LE BIGOD, Hugh I

  General Notes:

Source: http://www.iterativity.com/Genealogy/fg05/fg05_284.html

Crusader
Sheriff of London and Middlesex
Lord Steward of the King's Household
1133: Justice and Master Chamberlain of England
1st Earl of Norfolk; Earl of Suffolk


He succeeded his elder brother as Lord Steward of the King's household to Henry I. He was mainly instrumental in raising Stephen "Count" of Bologne to the throne upon Henry's decease, and was rewarded by him with the earldom of East Anglia, or Norfolk and Suffolk ABT 1140. He was steadfast and faithful to King Stephen through the difficulties which beset that monarch, and gallantly defended Ipswich Castle against the Empress Maud and her son, but was finally obliged to surrender for want of timely relief. That he was a wealthy and powerful noble is evident from his certifying that he had 160 knights in 1166. He evidently enjoyed royal favor, as he was re-created Earl of Norfolk and Suffolk by King Henry II, and obtained a grant of the office of Lord High Steward of the Kingdom, which his father had held. Notwithstanding these and other equally substantial marks of the king's liberality, Earl Hugh arrayed himself under the banner of Robert Earl of Leicester in the insurrection by that nobleman in favor of the King's son, in 1193. His part in this rebellion cost him the loss of his strongest castles and the heavy fine of 1,000 marks. After this, in 1177, he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, as a Crusader, and died there.