Robert de Bethune Robert de Bethune Robert de Bethune (died 1148) was a medieval Bishop of Hereford. From a knightly family, he became a teacher before becoming a canon, a type of monk, by 1115. He was elected prior of Llanthony Priory in the middle 1120s, and was named bishop by King Henry I of England in 1130. As bishop, he was often appointed a judge by the papacy, and was known for the care he took of his diocese. After Henry's death in 1135, Bethune first supported King Stephen, who seized the throne from Henry's heiress the Empress Matilda, but when Matilda's
Succession to the French throne association of the eldest son to the kingship continued for two more generations, with Philip II Augustus being the last king so crowned. Henry I became sole ruler on his father's death in 1031. The succession, however, was hotly contested by his younger brother Robert. Constance of Arles, Henry’s mother, preferred to place her younger son, Robert, on the throne. She allied herself with one of the more powerful counts of the time, Odo II, Count of Blois. This alliance was particularly worrisome for Henry I. Odo II of Blois was a very powerful lord and had warred against Henry’s