Christopher Robert Cheney CBE FBA (20 December 1906 – 19 June 1987) was an English medieval historian, noted for his work on the medieval English church and the relations of the papacy with England, particularly in the age of Pope Innocent III.

Cheney was born on 20 December 1906 in Banbury, Oxfordshire, to parents George Gardner Cheney and Christina Stapleton Bateman.^[2][3] He was educated at Banbury County School and Wadham College, Oxford, where he graduated with first-class honours in 1928.^[4]

He lectured at the University of Cairo, University College, London (1931–1933), and the University of Manchester (1933–1937) before returning to the Oxford in 1937 as reader in diplomatic and fellow of Magdalen College in 1937.^[4] He married Mary Hall on 24 August 1940.^[3][5]

After war service with MI5, he took the chair in medieval history at Manchester in 1945 until his election as the Professor of Medieval History at the University of Cambridge in 1955. He remained at Cambridge as a fellow of Corpus Christi College until his retirement in 1972.^[4]

Cheney was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1951 and appointed CBE in 1984.^[6] He died in Cambridge on 19 June 1987.^[4]

• Episcopal Visitation of Monasteries in the Thirteenth Century. Publications of the University of Manchester, Historical Series. Vol. 58. Manchester. 1931.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) [revised edition 1983]
• English Synodalia of the Thirteenth Century. 1941.
• Handbook of Dates for Students of English History. Royal Historical Society, Guides and Handbooks. Vol. 4. London: Royal Historical Society. 1945. [and many later editions]
• English Bishops' Chanceries, 1100–1250. University of Manchester Faculty of Arts Publications. Vol. 3. Manchester. 1950.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• with W. H. Semple (eds) Selected Letters of Pope Innocent III concerning England (1198–1216). Medieval Texts series. London: Nelson. 1953.
• The Records of Medieval England: an inaugural lecture. Cambridge. 1956.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• From Becket to Langton: English church government, 1170–1213. Ford Lectures, Hilary Term 1955. Manchester. 1956.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• with F. M. Powicke (eds) Councils and Synods with other Documents Relating to the English Church, Vol. 2: pt. 1, 1205–1265; pt. 2, 1265–1313. Oxford. 1964.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Hubert Walter. London: Nelson. 1967.
• Notaries Public in England in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1972.
• Pope Innocent III and England. Päpste und Papsttum. Vol. 9. Stuttgart: Anton Hiersmann. 1976.
• The Papacy and England, 12th to 14th Centuries: historical and legal studies. London: Variorum Reprints. 1982. ISBN 0860780996.
• The English Church and its Laws, 12th–14th centuries. London: Variorum Reprints. 1982. ISBN 0860781089.
• with B. E. A. Jones (eds) English Episcopal Acta II: Canterbury 1162–1190. Vol. 2. Oxford. 1986.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• with Eric John (eds) English Episcopal Acta III: Canterbury 1193–1205. Vol. 3. Oxford. 1986.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

• Brooke, C. N. L. (1987). "Christopher Robert Cheney: 1906–1987" (PDF). Proceedings of the British Academy. 73: 425–446. ISSN 0068-1202.
• Chibnall, Marjorie (2004). "Cheney, Christopher Robert (1906–1987)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39802. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)