Robert Bloet
Encyclopedia
Robert Bloet was a medieval English bishop and a Chancellor
Lord Chancellor
The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking only after the Lord High Steward. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign...

 of England. Born into a noble Norman family, he became a royal clerk under King William I of England
William I of England
William I , also known as William the Conqueror , was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II...

. Under William I's son and successor King William II
William II of England
William II , the third son of William I of England, was King of England from 1087 until 1100, with powers over Normandy, and influence in Scotland. He was less successful in extending control into Wales...

, Bloet was first named chancellor then appointed to the see of Lincoln. Continuing to serve the king while bishop, Bloet remained a close royal councillor to William II's successor, King Henry I
Henry I of England
Henry I was the fourth son of William I of England. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106...

. He did much to embellish Lincoln Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral is a historic Anglican cathedral in Lincoln in England and seat of the Bishop of Lincoln in the Church of England. It was reputedly the tallest building in the world for 249 years . The central spire collapsed in 1549 and was not rebuilt...

, and gave generously to his cathedral and other religious houses. He educated a number of noblemen, including illegitimate children of Henry I. He also was the patron of the medieval chronicler Henry of Huntingdon
Henry of Huntingdon
Henry of Huntingdon , the son of a canon in the diocese of Lincoln, was a 12th century English historian, the author of a history of England, Historia anglorum, "the most important Anglo-Norman historian to emerge from the secular clergy". He served as archdeacon of Huntingdon...

, and was an early patron of Gilbert of Sempringham
Gilbert of Sempringham
Saint Gilbert of Sempringham became the only Englishman to found a conventual order, mainly because the abbot of Cîteaux declined his request to assist him in helping a group of women living with lay brothers and sisters, in 1148...

, the founder of the Gilbertine monastic order
Gilbertine Order
The Gilbertine Order of Canons Regular was founded around 1130 by Saint Gilbert in Sempringham, Lincolnshire, where Gilbert was the parish priest...

.

Early life

Bloet was a member of the Norman
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

 noble family that held Ivry
Ivry-la-Bataille
Ivry-la-Bataille is a commune in the Eure Department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France. Ivry-la-Bataille was formerly known as Ivry.-History:The Battle of Ivry took place near Ivry on 14 March 1590...

 in Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...

. Bloet was related in some manner to Hugh, the Bishop of Bayeux from 1015 to 1049, and Hugh's brother John, who was Bishop of Avranches from 1060–1067. Another relative was Richard, who was abbot of St Albans Abbey.

Chancellor and bishop

Bloet was a royal clerk in the household of King William I of England. He accompanied William I's son, William Rufus, when Rufus traveled to England to claim the throne after William I's death. Rufus named Bloet as chancellor by January 1091, but then named Bloet to the see of Lincoln in March 1093 after the death of Remigius de Fécamp
Remigius de Fécamp
Remigius de Fécamp was a Benedictine monk who was a supporter of William the Conqueror.-Early life:...

. Bloet was appointed at the same time that Anselm
Anselm of Canterbury
Anselm of Canterbury , also called of Aosta for his birthplace, and of Bec for his home monastery, was a Benedictine monk, a philosopher, and a prelate of the church who held the office of Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109...

 was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...

, during a severe illness when Rufus feared he was dying. Bloet was consecrated at Hastings
Hastings
Hastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....

 not long before 22 February 1094, probably on 12 February the day after the dedication of the church at Battle Abbey
Battle Abbey
Battle Abbey is a partially ruined abbey complex in the small town of Battle in East Sussex, England. The abbey was built on the scene of the Battle of Hastings and dedicated to St...

. By 19 March 1094 he had been replaced as chancellor by William Giffard
William Giffard
William Giffard was the Lord Chancellor of England of William II and Henry I, from 1093 to 1101.Giffard was the brother of Walter Giffard earl of Buckingham. He also held the office of Dean of Rouen prior to his election as bishop. On 3 August 1100 he became bishop of Winchester by nomination of...

.

Prior to Bloet's consecration, the Archbishop of York
Archbishop of York
The Archbishop of York is a high-ranking cleric in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and metropolitan of the Province of York, which covers the northern portion of England as well as the Isle of Man...

