Robert de Chesney (died December 1166) was a medieval English Bishop of Lincoln. He was the brother of an important royal official, William de Chesney, and the uncle of Gilbert Foliot, successively Bishop of Hereford and Bishop of London. Educated at Oxford or Paris, Chesney was Archdeacon of Leicester before he was elected bishop in December 1148.
Chesney served as a royal justice in Lincolnshire during his bishopric and maintained a close relationship with his nephew, Foliot. He was also an early patron of Thomas Becket, and gave the young cleric an office in his diocese early in Becket's career. Although shown favour by King Stephen, including the right to a mint, Chesney was present at the coronation of King Henry II in 1154 and went on to serve Henry as a royal justice. Around 1160, Chesney became embroiled in a dispute with St Albans Abbey in the diocese of Lincoln, over his right as bishop to supervise the abbey. The dispute was eventually settled when the abbey granted Chesney land in return for his relinquishing any right to oversee St Albans.
Chesney was active in his diocese; more than 240 documents relating to his episcopal career survive. They show him mediating disputes between religious houses and granting exemptions and rights in his diocese. Chesney bought a house in London to serve as an episcopal residence, constructed an episcopal palace in Lincoln, and founded a religious house outside the city. He died in December 1166, probably on the 27th, and was buried in Lincoln Cathedral.
Historical background
After King Henry I's death in 1135, the succession was disputed as the king's only legitimate son, William, had died in 1120. The main contenders were the king's daughter Matilda, dowager empress of the Holy Roman Empire, and his nephews Stephen, Count of Boulogne, and Theobald II, Count of Champagne. After Matilda was widowed in 1125, she returned to her father in England, who then secured her marriage to Geoffrey, Count of Anjou. All the magnates of England and Normandy were required to declare fealty to Matilda as Henry's heir, but after Henry I's death in 1135, Stephen rushed to England and had himself crowned, before Theobald or Matilda could react. The Norman barons accepted Stephen as Duke of Normandy, and Theobald contented himself with his possessions in France. But Matilda was less patient: she secured the support of the king of Scotland, David I, her maternal uncle, and the support of her half-brother Robert, Earl of Gloucester, an illegitimate son of Henry I, in 1138.Huscroft Ruling England pp. 71–73
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 nephews Nigel, the Bishop of Ely and Alexander, the Bishop of Lincoln, who were not only powerful ecclesiastics but important royal administrators. In September 1139, Matilda landed in England to contest the throne, supported by her half-brother Robert. Stephen himself was captured in February 1141 by Matilda's forces, but Robert's subsequent capture by forces loyal to Stephen later that year allowed his exchange for Stephen in November 1141. The result was an effective stalemate, with Stephen controlling parts of the country and others under the control of Matilda's supporters. During the 1140s, Matilda's husband, Geoffrey of Anjou, wrested Normandy from Stephen.Huscroft Ruling England pp. 73–75
Early life
Chesney's family originated from Quesnay-Guesnon in the Calvados region of Normandy near Bayeux in France,Greenway "Bishops of Lincoln" Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 3: Lincoln but they had settled in the Midlands of England and held lands there, particularly in Oxfordshire. His parents were Roger de Chesney and Alice de Langetot. His brother William de Chesney remained a layman and became one of Oxfordshire's leading landowners.Crouch Reign of King Stephen p. 239 footnote 19 Another brother, Reginald, was the abbot of Evesham Abbey.Crouch Reign of King Stephen p. 327 Chesney's sister Agnes was married to Robert Foliot, steward to the Earl of Huntingdon. Agnes and Robert were probably the parents of Gilbert Foliot, later Bishop of Hereford and Bishop of London. Although it is a surmise that Foliot's mother was a sibling of Chesney, it is certain that Chesney was Gilbert's uncle.Barrow "Bishops of Hereford" Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 8: Hereford
Chesney probably attended schools in either Oxford or Paris, as later in life he was referred to with the title of magister, signifying that he was educated.Owen "Chesney, Robert de (d. 1166)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography He was Archdeacon of Leicester by about 1146,Greenway "Archdeacons of Leicester" Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 3: Lincoln and held the prebend of Stow. He was also a canon of the chapel of St. George at Oxford Castle.Barlow English Church pp. 100–101
Election
Chesney was elected to the See of Lincoln on 13 December 1148,Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 255 by his cathedral chapter, apparently without outside interference. He was consecrated by Theobald of Bec at Canterbury Cathedral on 19 December, the day after his ordination as a priest.
