Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/364

 while to the character of his rule in the west of England during the civil war we have the testimony of a member of the opposite party that he ‘restored peace and tranquillity throughout his dominions, and greatly improved their condition, save only that he burdened all his people with taxes for the building of his castles, and required all to assist him either with men or with money whenever he marched against the foe’ (Gesta Steph. p. 97). The most important of these castles was that of Bristol, which he so greatly enlarged and strengthened that he is usually said to have been its founder, though it is plain that a fortress existed there before his day. His priory of St. James at Bristol was a cell to the abbey of Tewkesbury, which looked upon his father-in-law as its second founder, and to which he was himself a distinguished benefactor. The Cistercian abbey of Neath was founded in 1130 by Richard de Granville, chief baron of the honour of Glamorgan, under the special patronage and protection of Earl Robert, Countess Mabel, and their eldest son. Another Cistercian house, Margam, was founded by Robert only a few months before his death, in 1147. His widow survived him ten years; she was the mother of six children. The eldest son, William, second earl of Gloucester, died in 1183, leaving only three daughters, and by the marriage of one of these, Amicia, to Richard, sixth earl of Clare, the earldom of Gloucester ultimately passed to the family of Clare [see ].



ROBERT (fl. 1051), archbishop of Canterbury, called ‘Champart’ (Gallia Christiana, xi. 958), a Norman by birth, was prior of St. Ouen at Rouen, and in 1037 was chosen abbot of Jumièges, having been designated for that office by his predecessor and kinsman, Abbot William. He began to build the abbey church of St. Mary in 1040 (ib.;, Norman Conquest, iv. 93, v. 621). While Edward, son of Ethelred the Unready [see ], was an exile in Normandy, Robert did him some service; they became intimate friends, and when Edward returned to England in 1043 to ascend the throne, Robert accompanied him (Vita Ædwardi, p. 399; Gesta Pontificum, p. 35). The see of London having fallen vacant by the death of Bishop Ælfweard [q. v.], Edward bestowed it on Robert in August 1044. He became the head of the foreigners at the court and in the kingdom, opposed Earl Godwine [q. v.] and his party, keeping alive the king's belief that the earl was guilty of the death of Edward's brother (d. 1036) [q. v.], and acquired such an extraordinary degree of influence over him that it is said that, if he asserted that a black crow was white, the king would sooner believe his words than his own eyes (Annales Wintonienses, ii. 21). When the see of Canterbury became vacant by the death of [q. v.] on 29 Oct. 1050, Edward set aside the canonical election of (fl. 1050) [q. v.], and in the witenagemot held in the spring of 1051 appointed Robert. Robert went to Rome for his pall, returned with it on 27 July, and was enthroned at Canterbury (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ann. 1048, Peterborough). His promotion caused deep indignation among English churchmen (Vita Eadwardi, p. 400), and this feeling must have been increased by his refusal to consecrate Spearhafoc, the bishop-elect of London, on the plea that the pope had forbidden him to do so, though Spearhafoc showed him the king's writ ordering the consecration.

Robert's new dignity gave him larger opportunities of thwarting Godwine, and he had a personal quarrel with the earl about some land that he claimed as belonging to his see, and that Godwine was occupying (ib.). During the quarrel between the king and the earl in September, Robert used his influence with the king to inflame his anger against Godwine, insisting that he was the murderer of Edward's brother, and he instigated the mocking message that the earl should have no peace from the king until he restored to him his brother and his companions. When Godwine was exiled, he persuaded Edward to separate from the queen, and apparently suggested a divorce (ib. p. 403). It seems probable that it was at this time that Edward sent him on an embassy to Duke William of Normandy to promise him the succession to the throne, and it may be to invite him to visit him