, Thomas of Bayeux, who had previously had a claim to supervise the see of Lincoln, tried to prevent the Archbishop Anselm's consecrating Bloet. Thomas argued that the area of Lindsey, which was within the diocese of Lincoln, really belonged to the archdiocese of York. The medieval chronicler Hugh the Chanter alleged that Bloet gave Rufus £3,000 to intervene on Bloet's side when Thomas attempted to assert York's claim to Lindsey, but another medieval chronicler, Henry of Huntingdon, who knew Bloet well, said that the sum was £5,000. This payment secured Rufus' support in the dispute between York and Lincoln, which was settled in Lincoln's favour. The sum of £5,000 was quite large, eight times what Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

records as the bishop of Lincoln's annual income. The king gave York the abbeys of Selby
Selby Abbey
Selby Abbey is an Anglican parish church in the town of Selby, North Yorkshire.-Background:It is one of the relatively few surviving abbey churches of the medieval period, and, although not a cathedral, is one of the biggest...

 and St Oswald, Gloucester in return for the settlement in favour of Lincoln. Bloet also refused to profess obedience to Anselm, but when King William intervened on Anselm's side, Bloet made the profession to Anselm.

Bloet was one of the chief administrative officers of the kingdom under William II, often associated with Ranulf Flambard
Ranulf Flambard
Ranulf Flambard was a medieval Norman Bishop of Durham and an influential government minister of King William Rufus of England...

, Urse d'Abetot
Urse d'Abetot
Urse d'Abetot was a Norman as well as a medieval Sheriff of Worcestershire and royal official under Kings William I, William II and Henry I...

, and Haimo
Haimo (dapifer)
Haimo or Hamo was an Anglo-Norman royal official under both King William I of England and King William II of England. He held the office of dapifer, or seneschal, as well as the office of Sheriff of Kent.Haimo was the son of Haimo Dentatus, a Norman lord who held Torigny-sur-Vire near Manche in...

 the dapifer. As a bishop, he moved the newly founded monastery of Stow to Eynsham
Eynsham Abbey
Eynsham Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Eynsham, Oxfordshire, in England between 1005 and 1538. King Æthelred allowed Æthelmær the Stout to found the abbey in 1005. There is some evidence that the abbey was built on the site of an earlier minster, probably founded in the 7th or 8th...

 instead. This church was considered a proprietary church
Proprietary church
During the Middle Ages, the proprietary church was a church, abbey or cloister built on private ground by a feudal lord, over which he retained proprietary interests, especially the right of what in English law is "advowson", that of nominating the ecclesiastic personnel...

 and the bishops of Lincoln retained the right to appoint the abbot and installing the abbot in office. The monks of Stow had been established by his predecessor. Bloet also gave to the priory of Bermondsey
Bermondsey Abbey
Bermondsey Abbey was an English Benedictine monastery. Most widely known as an 11th-century foundation, it had a precursor mentioned in the early 8th century, and was centred on what is now Bermondsey Square, the site of Bermondsey Market, Bermondsey in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast...

, which became a Cluniac priory during Rufus' reign.

Even after becoming a bishop, Bloet continued to witness royal writ
Writ
In common law, a writ is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court...

s, witnessing six of Rufus' writs while bishop, to add to his 11 witnessed writs during his chancellorship. Bloet was one of the bishops in 1097 that attempted to persuade Anselm when the archbishop was in a dispute with Rufus over traveling to Rome to consult with the papacy. When Anselm refused to be persuaded not to go, the king ordered him to leave the kingdom, with the support of most of the bishops and nobility.

Under Henry I

Bloet continued to be an advisor to the king even after Rufus was succeeded by King Henry I, and was a supporter of Henry during the rebellion of 1102. During the rebellion, Bloet was sent by King Henry to besiege Tickhill Castle
Tickhill Castle
Tickhill Castle was a castle in Tickhill, on the Nottingham/Yorkshire West Riding border, England and a prominent stronghold during the reign of King John I of England.-Early history:...

