Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Somercote, Robert
SOMERCOTE or UMMARCOTE, ROBERT (d. 1241), cardinal, was kinsman, perhaps the brother, of Lawrence Somercote [q. v.], and was related to the family of Foliot (Bliss, Cal. Papers Reg. i. 196). He received his first advancement from Stephen Langton, who gave him a rent in the church of Croydon. Afterwards, while a student at Bologna, he received also the living of Caistor, Norfolk (Bliss, Cal. Papal Reg. i. 130). He entered the service of the papal curia, was a papal subdeacon in 1236, and auditor of papal literæ contradictæ in 1238 (ib. i. 154, 168). In 1238 Gregory IX made him cardinal-deacon by the title of St. Eustachius. He adhered faithfully to the pope in all his adversities; and when the Emperor Frederick advanced on Rome in 1240, Robert was one of the few who did not abandon Gregory. At the election of the new pope in September 1241 he was one of the supporters of Godfrey of Milan, afterwards Cœlestine IV. Matthew Paris, who describes Robert as the most eminent of all the cardinals, and says that some feared he would be elected pope, repeats a rumour that he had died during the conclave, not without suspicion of poison (v. 195). But, as a matter of fact, he seems to have died after the election, during the brief pontificate of Cœlestine, on 26 Sept. He was buried in the church of St. Crisogono (Ciaconius, where his epitaph is quoted). Robert Somercote preserved a kindly feeling for his native land. He had sharply censured Simon Cantelupe, called the Norman [q. v.], for reproaching the English for bad faith before Gregory (Matt. Paris, iv. 5, 64), and it was through his intervention that Haymo of Feversham [q. v.] was able to obtain a hearing from the pope during his suit against Frater Helias in 1239 (Monumenta Franciscana, i. 46). Christofori describes him as cardinal of St. Hadrian at Foro (Storia dei Cardinali, p. 235).
[Matt. Paris (Rolls Ser.); Ciaconius, Vitæ Pontificum, ii. 87–8; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 681; Williams's English Cardinals; other authorities quoted.]