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Hugh d'Avranches, Earl of Chester

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Hugh d'Avranches
Plaque commemorating Hugh d'Avranches in Avranches, Normandy
Bornc. 1047
Normandy
Died27 July 1101
Resting placeSt Werburgh's Abbey, Chester
Other namesle Gros (the Large)
Lupus (Wolf)
TitleEarl of Chester (2nd creation)
Term1071–1101
PredecessorGerbod the Fleming, 1st Earl of Chester (1st creation)
SuccessorRichard d'Avranches
SpouseErmentrude of Claremont
ChildrenRichard d'Avranches
ParentRichard le Goz, Viscount of Avranches
"Hugh Lupus, Earle of Chester, sitting in his parliament with the barons and abbots of that Countie Palatine". Post-1656 engraving by Wenceslaus Hollar

Hugh d'Avranches (c. 1047 – 27 July 1101), nicknamed le Gros (the Large) or Lupus (the Wolf), was from 1071 the second Norman Earl of Chester[1] and one of the great magnates of early Norman England.

Early life and career

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Hugh d'Avranches was born around 1047 as the son of Richard le Goz, Viscount of Avranches and Emma.

Earl of Chester

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In 1071, Gerbod the Fleming, 1st Earl of Chester was taken prisoner at the Battle of Cassel in France and held in captivity. Taking advantage of the circumstances, the king declared his title vacant. Cheshire, with its strategic location on the Welsh Marches, held county palatine status and the king then granted these powers to Hugh along with the earldom.[1][2] In that role he would appoint a number of hereditary barons, including his cousins Robert of Rhuddlan and Nigel of Cotentin.[1]

He also received many of the local manors held by Edwin, the last Saxon earl of Mercia (died 1071).[3][better source needed]

After his father's death, as late as 1082, Hugh succeeded his father as Viscount of Avranches,[1] and inherited large estates, not just in the Avranchin but scattered throughout western Normandy.[citation needed] The earl regarded the Benedictine monk and theologian St Anselm to be his friend[4] and, during his lifetime, founded the Benedictine Abbeys of Sainte-Marie-et-Saint-Sever, Saint-Sever-Calvados, Normandy[citation needed] and St. Werburgh in Chester as well as giving land endowments to Whitby Abbey, North Yorkshire.[1] Hugh remained loyal to King William II during the rebellion of 1088. He later served Henry I as one of his principal councillors at the royal court.

Wales

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Hugh spent much of his time fighting with his neighbours in Wales. Together with Robert of Rhuddlan, he subdued a good part of northern Wales. Initially, Robert held north-east Wales as a vassal of the tenant-in-chief. In 1081 Gruffudd ap Cynan, King of Gwynedd was captured through the treachery of one of his own men at a meeting near Corwen.[5] Gruffudd was imprisoned by Earl Hugh in his castle at Chester, but it was Robert who took over his kingdom, holding it directly en liege from the king. When Robert was killed by a Welsh raiding party in 1093 Hugh took over these lands, becoming ruler of most of North Wales, but he lost Anglesey and much of the rest of Gwynedd in the Welsh revolt of 1094, led by Gruffudd ap Cynan, who had escaped from captivity.

Norwegian invasion

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In the summer of 1098, Hugh joined forces with Hugh of Montgomery, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury, in an attempt to recover his losses in Gwynedd. Gruffudd ap Cynan had retreated to Anglesey, but then was forced to flee to Ireland when a fleet he had hired from the Danish settlement in Ireland changed sides. Things were altered by the arrival of a Norwegian fleet under the command of King Magnus III of Norway, also known as Magnus Barefoot, who attacked the Norman forces near the eastern end of the Menai Straits. Earl Hugh of Shrewsbury was killed by an arrow said to have been shot by Magnus himself. The Normans were obliged to evacuate Anglesey altogether leaving Gruffudd, who had returned from Ireland, to take possession the following year. Hugh apparently made an agreement with him and did not again try to recover these lands.