, which surrendered when the king joined Bloet with a larger army. When the king and Anselm clashed over investiture
Investiture Controversy
The Investiture Controversy or Investiture Contest was the most significant conflict between Church and state in medieval Europe. In the 11th and 12th centuries, a series of Popes challenged the authority of European monarchies over control of appointments, or investitures, of church officials such...

, the king persuaded Bloet to consecrate a number of the king's abbatial appointments in 1102 and 1103. Throughout Henry's reign, Bloet continued to be a trusted councillor, and was often trusted with advising the queen when the king was absent from England. Bloet is only recorded as accompanying the king outside of England once, in 1114. He served as a royal justice often, being named by Henry of Huntingdon as one of the justices who were not restricted to one or a few counties but who served throughout England. During Henry's reign, Bloet witnessed 155 royal documents.

When the new see at Ely was established in 1109 in a former abbey, it was carved out of Bloet's diocese who was compensated for the loss by a grant of land. This grant included the town of Spaldwick
Spaldwick
Spaldwick is a village in the English county of Cambridgeshire and the district and former county of Huntingdonshire.Spaldwick is located near Catworth west of Huntingdon. It has a school, playgroup, service station, a village shop called number twelve, a church and a pub called The George...

 in Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire is a local government district of Cambridgeshire, covering the area around Huntingdon. Traditionally it is a county in its own right...

. He was one of the councilors who urged Henry to appoint William of Corbeil to the archbishopric of Canterbury in 1123, although Bloet died before Corbeil was selected. Bloet was opposed to the other candidates, as they were monks, and he wanted a non-monk appointed at Canterbury. In 1114, when Canterbuy was vacant, he had also opposed the appointment of a monk to Canterbury. During the reign of Henry, Bloet accepted the supervision of St Albans abbey, ruled by his relative Richard, when Richard objected to the harshness of the archbishop of Canterbury and switched the abbey's obedience to Lincoln instead. Bloet continued to be a benefactor to Albans throughout his episcopate. He doubled the number of canons
Canon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....

 in the cathedral chapter at Lincoln Cathedral during his episcopate. He also embellished the newly built Lincoln Cathedral and gave the cathedral many gifts of objects and lands. Most of his surviving episcopal documents concern the consecration of churches in his diocese or the confirmation of donations to religious houses. He also founded a hospital in Lincoln dedicated to the Holy Sepulchre.

Henry of Huntingdon, the medieval chronicler, wrote a letter entitled De contemptu mundi where he related a story from right before Bloet's death that Bloet felt he had fallen from King Henry's favour. Bloet allegedly told Huntingdon that the bishop had lost two lawsuits. However, the whole letter is concerned with setting out examples of prominent men who suffered a fall from grace, so possible bias on Huntingdon's part must be kept in mind. There are also records of two legal proceedings involving Bloet at the end of Bloet's life, and although Bloet lost both cases, neither was a loss of much income or prestige. In one, he was allowed to continue to hold the property, although instead of it being judged as his land alone, the settlement was that Bloet held it of St Augustine's Abbey
St Augustine's Abbey
St Augustine's Abbey was a Benedictine abbey in Canterbury, Kent, England.-Early history:In 597 Saint Augustine arrived in England, having been sent by Pope Gregory I, on what might nowadays be called a revival mission. The King of Kent at this time was Æthelberht, who happened to be married to a...

 in Canterbury. The other lawsuit involved Bloet's attempt to hold a manor free of dues owed to Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...

, which was settled in the Abbey's favour, although Bloet continued to hold the land. Nor is there any lessening of the rate of Bloet's witnessing to royal documents. It appears that Bloet's lost lawsuits were decided by other royal justices, and while he may have lost some favour with the king, he did not fall completely out of favour either.

Death and legacy

Bloet was a married bishop, and he appointed his son Simon as Dean of Lincoln
Dean of Lincoln
The Dean of Lincoln is the head of the Chapter of Lincoln Cathedral in the city of Lincoln, England in the Diocese of Lincoln. The post is currently held by the Very Revd Philip John Warr Buckler, MA.-References:...

