• General Notes

  BURIAL:  Thetford Abbey, Norfolk, ENGLAND
  NOTE:
  HUGH LE DESPENSER: Three Generations
  Here are notes for the father and son "favourites" of King Edward II, both of whom were executed in 1326. The first entry is for the father & grandfather of the pair, who lost his life in battle.
  These biographies have been snitched wholesale from The Dictionary of National Biography "founded in 1882 by George Smith, edited by Sir Leslie Stephen and Sir Sidney Lee," published since 1917 by the Oxford University Press. I rather trust that dictionary and encyclopedia publishers expect their entries to be copied or fully cited ... I will add information from other histories as I can, but these entries are very well done and can stand on their own.
  While the first entry here leads off questioning the Despensers' lineage, they elsewhere seem recognized as on my ahnentafel, where you find the line as recorded for the SPENCER family in the Visitation of Warwickshire c1580.
  HUGH LE DESPENSER
  Justiciary of England, d 4 Aug 1265 Evesham, England
  ... The future justiciary is first mentioned in 1256, when Harestan Castle in Derbyshire was entrusted to him (Pat. 40 Hen. II, m. 20). In 1257 he accompanied Richard, the newly elected king of the Romans, to Germany (Rymer). Returning to England the following year, he was one of the twelve representatives elected by the barons in the parliament of Oxford (June 1258) to the council of twenty-four (Annals of Burton, p. 447). He was also by the same 'Provisions of Oxford,' named as one of the twelve commissioners for the barons in parliament and confirmed in his constableship of the royal castle of Harestan (ib.). In 1260 he acted as a justice itinerant in three counties, and in October (1260) succeeded Hugh Bigod (d 1266) [q. v.], the original justiciary of the barons, in his office (Matt. Paris). He appears in the Fine Rolls, as justiciary, March and June 1261 (Rot. Fin. ii. 348, 352). On the king regaining power, to some extent, Hugh's father-in-law, Sir Philip Basset [q. v.], a royalist, was appointed justiciary 24 April 1261 (Liber de Ant. Leg. p. 45). But the two appear to have acted concurrently for about a year, when Basset, with the growing strength of the king, obtained sole power. But a reaction in the spring of 1263 led to a fresh submission of the king and the reappointment of Hugh as justiciary 15 July 1263 (Rymer), the Tower being also placed in his charge (Liber, p. 55). He appears on the rolls in that capacity 1 Oct. 1263 (Rot. Fin. ii. 405). On 16 Dec. 1263 he became one of the sureties ex parte baronium for the observance of the Mise of Amiens (Rymer). Heartily joining the baronial party on the outbreak of hostilities, he sallied forth from the Tower, and at the head of a mob of citizens burnt and sacked the residence of the king of the Romans at Isleworth (Liber de Ant. Leg. p. 61), and on the arrival of the barons he was one of their sixteen leaders who signed a convention with the mayor of London (lb. p. 62) before the advance on Lewes. At the battle (13 May 1264) he fought in the foremost ranks, capturing Marmaduke Thwenge and forcing his own father-in-law to surrender to him, sorely wounded (Ann. Worc. p. 452). He was then made governor by the victorious party of six castles, including Oxford, Nottingham, and the Devizes (Pat. 48 Hen. III, m. 7; 49 Hen. III, m. 20). On 13 Sept. (1264) he was named (as 'nobilis vir Hugo Dispensator ') one of the arbitrators agreed on by the king and barons for arranging terms of peace (Royal Letters, ii. 275), and at once crossed with them to France (Liber, p. 69); in the same month he received a thousand marcs for his support as justiciary (Rymer), and on 14 Dec. (1264) he was summoned (as 'Hugo le Despenc' Justic' Angliae') to Simon de Montfort's parliament (Lords' Reports, iii. 34). In the following year, between Easter and Whitsuntide, he was appointed one of the four arbitrators to mediate between the Earls of Leicester and Gloucester (Liber, p

Details of Hugh's family with Aline (Aliva) BASSET