Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk

Hugh Bigod ( – 18 February 1225) was a member of the powerful early Norman Bigod family and was for a short time the 3rd Earl of Norfolk.

Origins Arms used by Hugh Bigod, as heir to the earldoms of Norfolk and Suffolk, and as recorded during the signing of Magna Charta He was born c. 1182, the eldest son of Roger Bigod, 2nd Earl of Norfolk by his wife Ida de Tosny.

Career In 1215, he and his father were one of the twenty-five sureties of Magna Carta of King John. He succeeded to his father's estates (including Framlingham Castle) in 1221.

Marriage and children In late 1206 or early 1207, Hugh married Maud Marshal, also known as Matilda Marshall, (1192 – 27 March 1248), daughter of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1147–1219), Marshal of England, by his wife Isabel de Clare, 4th Countess of Pembroke. They had four, or possibly five, children: Roger Bigod, 4th Earl of Norfolk (–1270), died childless. Sometimes known as Roger III Bigod. Hugh Bigod (1211–1266), Justiciar of England. Married Joan de Stuteville, by whom he had issue, including Roger Bigod, 5th Earl of Norfolk. Isabel Bigod (c. 1212–1250), married twice: Firstly to Gilbert de Lacy (son of Walter de Lacy, Lord of Meath and his wife Margaret de Braose), by whom she had issue; Secondly to John FitzGeoffrey, Lord of Shere, Justiciar of Ireland, by whom she had issue, including Maud FitzJohn, and Joan FitzJohn who married Theobald le Botiller, and from whom descended the Irish Earls of Ormond. Ralph Bigod (born c. 1215).

There is some dispute about the existence of another son, Sir Simon Bigod, which was asserted by Frederick Lewis Weis in his book Ancestral Roots of Sixty Colonists who Came to New England between 1623 and 1650, as the third born son. He is also recognized by Gary Boyd Roberts in The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants to the American Colonies or the United States, Vol 1, p. 528. It is possible that Simon Bigod was in reality a descendant of Hugh or William Bigod, half-brothers to Roger Bigod, 2nd Earl of Norfolk.

Death Hugh died on 18 February 1225. Very soon after Hugh's death, his widow Maud remarried William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey.

Hugh Bigod in fiction Hugh Bigod and his wife [Mahelt] are the main characters in Elizabeth Chadwick's To Defy a King. They also appear as secondary characters in novels chronicling their parents such as The Time of Singing (UK: Sphere, 2008) published in the USA as For the King's Favor; The Greatest Knight; and The Scarlet Lion.

Ancestry