. It was in Bloet's household that the medieval historian Henry of Huntingdon was brought up. He died on 10 January 1123 at Woodstock, Oxfordshire
Woodstock, Oxfordshire
Woodstock is a small town northwest of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England. It is the location of Blenheim Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.Winston Churchill was born in Blenheim Palace in 1874 and is buried in the nearby village of Bladon....

 and was buried at Lincoln
Lincoln, Lincolnshire
Lincoln is a cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England.The non-metropolitan district of Lincoln has a population of 85,595; the 2001 census gave the entire area of Lincoln a population of 120,779....

. He had a sudden fit while out riding with King Henry and Roger of Salisbury
Roger of Salisbury
Roger was a Norman medieval Bishop of Salisbury and the seventh Lord Chancellor and Lord Keeper of England.-Life:...

, the Bishop of Salisbury
Bishop of Salisbury
The Bishop of Salisbury is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset...

, and collapsed in the king's arms before dying shortly thereafter without absolution
Absolution
Absolution is a traditional theological term for the forgiveness experienced in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This concept is found in the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the Eastern Orthodox churches, the Anglican churches, and most Lutheran churches....

, which combined with his style of living led many contemporaries to conclude he was condemned to Hell. His last words were "Lord king, I am dying" which he uttered right before collapsing into Henry's arms. His entrails were buried at Eynsham, but the rest of his body was buried in Lincoln Cathedral near the southern entrance in front of St. Mary's altar.

Henry of Huntingdon records that noblemen sent their children to be educated at Bloet's household, whether or not they were destined for a career in the church. King Henry's illegitimate son Robert of Gloucester
Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester
Robert Fitzroy, 1st Earl of Gloucester was an illegitimate son of King Henry I of England. He was called "Rufus" and occasionally "de Caen", he is also known as Robert "the Consul"...

 was educated in Bloet's care. Another illegitimate son of Henry's, Richard of Lincoln, was also in Bloet's household for an education. Gilbert of Sempringham
Gilbert of Sempringham
Saint Gilbert of Sempringham became the only Englishman to found a conventual order, mainly because the abbot of Cîteaux declined his request to assist him in helping a group of women living with lay brothers and sisters, in 1148...

, who founded the Gilbertine Order
Gilbertine Order
The Gilbertine Order of Canons Regular was founded around 1130 by Saint Gilbert in Sempringham, Lincolnshire, where Gilbert was the parish priest...

, was also educated in Bloet's household, entering it before Bloet's death and continuing there under Bloet's successor Alexander of Lincoln
Alexander of Lincoln
Alexander of Lincoln was a medieval English Bishop of Lincoln, a member of an important administrative and ecclesiastical family. He was the nephew of Roger of Salisbury, a Bishop of Salisbury and Chancellor of England under King Henry I, and he was also related to Nigel, Bishop of Ely...

. Besides educating laymen, Bloet educated his own household clergy, including sending some of them to study under Ivo
Ivo of Chartres
Saint Ivo ' of Chartres was the Bishop of Chartres from 1090 until his death and an important canon lawyer during the Investiture Crisis....

, Bishop of Chartres. He was known for his ostentatious manner of living, and served personally in war when needed. The medieval chronicler William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. C. Warren Hollister so ranks him among the most talented generation of writers of history since Bede, "a gifted historical scholar and an omnivorous reader, impressively well versed in the literature of classical,...

 claimed that he hated monks. Henry of Huntingdon, however, remembered him as handsome, cheerful and affable. Earlier in his episcopate, Bloet had aided Christina of Markyate
Christina of Markyate
Christina of Markyate was born in Huntingdon, England c. 1095–1100, and died perhaps after 1155. As a young girl or adolescent, named Theodora, she took a vow of chastity, so her parents' attempts to force her unwillingly into marriage led her to run away from home and go into hiding under the care...

's family in their attempts to get the religious hermit
Hermit
A hermit is a person who lives, to some degree, in seclusion from society.In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament .In the...

 to marry, at one point giving a judicial judgement that she must marry, which she refused to do. It was only after Bloet's death that Christina was able to be consecrated as a recluse
Recluse
A recluse is a person who lives in voluntary seclusion from the public and society, often close to nature. The word is from the Latin recludere, which means "shut up" or "sequester." There are many potential reasons for becoming a recluse: a personal philosophy that rejects consumer society; a...

at St Albans Abbey.
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