Hugh le Despenser, 1st Baron le Despenser († 1349)

Hugh le Despenser, 1st Baron le Despenser (* around 1308 - 8 February 1349 ) was an English nobleman.

Origin and youth

Hugh le Despenser came from the Despenser family . He was the second son of his father of the same name, Hugh le Despenser and of Eleanor de Clare . His mother became the co-heir of the Clare family's rich estates in 1314 , and his father became the favorite of King Edward II in 1318. After defeating a group of rebellious barons , his father had considerable influence on the king from 1322 onwards. His father planned to marry him off to Elizabeth Comyn , one of the Earl of Pembroke 's divisional heirs. However, he rejected this plan after he had forced Elizabeth under threat of violence in the spring to renounce her inheritance in favor of the Despensers.

Since his father had great political influence, the young Hugh was involved in the king's diplomacy. As early as the spring of 1323 he had served as a hostage for the security of the Scottish ambassadors during the armistice negotiations with Scotland. In the summer of 1325 he was supposed to travel to the king's entourage when the king wanted to travel to France after the war from Saint-Sardos .

Role in the fall of Edward II and imprisonment during the reign of Mortimer

In the autumn of 1326 the reign of Edward II and Despenser was overthrown, while on his flight Despenser left his underage son Hugh in Caerphilly Castle , a strong castle in the Welsh Glamorgan , in November 1326 . The castle was defended by a strong garrison under Sir John Felton , who did not surrender to the royal troops even after Despenser was captured and executed. It was not until March 20, 1327 that the crew surrendered on the condition that the young despenser would not be harmed. The underage despenser initially came under the tutelage of Thomas Gurney , who had to bring him to Bristol Castle in December 1328. Despenser then remained in captivity until the regent Roger Mortimer , who had assumed rule with Queen Isabella , in 1330 through a coup d'état by the young King Edward III. was overthrown. Despenser was released in July 1331.

Military service under Edward III.

After his mother's death, Despenser inherited their estates on July 21, 1337, including Glamorgan with Caerphilly Castle. On 15 November 1338 he was appointed as Baron by writ in the Parliament called and thus to Baron le Despenser levied. During the Hundred Years War he fought in the naval battle of Sluis in 1340 . In 1346 he took part in the king's campaign in northern France and in the battle of Crecy .

Marriage and inheritance

On April 27, 1341 Despenser had married Elizabeth , a daughter of William Montagu, 1st Earl of Salisbury and Catherine Grandison , she was the widow of Giles de Badlesmere, 2nd Baron Badlesmere . The marriage remained childless, so that his title expired on his death. His property was inherited by Edward le Despenser , a son of his brother of the same name. His widow Elizabeth was third married to Guy Brian, 1st Baron Brian .

Web links

• Hugh le Despenser, 1st Lord le Despenser on thepeerage.com , accessed August 5, 2015.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Natalie Fryde: The tyranny and fall of Edward II, 1321-1326 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003. ISBN 0-521-54806-3 , p. 114
2. ↑ John Roland Seymour Phillips: Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, 1307-1324. Baronial politics in the reign of Edward II. Clarendon, Oxford 1972, ISBN 0-19-822359-5 , p. 230
3. ↑ Seymour Phillips: Edward II . New Haven, Yale University Press 2010. ISBN 978-0-300-15657-7 , pp. 475
4. ↑ Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales: An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan: III - Part 1b : Medieval Secular Monuments, the Later Castles from 1217 to the present , Her Maj. Stat. Office, London 2000, ISBN 0-11-300035-9 , p. 71
5. ^ Roy Martin Haines: Sir Thomas Gurney of Englishcombe in the County of Somerset, Regicide? In: Proceedings of the Somerset Archeology and Natural History , 147 (2003), p. 54