# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robert of Jumièges

​ROBERT of Jumièges (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.; Freeman, Norman Conquest, iv. 93, v. 621). While Edward, son of Ethelred the Unready [see Edward the Confessor], 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 Ælfred (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 Eadsige [q. v.] on 29 Oct. 1050, Edward set aside the canonical election of Ælfric (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 ​(William of Poitiers, p. 85; on this message see Norman Conquest, iii. 682).
Godwine returned from exile in September 1052. The archbishop did not dare to await his restoration to power, and in company with Ulf, bishop of Dorchester, armed himself, and made haste to escape. As he and Ulf and their followers rode through the streets of London, they slew and wounded many men; they burst through the east gate, rode to Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex, and finding an old unseaworthy ship there, they embarked in her and sailed to Normandy. In his hasty flight Robert left his pall behind him, and, as the English chronicler adds, ‘all Christendom here in this land even as God willed for that before he had taken that worship as God willed not’ (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ann. 1052, Peterborough). On the 15th the witan outlawed him for the mischief that he had made between the king and the earl. To the period of his archbishopric is to be referred the story that he brought an accusation against the king's mother Emma [q. v.], and that she cleared herself by the ordeal of hot iron (Annales Wintonienses, ii. 21 sq.), but the story is unhistorical. Robert went to Rome to lay his complaint before the pope, who gave him letters reinstating him in his see, but he did not regain possession of it. His deposition and the transference of his office to Stigand [q. v.] were made one of the leading pretexts for the invasion of England by William the Conqueror (Henry of Huntingdon, p. 199; Norman Conquest, iii. 284). On his return from Rome he went to Jumièges, where he died, and was buried near the high altar of the abbey church. His death apparently took place soon after his journey to Rome (Gesta Pontificum, p. 35; Gervase of Canterbury, ii. 262; Annales Wintonienses, ii. 25); Bishop Stubbs, however, places his death in 1070 (Registrum Sacrum, p. 20), the year of Stigand's deposition and of the consecration of Lanfranc [q. v.] Two fine Anglo-Saxon manuscripts in the public library at Rouen, entitled ‘Benedictionarius Roberti Archiepiscopi’ and ‘Missale Roberti Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis,’ are believed to have belonged to him, and to have been brought over from England by him in his flight (Archæologia, xxix. 18, 134–6).
W. H.