In 1158 Henry II visited Mont St. Michel twice, once in the company of Louis VII, and in 1161 Robert was sponsor to Henry's daughter Eleanor. In 1162 he was made castellan of Pontorson. He had had negotiations with Becket, and about 1160 he granted the church of Basing in Hampshire, at Becket's request, to Gervase of Chichester, his clerk. Robert was a thorough man of business, and kept an account of the events of the first five years of his abbacy, part of which is in his own hand. He enlarged the monastic buildings, increased the number of monks, restored the library, filled it with books, and recovered much property for his monastery. He died 23–4 June 1186.
The list of his works is long. Two are of the first importance: 1. The additions to William of Jumièges, including the whole of the eighth book, many chapters in the seventh, and other alterations. The best edition at present is in Migne's ‘Patrologia,’ but a new one distinguishing Robert's contributions is needed. Robert's contributions are chiefly valuable for the reign of Henry I. 2. His additions, entitled ‘Roberti Accessiones ad Sigebertum,’ to Sigebert of Gemblours's ‘Chronicle,’ which ceased at the end of 1112, have been edited in the Rolls Series by Mr. Richard Howlett. Robert worked at it till his death, producing numerous editions, and presenting one to Henry II in 1184: the Avranches MS. is the best, at least for the years before 1156. Robert's chronicle is invaluable for the reign of Henry II, containing much that is not to be obtained from English historians. Its success is shown by the number of extant manuscripts of it, and by the many extracts made from it by later chroniclers.
He seems to have had a share in the ‘Chronicon Beccense,’ ed. Porée, Soc. Hist. Nor., and his ‘Continuatio Beccensis’ is printed in the Rolls Series with the ‘Accessiones ad Sigebertum,’ as well as in the ‘Annals of Mont St. Michel, 1135–1173,’ ed. Delisle; the ‘Rubrica Abbreviata’ of the abbots of that house, ed. Labbe; and the compilation of the St. Michel cartulary, now at Avranches (Delisle has printed the passages which concern Robert). In 1154 he wrote a treatise on the monastic orders and Norman abbeys, printed in Delisle's edition of his works (ii. 184). At the beginning and end of his copy of ‘Henry of Huntingdon,’ probably written about 1180 for the house of St. Michel, he made thirty-three lists of the bishops and abbots of France and England; twenty-five remain (Bibl. Nat. Latin. 6042), and these should be edited, as no fuller collection is known (Delisle, Anc. Cat. Evêques des Eglises de France, p. 7). Robert took a share in the transcription or composition of other works, and wrote prologues to a collection of extracts from St. Augustine which he thought were wrongly attributed to Bede, and to a copy of Pliny's ‘Natural History,’ the text of which he edited, although only the prologue is extant. Two of his letters are printed in Delisle. Before the chief copy of his chronicle he inserted a catalogue of Bec Library (ed. Ravaison, ‘Rapports sur les Bibliothèques de l'Ouest,’ pp. 375–95). A reference made by J. Bellaise, 1687, in a Savigny MS. implies that he also wrote a catalogue of Mont St. Michel library, but this seems to be lost.
[L. Delisle's edition of the supplement to Sigebert and of Robert's Opuscula for the Societé de l'Histoire de Normandie, 1872, is the most useful. Mr. Howlett's edition for the Rolls Series, 1889, has valuable notes on Robert's sources and on his mistakes in chronology, as well as a careful analysis of the English manuscripts. These two volumes have superseded Dr. Bethmann's edition in Mon. Germ. Hist. vol. vi. In the Church Historians of England, vol. iv. pt. ii., ed. Stevenson, is a translation of the continuation of Sigebert.]
ROBERT Foliot (d. 1186), bishop of Hereford. [See Foliot.]
ROBERT, Earl of Leicester (d. 1190). [See Beaumont, Robert de.]
ROBERT de Beaufeu (fl. 1190), writer. [See Beaufeu.]
ROBERT Rich (fl. 1240), biographer of St. Edmund. [See Rich.]
ROBERT Anglicus (fl. 1272). [See under Robert the Englishman, fl. 1326.]
ROBERT of Swaffham (d. 1273?), historian of the abbey of Peterborough, was pitanciar of that house about 1267, and afterwards cellarer. He died about 1273. He wrote a continuation of the history of Peterborough Abbey begun by Hugh (fl. 1107?–1155?) [q. v.], and added the lives of seven more abbots, concluding with that of Abbot Walter (1233–1246). The manuscript is contained in the register belonging to the dean and chapter of Peterborough, and has been printed in Sparke's ‘Historiæ Anglicanæ Scriptores.’ The register itself is known as the Swaffham Register, because Robert had a principal share in its arrangement.
[Sparke's Historiæ Anglicanæ Scriptores varii, Gunton's Hist. of Peterborough and Patrick's Supplement.]
ROBERT of Gloucester (fl. 1260–1300), historian, is known only from the English metrical chronicle of the history of
