| Notes |
- Known as "Robert the Competitor."
The Lanercost Chronicle described Robert as being "of handsome appearance, a gifted speaker, remarkable for his influence and, what is most important, most devoted to God and the clergy."
Robert had a reputation among his contemporaries for being an excellent host, particularly to pilgrims passing through.
Robert was extremely devout and was especially disturbed for most of his life by the curse St. Malachy had put on his ancestor the second Robert Bruce. In 1148 Malachy, who was then the archbishop of Armagh, had stopped at the second Robert's house on the way to Rome. Malachy discovered that a thief had been captured and was awaiting sentence, so he asked that the thief's life be spared. Robert agreed, and the archbishop blessed the household. But the next morning when he set out, Malachy saw the body of the thief hanging from a gallows by the road. Furious, he withdrew his blessing and cursed the Bruce family. Robert the Competitor made many pilgrimages to Malachy's tomb, and on the way back from his pilgramage to the Middle East (1270 - 1272) he endowed the abbey of Clairvaux with funds for burning perpetual candles for Malachy, who was by then a saint.
In 1295, Robert rigged the election of his own candidate to the bishopric of Galloway, despite the objections of the new king, John Balliol.
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1210 - 1295 (85 years)
