Robert Champart, Abbot of Jumièges, Archbishop of Canterbury († 1055)

Robert Champart was a monk, and subsequently prior of the abbey of St Ouen in Rouen. In 1037 he was elected Abbot of Jumièges and began its reconstruction. At the same time he gained the confidence of Edward the Confessor who was at the time in exile at the court of the Duke of Normandy. When Edward took back the crown of England in 1042 Robert accompanied him and was made Bishop of London (1044). He created a ‘Norman enclave’ around the king in strong opposition to the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy led by Godwin, father of Harold. In 1051 Robert was made Archbishop of Canterbury, but from 1052 he was forced into exile in Rome. Despite the confirmation of the pope, Robert was unable to resume his seat. William the Conqueror included the hostility of the clergy and of the Anglo-Saxon princes to the legitimate election of the Norman archbishop among his justifications for his right to invade England. Robert ended his life in his abbey of Jumièges which, through him, established links with the Anglo-Saxon world. The manuscript known as the ‘The Sacrament’, or ‘Missal’ of Robert of Jumièges, offered to the abbey when Robert had been Bishop of London, in fact shows England’s influence on the renaissance of Norman monastic libraries before the Conquest.

Bibliography :

- Michel de Boüard. - Guillaume le Conquérant. - Paris : Fayard, 1984.