Gilbert Foliot's letters provide some background to Chesney's election, showing that King Stephen of England and Stephen's brother Henry of Blois, the Bishop of Winchester, attempted to secure Lincoln for one of their relatives: the royal candidates were the abbots of Fécamp, Westminster, and St Benet's of Hulme. They were rejected by Pope Eugene III, paving the way for the chapter to elect Chesney. Foliot relates that the electors from the chapter travelled to London, where they proceeded to elect Chesney in front of Foliot, Theobald, and some other bishops. That account is contradicted by Chesney's profession of obedience to Theobald, which claims that the election took place on 13 December 1148 at Westminster. Henry of Huntingdon and Ralph de Diceto, both medieval chroniclers, approved of the election and mentioned the unanimous nature of Chesney's selection.Saltman Theobald pp. 106–107 That Chesney's brother William was a firm supporter of Stephen's probably helped reconcile Stephen and his brother to Chesney's election.
Chesney returned to Lincoln on 6 January 1149, where he received a letter from Arnulf, the Bishop of Lisieux in Normandy, congratulating him on his appointment. Arnulf also asked Chesney to help the cause of Henry fitzEmpress, Empress Matilda's eldest son and a contender for the English throne.Chibnall Empress Matilda p. 148
Bishop under Stephen
Correspondence between Chesney and his nephew Gilbert Foliot suggests their relationship was quite close. Foliot strongly supported his uncle's candidacy for Lincoln, writing to Pope Eugene III to encourage papal approval of the election.Knowles Episcopal Colleagues p. 16 Foliot later ordered a copy of the Digest for his uncle, which demonstrates Chesney's interest in Roman law.Saltman Theobald p. 175 and footnote 6 Some of Archbishop Theobald's letters, written to Chesney and recorded in John of Salisbury's collection of letters, contain the earliest recorded quotations from Gratian's Decretum in an English source. They were part of a letter sent by Theobald to Chesney discussing difficult legal cases, and giving advice on how to resolve them.Saltman Theobald p. 177
Shortly after his consecration, Chesney was presented with a copy of the newly updated version of Henry of Huntingdon's Historia Anglorum; Huntingdon had been a fellow archdeacon.Matthew King Stephen pp. 128–129 Chesney was present at several of King Stephen's courts, and the king named the bishop as the local justice for Lincolnshire.
At the height of the civil war during Stephen's reign, and shortly after Chesney's consecration, the bishop acted as a guarantor for the treaty between Ranulf de Gernon, the Earl of Chester, and Robert de Beaumont, the Earl of Leicester, drawn up to limit the fighting between the two earls during the civil war.Crouch Reign of King Stephen p. 238 Chesney was present at the legatine council held by Theobald in March 1151, and was one of the judges, along with Theobald and Hilary of Chichester, the Bishop of Chichester, in a dispute between the monks of Belvoir Priory and a secular clerk over the right of the clerk to a church.Saltman Theobald p. 36 Chesney appointed the future Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, to a prebend in his cathedral chapter during the latter part of Stephen's reign.Barlow Thomas Becket p. 36
The civil war ended with the Treaty of Winchester, late in 1153, which provided that Matilda's son Henry would succeed Stephen after his death. When Stephen died the next year, this became a lasting peace. In the last year of Stephen's reign, in mid-1154, Chesney acquired the right to operate a mint in the town of Newark, granted in perpetuity. But as there are no surviving coins, it seems that the mint was not in operation for long. Chesney also acquired the right of justice in the city of Lincoln,King King Stephen p. 297 and was involved in the commercial life of his diocese, establishing a fair in the town of Banbury in 1154.Amt Accession of Henry II p. 55
Bishop under Henry II
Chesney witnessed a charter of Henry fitzEmpress' before Henry's succession to the throne as Henry II, and was present at the consecration of Roger de Pont L'Évêque as Archbishop of York on 10 October 1154.Saltman Theobald p. 123 The bishop then was present at Henry II's coronation on 19 December 1154, and appears to have continued to act as a royal justice in Lincolnshire during the early part of King Henry II's reign; the 1156 Pipe Roll has the sheriff of the county accounting for 10 marks arising from the pleas of the bishop in the county.Stenton English Justice p. 68 Chesney was often with the royal court, as he attested a number of Henry II's charters during the early part of the king's reign, and accompanied him to northern England in 1158 and to Normandy in 1160.
The bishop served as the judge in a dispute in 1158 between a dean from the diocese of York and a citizen of Scarborough, in which the layman alleged that the dean had extorted large sums of money from him by repeatedly charging his wife with adultery and fining her. The dean's actions were contrary to a royal decree, but although he appeared before a royal court, he escaped secular penalties because he was a clerk. The result of the case, a precursor to the later Becket dispute, aroused King Henry's anger, but the death of the king's brother, Geoffrey, and the king's subsequent travel to the Continent to deal with that issue meant that the matter was eventually dropped.Saltman Theobald pp. 160–161