Robert, Earl of Leicester, was the younger of the twin sons of Robert of Meulan, Henry I's chief adviser. While his brother, Waleran, was mercurial, even flashy, Robert was renowned for patience and circumspection. Very much under Waleran's shadow until the 1140's, Robert slowly built up one of the largest baronies in England and a major political position through alliances with other magnates and a growing network of vassals whose loyalty was secured by firm discipline. By 1154, Robert was perhaps the most powerful Baron in England as well as being a political veteran whose reputation as an administrator, negotiator, and lawyer (in the words of Richard FitzNeal who knew him, 'a man of sound judgement, well educated and practised in legal affairs'). Something of an intellectual, his views on royal authority and treason were quoted by John of Salisbury in his "Policraticus" and he himself wrote on philosophy and astronomy. In 1155, Henry II harnessed both Robert's territorial power and his personal talents to the new regime by appointing him Justiciar, an office which he held, as the senior partner to Richard de Lucy, until his death.
Under his father's will, Robert received the family lands in England, including the Earldom of Leicester, but in 1121 his marriage to Amice, heiress of Breteuil, brought him a strategically important fief in Normandy. Brought up in Henry I's court, by the early 1130s, Robert shared in the high favour bestowed on his family and their connections; he also witnessed fifteen royal charters between 1130 and 1135, a sign of things to come. With the death of Henry I and the accession of Stephen, Robert shared in the heyday of Beaumont power, taking the opportunity to settle old scores with territorial rivals, such as the Tosnis in Normandy. In 1139 he helped his brother destroy Roger of Salisbury, receiving from Stephen the city and earldom of Hereford the following year. Robert's diplomatic skills were exercised in 1141 when he negotiated the division of the family lands so that he could retain his English estates as a supporter of Stephen and his brother Waleran the French lands as an adherent of the Angevins. Although remaining a close associate of King Stephen, Robert spent much of the rest of the reign securing his own position. Independent of the king, he formed treaties with Angevin magnates, such as Ranulf of Chester, in order to reduce the prospects of damage to his landed interests, especially in the Midlands. He was notorious for controlling his tenants over whom he lay the constant threat of disseisin. In 1153, he changed sides, soon becoming one of Henry FitzEmpress's chief counsellors and having his Norman estates restored.
As Justiciar, he acted as Henry's main adviser at court and his representative when the king was abroad. Although prominent in the Becket controversy, he avoided the excommunications of 1166, perhaps because the Archbishop saw him as of independent mind, a possible mediator. His duties as Justiciar included presiding at the Exchequer; carrying out royal writs; overseeing local royal officials; acting as a judge in hearing major pleas of the crown; paying troops; provisioning royal castles and palaces; and transporting treasure. Robert was a dominant figure in government and aristocracy, with unrivaled royal confidence and estates to match, stretching from Wales to East Anglia. Much of the later prestige attached to the Justiciarship derived from Robert's own reputation as a politician of unequalled experience; a royal servant of expertise and a baron of the highest lineage and unsurpassed wealth. Yet sometimes his dual role found him out. In c. 1167, he had obtained a special writ of exemption from demands on his lands under the Forest Laws. This caused outrage among the old Exchequer hands led by Nigel of Ely who insisted that anyone who sat at the Exchequer possessed ex-officio exemption which did not require specific royal approval. It is one case of many where Earl Robert's first thought was to promote and protect his own property and interests while at the same time serving the King. FitzNeal described Robert as strong minded and diligent. Henry II recognised his quality and, again in FitzNeal's words, made him 'head not only of the Exchequer, but of the whole kingdom.'
Born to greatness, Robert acquired further greatness by doing well out of the civil war of Stephen's reign and was thus in an unrivalled position to exploit his opportunities when high office was thrust upon him. Robert has been called 'the model of the curial magnate' and his career, taken with those of his father and brother, expose how unrealistic is the historical cliché which pits kings against barons. Medieval realms only operated through intimate cooperation between ruler and the most powerful of the ruled. Such relationships were inevitably at times tense and could degenerate into acrimony and violent confrontation especially if, as under Stephen, the king was a poor manager of men. But such dislocation was the product of mutual dependency, not separation of interests. Robert did well out of kings and did well for kings: in him and those like him, we can see how effective medieval government operated to the desired benefit of all involved. Sectional interests as often as not united monarch and magnate as divided them. Twelfth century kings had no option or desire to base their rule on others than the natural leaders of society of whom few were more effective than Robert of Leicester who combined self-interest and loyalty to the material advantage of master and minister alike.
The earl founded the abbey of St. Mary de Pré at Leicester and other religious houses and by a charter confirmed the burgesses of Leicester in the possession of their merchant guild and customs. His son Robert succeeded to the Earldom of Leicester and with other English barons assisted Prince Henry in his revolt against his father, the king, in 1773. For this participation, and also on a later occasion, he was imprisoned; but he enjoyed the favour of Richard I and died in Greece while returning from a pilgrimage in 1190. Earl Robert II of Leicester was buried in Saint Mary's de Pre in Leicestershire.
