General Notes

Burgh, Hubert de (flourished 1197-1243), English statesman. He was in the
service of King Richard I, and by 1201 he had become chamberlain to King John.
According to Ralph of Coggeshall, a contemporary English chronicler, after the
English subjugated Normandy, Burgh, as jailer, refused to obey a royal order
to mutilate his prisoner Arthur, duke of Brittany. Burgh also is said to have
urged John to grant the Magna Carta. In 1215 the king appointed Burgh chief
justiciar, or justice, of England, an office he held for 17 years. In 1217,
after Louis VIII of France had invaded England, Burgh won a naval victory that
forced Louis to withdraw and renounce his claims to the English crown. From
1219 until 1227 Burgh was virtual ruler of England as regent for John's
successor, Henry III. When Henry attained his majority in 1227, he made Burgh
earl of Kent. Later the two men quarreled about a military expedition to
France and royal subservience to the papacy. Charged with treason in 1232,
Burgh was jailed and stripped of his title and estates. These were restored in
1234, when he received a full pardon.