Waldby, Robert (a.1340–1398), archbishop of Dublin, archbishop of York, and chancellor of Ireland, was an Augustinian friar who appears in the York convent in 1361. He studied in Oxford before being sent to Toulouse to study theology, where he was awarded a D.Th.; he was ordained a priest in 1361 and later in the decade served with the Black Prince in Aquitaine. He was an active opponent of John Wycliff: he was credited with writing a book entitled ‘Contra Wiclivistas' and was present at the council that condemned Wycliff in May 1382. In April 1383 Waldby was sent as an envoy for negotiations with Navarre, Castille, and Aragon. He was provided to the diocese of Aire in Gascony on 1 April 1386 and served as chancellor of Aquitaine.
Waldby was transferred to Dublin on 14 November 1390 with the personal support of Richard II (qv), but was slow coming to his new diocese. While he received the temporalities in July 1391, he also received a licence to absent himself from Ireland because he was travelling with the king. On 16 July 1391, Waldby, the archbishop of Cashel, and the bishop of Connor, were given the authority to arrest any heretics in Ireland. He was still in England in November 1391, when he appointed attorneys to represent him in Ireland, and was appointed chancellor of Ireland on 28 February 1392 and reappointed on 25 July 1392, after the duke of Gloucester's patent as lieutenant was cancelled.
Waldby was sent to Ireland with troops and 2,000 marks to be spent on the defence of the lordship from attacks by the Gaelic lords of Leinster. While in Ireland he equipped 200 men at his own expense and relieved Naas from attackers. He also complained that the earl of Kildare (qv) had forcibly billeted men on the archbishop's manor of Ballymore Eustace in Kildare. He was one of the messengers sent by the Irish parliament to the king in January 1393, and seems to have stayed in England afterwards – he received permission to remain in England without sending men to defend the lordship in March 1394 – but returned to Ireland with Richard II in August 1394.
Waldby's closeness to the king and his clear reluctance to stay in Ireland made him willing to accept an unusual transfer in October 1395, when he was transferred to the bishopric of Chichester. This demotion was short-lived, as he was transferred to York in October 1396. After his death (January 1398), he was buried in Westminster at the request of Richard II.