Marriage and Issue

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Equestrian statue of Hugh Lupus hawking on horseback, at Eaton Hall in Cheshire, sculpted by George Frederick Watts (1817–1904)

Hugh d'Avranches married Ermentrude of Claremont, daughter of Hugh I, Count of Clermont-en-Beauvaisis and Marguerite de Ramerupt, by whom he had his son and heir:

Though he is known to have also had illegitimate children, including:

Main article: Geoffrey Ridel (royal justice)

Death and succession

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Hugh fell ill and on 13 July 1101 became a monk at his religious foundation of St. Werburgh, dying there four days later on 17 July 1101.[1][7] He was succeeded as Earl of Chester by his son Richard, who married Matilda of Blois, a granddaughter of William the Conqueror. Both Richard and Matilda died in the disastrous sinking of the White Ship in 1120, and the Earldom then passed to Hugh's nephew Ranulph le Meschin, Earl of Chester, son of his sister Margaret by her husband Ranulf de Briquessart, Viscount of Bayeux.[7]

Hugh would be remembered for his "gluttony, prodigality and profligacy".[1] His obesity gave rise to his nickname, le Gros (the Fat). He would also posthumously be called Lupus (Wolf) for his savage ferocity in the battle against the Welsh.[citation needed]

Notes

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His mother was traditionally said to have been Emma de Conteville, half-sister of William the Conqueror,[1][8] but Lewis (2014) states that the identification was made "on the basis of unsatisfactory evidence" and that his mother is unknown.[7] Keats-Rohan (1999), while accepting the poor quality of the evidence for the traditional account, has nonetheless argued in favour of some relationship existing between Hugh and William.[6]

See Robert I, Duke of Normandy

By Herleva of Falaise,[9][10] he was father of:

By another concubine, The question of who her mother was seems to remain unsettled. Elisabeth Van Houts ['Les femmes dans l'histoire du duché de Normandie', Tabularia « Études », n° 2, 2002, (10 July 2002), p. 23, n. 22] makes the argument that Robert of Torigny in the GND II, p. 272 (one of three mentions in this volume of her being William's sister) calls her in this instance William's 'uterine' sister' (soror uterina) and is of the opinion this is a mistake similar to one he made regarding Richard II, Duke of Normandy and his paternal half-brother William, Count of Eu (calling them 'uterine' brothers). Based on this she concludes Adelaide was a daughter of Duke Robert by a different concubine. Kathleen Thompson ["Being the Ducal Sister: The Role of Adelaide of Aumale", Normandy and Its Neighbors, Brepols, (2011) p. 63] cites the same passage in GND as did Elisabeth Van Houts, specifically GND II, 270–2, but gives a different opinion. She noted that Robert de Torigni stated here she was the uterine sister of Duke William "so we might perhaps conclude that she shared both mother and father with the Conqueror." But as Torigni wrote a century after Adelaide's birth and in that same sentence in the GND made a genealogical error, she concludes that the identity of Adelaide's mother remains an open question.</ref>[12] he was the father of:

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Cokayne, George E. (1913). The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct or dormant. Vol. 3 (2nd ed.). London: The St. Catherine Press. pp. 164–165.
  2. ^ Cunliffe, Barry W. (2001). The Penguin atlas of British & Irish history. Penguin. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-14-100915-5. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
  3. ^ Anderson, James (1742). A genealogical history of the house of Yvery, in its different branches of Yvery, Luvel, Perceval and Gournay. H. Woodfall. p. 87.
  4. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Chester, Earls of" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 107.
  5. ^ Parry, Thomas (1959). "GRUFFUDD ap CYNAN (c. 1055 - 1137), king of Gwynedd". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales.
  6. ^ a b Keats-Rohan, K.S.B. (1999). Domesday People: A prosopography of persons occurring in English documents, 1066-1166, I. Domesday Book. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. pp. 258–260.
  7. ^ a b c Lewis, C. P. (2004). "Avranches, Hugh d', first earl of Chester (d. 1101)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/14056. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  8. ^ Douglas, William the Conqueror, p. 381
  9. ^ The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigni, Ed. & Trans. Elizabeth M.C. Van Houts, Vol. I (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1992), p. lxxv
  10. ^ "William I | Biography, Reign, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  11. ^ David C. Douglas, William the Conqueror (University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1964), p. 15, passim
  12. ^ David C. Douglas, William the Conqueror (University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1964), pp. 380–1 noting she may or may not be Herleva's daughter but probably is
  13. ^ George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant Extinct or Dormant, Vol. I, ed. Vicary Gibbs (The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., London, 1910), p. 351
  14. ^ David C. Douglas, William the Conqueror (University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1964), p. 380.
Peerage of England
New creation Earl of Chester
1071–1101 		Succeeded by
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