TEOBALDO, archbishop of CANTERBURY. — Abbot of the Benedictine abbey of Bec in 1136, in 1138 he was elected archbishop of the see of Canterbury, succeeding Lanfranco and Anselmo; consecrated on 8 January 1139, he died on 18 April 1161.
He supported the Empress Matilda in all things, and later Henry Plantagenet, whom he crowned on 19 December 1154 at Westminster. As archbishop, he vigorously defended the prerogatives of his church and promoted the study of canon law and jurisprudence. He established a palatine school in his own household, also attended by St Thomas Becket, chancellor of England and his successor in the primatial see.
BIBL.: PL. 159, 734; Ph. Schmitz, Hist. de l'Ordre de st Benoît, I, Maredsous 1942, p. 192, III, ibid. 1946, p. 122 (bibliography); Enrico Tribout de Morembert