Roger le Poer

Roger le Poe (Sometimes Roger Pauper or Roger Poer and Matilda of Ramsbury.) It is possible that Roger of Salisbury was married to Matilda prior to his elevation to the episcopate, but this is unlikely. The historian Diana Greenway in the Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300 takes this view.

Chancellor The younger Roger's family was a powerful one in England – not only was his father the Bishop of Salisbury, but he also held the administration of the government in his hands. The older Roger had the powers of the office of justiciar, without having been appointed to that office, as a continuation of the power he had held during the second part of the reign of Henry I. The elder Roger's two nephews Nigel, who was Bishop of Ely and had previously been Lord Treasurer, and Alexander, who was Bishop of Lincoln – both held important bishoprics, Roger served as chancellor from 1135 until 24 June 1139.

Roger travelled with the king, often accompanying him in the royal progresses around England. In late 1136 or 1137, Roger was with the king at a court called at Westminster which heard a complaint by the Holy Trinity Priory in London that Hasculf de Tany, the castellan of the Tower of London, had taken land that belonged to the priory. In the end, the priory regained custody of their land. In March 1137 Roger was with the king right before the king sailed to Normandy, as the chancellor witnessed a charter of the king just prior to his departure. As chancellor, Roger was a witness on over 60 royal writs. In late June, a fight broke out between some of the retainers of Alan and men in the service of Roger's family. This fight was the excuse for the king moving against Roger's family. Both the elder and younger Roger were arrested, along with Alexander, but Nigel escaped.

The name le poer, or pauperus, means "pauper" and was not given to Roger until after his and his father's fall from power in 1139. It is possible the new name was bestowed because he could have expected to receive a bishopric after his time as chancellor, which did not happen because of his family's disgrace.

Roger was sent into exile after his family's disgrace. If he is the same person as the archdeacon of Berkshire, he died in the middle of the 1160s, but no other sure information is known about him after his exile.