Robert Burgundio (d. 1149)

Master of the Templars (1136/1137-1149).

Robert, a son of Rainald Burgundio of Craon and Ennoguena of Vitre, belonged to the Angevin high nobility. After several years in the service of the count of Angouleme and at the court of the dukes of Aquitaine, he dissolved his engagement to the heiress of Chabannes and Confolens and traveled to Outremer. Robert had probably joined the Templars by 1125; he became seneschal of the the order and traveled to the West (1132-1133/1134), where he received important donations on its behalf, including the castle of Barbera in Spain. After the death of Hugo of Payns (1136/1137), Robert became the second master of the order.

Robert returned to the West in 1138. On 29 March 1139, Pope Innocent II issued Omne datum optimum, the Templars’ most important papal privilege, naming Robert as its recipient. William of Tyre listed Robert among the participants of the Second Crusade’s general curia held in Acre (mod. ‘Akko, Israel) on 24 June 1148 and gave an unusually friendly assessment of him. Robert died on 13 January 1149 and was succeeded by Everard of Barres.

-Jochen Burgtorf

Bibliography

Barber, Malcolm, The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).

Jessee, W. Scott, “The Family of Robert the Burgundian and the Creation of the Angevin March of Sable and Craon,” Medieval Prosopography 16 (1995), 31-60.