Robert de Keldeleth

Who was Robert de Keldeleth?

Robert de Keldeleth was a 13th-century Benedictine and then Cistercian abbot. He started his senior career as Abbot of Dunfermline, becoming Chancellor of Scotland later in the 1240s. He took a prominent role as a supporter of Alan Durward during the minority of Alexander III of Scotland, and appears to have lost the Chancellorship as result. Following his resignation of the abbacy of Dunfermline, he became a Cistercian monk at Newbattle Abbey while continuing a comparatively less active role on the wider stage. In 1269 he became Abbot of Melrose, Newbattle's mother house, and held this position for the last four years of his life.