The younger son of a nobleman, Robert was probably a member of the cathedral chapter of York before his selection as chancellor by King Stephen of England in the mid-1140s.
[8] Robert was Lord Chancellor from spring 1140 to summer 1154, serving King Stephen of England.
[11] Even Baldric, Robert's subordinate and holder of the office of Keeper of the Royal Seal, attested 17 charters during Stephen's reign.
[12] Various reasons have been put forward for why Robert attested at a lower rate than the earlier chancellors, including indifference to his office, deputising the duties to another clerk, or difficulty in following the itinerant court due to age.
[13] Robert's last secure appearance as chancellor as a witness to a charter is one dated to the summer of 1154 at Lincoln.
Robert was replaced as chancellor by Becket shortly after Henry II's coronation on 19 December 1154 and before January 1155.
[3] Although Keats-Rohan states in Domesday Descendants that Robert was also Archdeacon of York,[4] he is not so listed in the Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae under any of the archdeaconries.
[14][15][16][17][18][19] In 1147 William fitzHerbert, the Archbishop of York, was deposed, and a new election for the archbishopric was ordered by Pope Eugenius III on 11 May 1147.
[21] Robert, along with Hugh de Puiset and some of the cathedral chapter, favoured Hilary, a canon lawyer.
The disputed election was decided by the pope, who declared Murdac the new archbishop and gave the vacant bishopric of Chichester to Hilary.
[20] Murdac was consecrated by Eugenius on 7 December 1147, and Robert appears to have supported the new archbishop, or at least not to have actively opposed him.