Robert (; died 1 November 1239) was a French-born prelate in the Kingdom of Hungary in the first decades of the 13th century. He was Archbishop of Esztergom between 1226 and 1239 and Bishop of Veszprém from 1209 till 1226. He played a decisive role in the establishment of the short-lived Diocese of Cumania. He was sharply opposed to the employment of Jews and Muslims in the administration of the royal revenues. He even put Hungary under interdict to force Andrew II of Hungary to dismiss his non-Christian officials.
Early career
Robert was of French noble origin, who was born in the territory of the Diocese of Liège. It is presumable that he came to Hungary, when became a royal tutor of King Andrew's eldest son Béla (born 1206), replacing Bernard of Perugia, Archbishop of Split. In contemporary records, his name is referred to with the honorary title of "magister", demonstrating his university degree (possibly he studied in Liège or Sorbonne). Some historians consider he is identical with that Robertus Anglicus, who, alongside Peter, provost of Esztergom, stole documents from the papal register of the late Pope Alexander III in order to disarm the jurisdictional claims of the Archdiocese of Kalocsa against Esztergom. Historian Dániel Bácsatyai argues a namesake member of the cathedral chapter of Esztergom, mentioned in 1183, is the same person as Robert.
He simultaneously functioned as chancellor and provost of Fehérvár from 1207 to 1209. In this capacity, he was a supporter of the so-called "new institutions", a new policy for royal grants introduced by Andrew. While recording the preliminaries of the royal charters throughout 1208 and 1209, Robert characterized this reform as "the best measure of a royal grant is its being immeasurable." That sentence reflects Robert's knowledge of Novellae Constitutiones (one of the four parts of the Roman law), where the same phrase appears regarding the donations of the churches.
Bishop of Veszprém
After the death of his predecessor Kalanda, Robert was elected as Bishop of Veszprém in 1209. His election was confirmed by Pope Innocent III in the next year. Robert and his fellow bishop Peter of Győr were entrusted in 1211 to prepare a convention draft and submit to the Roman Curia on the subject of conflicts of jurisdiction between the archdioceses of Esztergom and Kalocsa. The proposal contained that the right of coronation should belong to the role of archbishop Esztergom, except in case of deliberate rejection, obstacle, deteriorated health condition or sede vacante, when the process must be performed by the archbishop of Kalocsa. The so-called "second coronations" (during festive events) must be celebrated jointly. In addition, the document attached the collection of tithe after the coinage to Esztergom, but John of Esztergom had to waive his all right (i.e. superintendence over the royal churches, abbeys and provostries, ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the royal officials) in the territory of the church province of Kalocsa, in accordance with the proposal. The theses of the document was promoted by Andrew II himself too. However Pope Innocent refused to countersign the document on 12 February 1212, referring to its "harmful consequences" for the Kingdom of Hungary.