Robert de Limesey

Who was Robert de Limesey?

Robert de Limesey was a medieval Bishop of Chester. He moved the see from Chester to Coventry in 1102.

Robert was a chaplain to King William I of England before the king nominated Robert to the see of Chester on 25 December 1085. He may have come from a baronial family, as his surname derives from a territorial location. Robert was consecrated in 1086. At some point during the last years of Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury, Robert took over the abbey of Coventry as the seat of his bishopric, and managed to establish himself there permanently after Lanfranc's death. Coventry was a wealthy abbey, richer than Chester, and by making Coventry the cathedral, Robert increased the revenue of his see by a large amount.

In 1102, Robert was one of the bishops, along with Gerard, Archbishop of York and Herbert de Losinga, the Bishop of Norwich, who returned from Rome and told King Henry I of England that Pope Paschal II had told them privately that Henry could invest bishops as in the past, provided they were good men. This was during the height of the Investiture Crisis, and the pope later denied the story.