Robert de Chesney
The dispute was eventually settled when the abbey granted Chesney land in return for his relinquishing any right to oversee St Albans.
[3] Chesney's family originated from Quesnay-Guesnon in the Calvados region of Normandy near Bayeux in France,[4] but they had settled in the Midlands of England and held lands there, particularly in Oxfordshire.
Henry of Huntingdon and Ralph de Diceto, both medieval chroniclers, approved of the election and mentioned the unanimous nature of Chesney's selection.
[5] Chesney returned to Lincoln on 6 January 1149,[5] where he received a letter from Arnulf, the Bishop of Lisieux in Normandy, congratulating him on his appointment.
[10] Arnulf also asked Chesney to help the cause of Henry fitzEmpress, Empress Matilda's eldest son and a contender for the English throne.
Foliot strongly supported his uncle's candidacy for Lincoln, writing to Pope Eugene III to encourage papal approval of the election.
[23] Chesney appointed the future Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, to a prebend in his cathedral chapter during the latter part of Stephen's reign.
[24] The civil war ended with the Treaty of Winchester, late in 1153, which provided that Matilda's son Henry would succeed Stephen after his death.
[3] In the last year of Stephen's reign, in mid-1154, Chesney acquired the right to operate a mint in the town of Newark, granted in perpetuity.
Chesney also acquired the right of justice in the city of Lincoln,[25] and was involved in the commercial life of his diocese, establishing a fair in the town of Banbury in 1154.
[28] Chesney was often with the royal court, as he attested a number of Henry II's charters during the early part of the king's reign, and accompanied him to northern England in 1158 and to Normandy in 1160.
[29] In 1161 Chesney became embroiled in a dispute with St Albans Abbey, resulting from his efforts to enforce his right, as bishop, to supervise religious houses within his diocese.
Chesney secured not only the papal bull but a royal commission to investigate the rights of the abbey as they were in the time of King Henry I.
As Chesney was unable to produce any documents in support of his own position, the king and council told the bishop that they favoured the abbey's cause.
[32] Early in 1162 Chesney was summoned to Normandy by the king, along with Roger, the Archbishop of York, Hugh de Puiset, the Bishop of Durham, and Hilary of Chichester, in order to lend their support to the election of Thomas Becket to the see of Canterbury.
[5] Chesney's contributions to the king's military campaigns on the continent caused him financial difficulties; at the time of his death he was in debt to a moneylender.
Chesney was appointed a papal judge-delegate at least once, and it was in his court that the case of Philip de Broy, a canon in Bedfordshire accused of murdering a knight, was heard.
[5] In addition to judicial affairs, Chesney worked to ensure good relations with his cathedral chapter, and allowed them exemptions from episcopal jurisdiction.
He suppressed unlicensed schools in Huntingdon and employed a number of educated clerks; his acta almost always include one witness entitled magister, and often as many as six.
[18] He also founded a Gilbertine house of canons just outside the city of Lincoln,[5] the priory of St Catherine, shortly after the order was recognised by the papacy in 1148.
[49] Traditionally, Chesney's predecessor Alexander has been credited with commissioning the baptismal font in Lincoln Cathedral, made of Tournai marble.
