♂Hugh le Despenser

Hugh le Despenser (died 4 August 1265) was an English knight of Loughborough in Leicestershire who served as Justiciar of England for the barons in their struggle with Henry III and was killed beside Simon de Montfort^W at the Battle of Evesham^W. He was the twenty-second great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his son Hugh le Despenser (1261–1326).

Early life and marriage

Hugh was born in or before 1223, and was heir to the manors of his father, another Sir Hugh, in Leicestershire, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Rutland when his father died in 1238. On 1 January 1244/5 the king gave him two casks of wine for the feast of his knighthood. In 1255 he was made constable of Horston Castle, and in April 1257 he went with Richard, Earl of Cornwall^W, to Aachen for Richard’s coronation as King of the Romans^W.

Hugh and Aline were married in or before 1260, and their son and heir, Hugh, was born on 1 March 1260/1. Aline was the daughter and heiress of Sir Philip Basset^W, of Wycombe in Buckinghamshire.

Justiciar for the barons

At the parliament of Oxford in June 1258, which produced the Provisions of Oxford^W, the barons chose Hugh as one of their twelve to redress grievances. On 25 October 1260 he was made Justiciar^W of England as their nominee. The king removed him in May or June 1261, and from 1261 to 1263 the office was held by his own father-in-law, Philip Basset. In July 1263 the barons made Hugh justiciar again, with the king’s assent, and constable of the Tower of London as well.

As constable of the Tower, in March 1264, Hugh led the rioters who sacked the mansion at Isleworth of the same Richard of Cornwall whose coronation he had attended seven years before. He fought for the barons at the Battle of Lewes^W on 14 May 1264, was given charge of the castles of Devizes, Oxford, Orford and Nottingham, and was summoned as Justiciar of England to Simon de Montfort’s Parliament^W.

Evesham

Hugh joined Montfort in his last campaign. A chronicler of St Albans tells that before the battle Montfort urged Hugh to save himself by flight, and Hugh refused: he would gladly share the earl’s fate, and asked, “would it not be better to die and fall gloriously than to suffer so great a disgrace?” He was killed with Montfort at the Battle of Evesham on 4 August 1265. By the king’s license he was buried in the abbey church at Evesham, before the high altar. His widow married Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, before 29 October 1271.

Notes

Sources

Hugh’s lands, birth, knighthood, offices, part in the barons’ war, death and burial, and his marriage, are from G. E. Cokayne, The Complete Peerage, 2nd ed., vol. IV (1916), DESPENSER, pp. 259–261, by G. W. Watson, who cites the patent, close and charter rolls, the inquisitions post mortem and the monastic chronicles. His knighthood and marriage are also in Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry (2005), DESPENSER 5, p. 275, which names him as the father of Hugh, Earl of Winchester. Philip Basset as justiciar from 1261 to 1263 is from the Complete Peerage, 1st ed., vol. III (1890), p. 365. Both works are printed genealogies of the medieval nobility. The Complete Peerage gives no exact date of birth; “in or before 1223” is its estimate.

His parentage

The Complete Peerage makes him the son and heir of Sir Hugh le Despenser of Loughborough, who died between 23 February and 30 May 1238. On 23 February 1238 the king granted the son that he might marry where it seemed best to him.

The words at Evesham

The exchange is quoted in Latin in the Complete Peerage (vol. IV, p. 261, note) from the Opus Chronicorum in the St Albans chronicles. Montfort’s words: “Fuge hac vice ne moriaris” (“flee this time, lest you die”). Hugh’s question, translated here: “Nonne prestaret mori et gloriose occumbere quam tam insignem contumeliam pati?” The burial before the high altar is from the Waverley annals, quoted in the same note.