Robert Jean Knecht (20 September 1926 – 4 November 2023) was a British historian, an expert on 16th-century France, and Emeritus Professor of French history at the University of Birmingham, where he taught during 1956–1994.
Knecht was then employed by a firm of industrial designers to collect and exhibit old prints and to write explanatory booklets for three theme pubs in London.
Though trained as a medieval historian, he was appointed in 1956 as assistant-lecturer in early modern history at the University of Birmingham where he chose to remain for the rest of his professional career.
His earliest book was The Voyage of Sir Nicholas Carewe published in 1959 by Cambridge University Press for the Roxburghe Club.
[1] In 1977 Knecht formed a close association with a group of French art historians led by André Chastel and Jean Guillaume, taking part in several of their summer schools.