Hugh Bigod (Justiciar)

Hugh Bigod (c. 1211 – 1266) was Justiciar of England from 1258 to 1260.[1] He was a younger son of Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk.

Hugh Bigod
Chief Justiciar of England
In office 1258 – 1260[1]
Monarch	Henry III
Preceded by	(Stephen de Segrave) Vacant from 1234
Succeeded by	Hugh le Despencer
Personal details
Born	c. 1211
Died	before 7 May 1266
Political party	Barons
Spouse(s)	Joan de Stuteville
Relations	Grandfather: William "the Elder" Marshall, 4th Earl of Pembroke
Children	Roger le Bigod[2]

In 1258 the Provisions of Oxford established a baronial government of which Hugh's elder brother Roger Bigod, 4th Earl of Norfolk was a leading member, and Hugh was appointed Chief Justiciar. He also had wardship of the Tower of London, and, briefly, of Dover Castle. But at the end of 1260 or in early 1261 he resigned these offices, apparently due to dissatisfaction with the new government. Thus in 1263 he joined the royalists, and was present on that side at the Battle of Lewes. That battle took place by a village called Fletching, north of Lewes. Hugh escaped but the King and his son, Prince Edward, were taken prisoner.

Marriage and issue

Bigod married, before 5 February 1244, Joan de Stuteville (d. before 6 April 1276), widow of Hugh Wake of Bourne, Lincolnshire, and daughter and heiress of Nicholas de Stuteville by Dervorguille, daughter of Roland Fitz Uchtred, Lord of Galloway, by whom he had four sons and four daughters:[3]

• Roger Bigod, 5th Earl of Norfolk, who married firstly Aline Basset, and secondly Alice of Hainault, but had no issue by either marriage.[4]
• Ralph Bigod.[3]
• John Bigod, a cleric, who was heir to his elder brother, Roger Bigod, 5th Earl of Norfolk.[4]
• Richard Bigod.[3]
• Elizabeth Bigod.[3]
• Rohese Bigod.[3]
• Maud Bigod.[3]
• Joan Bigod, who married Sir Philip de Kyme.[4]

There is no contemporary evidence for the assertion, first recorded in the seventeenth century, that Bigod had an earlier wife called Joanna Burnard (or Burnet or Burnell); if indeed a Hugh Bigod married Joanna, it probably was his father that did so.

Notes

1. "TITLE OF "JUSTICIAR" (PRIME MINISTER)". Baronial Order of Magna Charta. Archived from the original on 4 January 2008. Retrieved 15 February 2008.
2. "Hugh le Bigod, Chief Justiciar of England". My Lines. Retrieved 27 February 2008.
3. Richardson I 2011, p. 203.
4. Richardson I 2011, pp. 203–5.

References

• Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G. (ed.). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. I (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City. ISBN 1449966373.

M. Morris, The Bigod Earls of Norfolk in the Thirteenth Century, pp. 54–5

Political offices
Preceded by Vacant from 1234 (Stephen de Segrave)	Chief Justiciar 1258–1260	Succeeded by Hugh le Despencer
Preceded by Richard de Grey	Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports 1259–1260	Succeeded by Nicholas de Crioll