Hugh Bigod ( – 18 February 1225) was a member of the powerful early Norman
Bigod family and was for a short time the 3rd
Earl of Norfolk.
Origins
He was born c. 1182, the eldest son of
Roger Bigod, 2nd Earl of Norfolk by his wife
Ida de Tosny.
Career
In 1215, he was one of the twenty-five sureties of
Magna Carta
(Medieval Latin for "Great Charter"), sometimes spelled Magna Charta, is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardin ...
of
King John. He succeeded to his father's estates (including
Framlingham Castle) in 1221.
Marriage and children
In late 1206 or early 1207, Hugh married
Maud Marshal (1192 – 27 March 1248), daughter of
William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1147–1219),
Marshal of England, by his wife
Isabel de Clare, 4th Countess of Pembroke
Isabel is a female name of Iberian origin. Isabelle is a name that is similar, but it is of French origin. It originates as the medieval Spanish form of '' Elisabeth'' (ultimately Hebrew '' Elisheba''). Arising in the 12th century, it became popu ...
. They had four, or possibly five, children:
*
Roger Bigod, 4th Earl of Norfolk (–1270), died childless.
*
Hugh Bigod (1211–1266), Justiciar of England. Married Joan de Stuteville, by whom he had issue.
* Isabel Bigod (c. 1212–1250), married twice: Firstly to Gilbert de Lacy (son of
Walter de Lacy, Lord of
Meath and his wife
Margaret de Braose), by whom she had issue; Secondly to
John FitzGeoffrey, Lord of
Shere,
Justiciar of Ireland, by whom she had issue, including
Maud FitzJohn, and Joan FitzJohn who married Theobald le Botiller, and from whom descended the Irish
Earls of Ormond.
* Ralph Bigod (born c. 1215)
Contrary to the assertion of Frederick Lewis Weis, ''Ancestral Roots'', there is no evidence for a fourth son called Simon Bigod. A man of that name appears as a witness to one of Earl Hugh's charters (Morris, HBII 2), but as the eighteenth name in a list of twenty, suggesting no close connection to the main branch of the family. He is also named among the knights who surrendered to King John at
Framlingham Castle in 1216. He was probably a descendant of Hugh or William Bigod, half-brothers to Earl Roger II Bigod.
Simon is recognized as the third son of Hugh Bigod in Francis Blomefield's "North Erpingham Hundred: Felbrigg".
[''An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 8'' (London, 1808), pp. 107–119. ''British History Online']
Profile
british-history.ac.uk. Accessed 2 June 2019. He is also recognized by Gary Boyd Roberts in ''The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants to the American Colonies or the United States'', Vol 1, p. 528.
Death
Hugh died on 18 February 1225. Very soon after Hugh's death, his widow Maud remarried
William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey.
Hugh Bigod in fiction
Hugh Bigod and his wife
aheltare the main characters in Elizabeth Chadwick's ''To Defy a King''. They also appear as secondary characters in novels chronicling their parents such as ''The Time of Singing'' (UK: Sphere, 2008) published in the USA as ''For the King's Favor''; ''The Greatest Knight''; and ''The Scarlet Lion''.
Ancestry
References
* M. Morris, ''The Bigod Earls of Norfolk in the Thirteenth Century'' (Woodbridge, 2005)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bigod, Hugh, 3rd Earl of Norfolk
1180s births
1225 deaths
3rd Earl of Norfolk
Hugh
Norfolk
Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...