Robert Marmion, 3rd Baron Marmion of Tamworth (died 1218) was an Anglo-Norman nobleman and itinerant justice. He was reputed to have been the King's Champion but his grandson, Phillip, is the first Marmion to have a solid claim to this. Robert was descended from the lords of Fontenay-le-Marmion in Normandy, who are said to have been hereditary champions of the Dukes of Normandy.
Lord Marmion first appears as a justiciar at Caen in 1177. He was one of the justices before whom fines were levied in 1184, and from 1185 to 1189 was High Sheriff of Worcestershire. He was an itinerant justice for Warwickshire and Leicestershire in 1187-8, Staffordshire in 1187–92, Shropshirein 1187–94, Herefordshire in 1188–90, Worcestershire in 1189, Gloucestershire in 1189–91 and 1193, and Bristol in 1194.
Marmion had taken the vow to join the crusade, but had bought his way out of it. In 1195 he was with Richard in Normandy, and in 1197 witnessed the treaty between Richard and Baldwin of Flanders. During the early years of John's reign he was in attendance on the king in Normandy. In 1204-5 he was again one of the justices before whom fines were levied. He sided with the barons against the king, but after John's death rejoined the royal party under the nine-year old Henry III. He gave a mill at Barston, Warwickshire, to the Templars, and was a benefactor of Kirkstead Abbey, Lincolnshire.
He died before 15 May 1218, whereupon his lands were placed in the custody of his younger son Robert Marmion the Younger until such time as his older brother Robert Marmion the Elder dropped his support of the rebel barons and came into the King's peace.[2]
