Cathedral. His brother William remained a layman, and became Oxfordshire’s leading landowners. Another brother, Reginald, was abbot of Evesham Abbey. His sister Agnes was sister to Robert Foliot, steward to the parents of Gilbert, later Bishop of London and Bishop of Hereford. He also held the prebend of Stendow and was also a canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. He probably attended schools in Oxford or Paris, as later in life he was referred to with the title of magister, signifying that he was a magister of the magisterium. He married the Evesman, one of one of his nephews, and had a son, Robert, who was later Earl of Gloucester. He had a daughter, Agnes, who married the Steward of Huntingdon, and later became a steward of the Abbey of St Edmundsbury.
He is buried in the church of St Peter and St Paul’s in Leicester. His son Robert was Bishop of Leicester from 1148 until his death in 1166. His daughter Agnes married the steward of St Edmund’s Abbey, and they had two sons, Robert and William, who became Bishop of Oxford and Hereford, and a daughter-in-law, Mary, who died in 1170. He was also an early patron of Thomas Becket, and gave the young cleric an office in his diocese early in Becket’s career. He went on to serve King Henry II in 1154 and was present at the coronation of the king’s son, William, in 1120. He later served King Stephen in the reign of Henry II and was shown favour by King Stephen, including the right to a mint. He then served King Henry III in the early years of his reign as a royal justice. In 1140s, Matilda landed in England to contest the throne, supported by her half-brother Robert. Stephen was initially secure on his throne but, by 1139, stresses had appeared. David I invaded England in 1138, and some of the English nobles rebelled, but Stephen had dealt with both threats by April 1139. Later that year, he arrested Roger, the Bishop of Salisbury, and his nephew, Nigel, theishop of Ely and Alexander, the bishop of Lincoln,.
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