Robert Bennet

Robert Bennet (Bennett) (died 1617) was an English Anglican bishop and the Dean of Windsor. Bennet was born in Baldock, Hertfordshire to Leonard Bennet and his wife, Margaret Langley. He matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1563, graduating B.A. in 1567, and becoming a minor Fellow in the same year. He became a full Fellow in 1570, in which year he also gained his M.A,. He was incorporated at Oxford in 1572, at which time he opposed John Whitgift's redrafted Cambridge University statutes, and in 1576 he served as university preacher at Cambridge. As a young man he was noted for his good looks and as a royal tennis player. After obtaining his B.Th. in 1577, he was referred to as Erudito Benedicte because, in the words of John Harington, "'he would tosse an Argument in the Schools, better than a Ball in the Tennis-court". In 1583, Bennet became master of the Hospital of St Cross in Winchester and left Cambridge. Together with Thomas Bilson, the warden of Winchester College, he became active in attempts to end Catholic recusancy. This work brought him to the attention of William Cecil, Lord Burghley, who appointed Bennet as one of his personal chaplains and, in March 1596, aided his appointment as Dean of Windsor in succession to William Day. He combined his work as dean with that as master of St Cross. He offended Elizabeth I by preaching against her proposed marriage to François, Duke of Anjou.