Robert Foliot

Robert Foliot
Bishop of Hereford
Norman font from Hereford Cathedral, which predates Foliot's term in office.
Elected	April 1173
Term ended	9 May 1186
Predecessor	Robert of Melun
Successor	William de Vere
Other post(s)	Archdeacon of Oxford
Orders
Consecration	6 October 1174 by Richard of Dover, Archbishop of Canterbury
Personal details
Died	9 May 1186
Buried	Hereford Cathedral

Robert Foliot (died 1186) was a medieval Bishop of Hereford in England. He was a relative of a number of English ecclesiastics, including Gilbert Foliot, one of his predecessors at Hereford. After serving Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln as a clerk, he became a clerk of Henry of Blois, the Bishop of Winchester and brother of King Stephen of England. He attended the Council of Reims in 1148, where another relative, Robert de Chesney, was elected as Bishop of Hereford. Chesney then secured the office of Archdeacon of Oxford for Foliot.

During the early 1160s, Foliot also served as a clerk for Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, but left the archbishop's service as Becket's dispute with the king began to intensify. He was elected to Hereford in 1173, and served as a royal and papal judge while bishop. Archeological evidence links the building of the Bishop's Palace at Hereford to his episcopate. After his death, Foliot was buried in Hereford Cathedral.