Fixer and Fighter: The Life of Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, 1170 - 1243

193 Pages·2016·16.09 MB·English

by  Brian Harwood

Fixer and Fighter
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The boats of Newhaven and Folkestone and Dover,
To Dieppe and Boulogne and to Calais cross over;
And in each of these runs there is not a square yard
Where the English and French haven’t fought and fought hard!
(The French Wars, Rudyard Kipling)
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Fixer and Fighter
The Life of Hubert de Burgh,
Earl of Kent, 1170–1243
Brian Harwood
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First published in Great Britain in 2016 by
Pen & Sword Military
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS
Copyright © Brian Harwood 2016
ISBN 978 1 47387 736 8
The right of Brian Harwood to be identified as the Author of this Work
has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.
Typeset in Ehrhardt by
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Printed and bound in the UK by CPI Group (UK) Ltd,
Croydon, CRO 4YY
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Contents
List of Illustrations x
Preface xiii
Chapter 1 Richard I ‘the Lionheart’ 1189–1199 1
1170–1189 East Anglia to Westminster – The young Hubert comes to Court.
Describing Hubert’s origins and his advent into the fringe of Richard the Lionheart’s
court at Westminster.
Chapter 2 1189–1199 Castles and Crusades 11
How Hubert progressed through the convoluted Westminster administration and the
influence on his thinking and actions at Court by the prevailing militant environment
of the Crusades. He acquires a rapid knowledge of the techniques of castle warfare
and starts to make a name for himself as a principal courtier to Richard’s brother,
Count John of Mortain.
Chapter 3 John 1199–1216 16
1199–1202 Chamberlain and Confidant – Hubert de Burgh progresses to seniority
in King John’s entourage and exerts significant influence in the documentary and
personnel administration of John’s court. He is rewarded with the prestigious
castellanship of the Three Castles of Wales. He would, in the course of time, come to
hold dozens of castellanships simultaneously across fourteen counties in England and
Wales.
Chapter 4 1202–1207 Castellan in Conflict 21
Hubert accompanies John abroad to prevent the French colonizing English
Continental interests. Before going Hubert founds the famous Maison Dieu hospice
in Dover, still there today. He tries, unsuccessfully, to prevent John’s murder of
Prince Arthur of Brittany, rightful heir to the English throne. Hubert, as castellan
of Chinon Castle in the Loire, keeps a French army outside its walls for a year, but is
taken prisoner at its fall.
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vi Fixer and Fighter
Chapter 5 1207–1213 From Scapegoat to Seneschal of Poitou 31
After the débâcle of John’s campaign Hubert is released from imprisonment at
Boulogne. He quickly reasserts his authority at John’s court and, for the first time,
encounters the murderous Channel pirate, Eustace the Monk. Hubert marries and is
sufficiently reconciled to John to be sent as Seneschal to Poitou, a Norman province
the size of Ireland.
Chapter 6 1213–1215 King John’s French Farce 45
John loses to Philip Augustus most of his Angevin inheritance on the Continent.
Hubert, who advised against the expedition, stays well to the south as the polyglot
English army is comprehensively defeated at the Battle of Bouvines on 27 July 1214.
Chapter 7 1215 Rebellion and Magna Charta 53
The English barony has no use for the defeated John and in a collective revolt sets
out its conditions in the first Magna Charta draft for his continued rule. Hubert de
Burgh is a principal negotiator between the parties and a signatory on the Charta.
Chapter 8 Henry III, 1216 and After 58
1215–1217 Civil War and Invasion – At the dissident barons’ request, the French
dauphin and his army invade England and fight John and his Royalist mercenaries
across the country. Hubert de Burgh holds Dover against all French attacks.
Chapter 9 2 4 August 1217 The Great Battle of Sandwich:
Hubert’s finest hour 66
Hubert de Burgh, not a recorded mariner, leads a scratch English fleet (about 40
ships) into the Channel to take on a French reinforcement fleet (about 90 ships) led
by the pirate Eustace the Monk. He defeats them in a medieval scenario of ‘the Few’.
In so doing, he saves the throne of the English boy king, Henry III (aged 9) and
thereby the nation. John died in 1216.
Chapter 10 1217–1221 Recovery of the Realm 81
As national Justiciar, Hubert de Burgh restores law and order across England. He
is also the prime mover in a re-issue of Magna Charta to correctly address the legal
grievances of the barons and to make the document more politically correct for future
legal application.
Chapter 11 1221–1226 King in all but Name 89
On behalf of the young Henry III, Hubert effectively governs the realm, but makes
many enemies with his measures to win back royal authority from the still recalcitrant
barony. He governs from his base, a mansion in Westminster, near today’s Banqueting
House. It will later develop into Whitehall, seat of national authority: Hubert was
there first.
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Contents vii
Chapter 12 1227–1230 A Foreboding of Disaster 103
An era which sees Hubert de Burgh ennobled to the earldom of Kent, but which
also multiplies the antagonism of the court Angevins against his essentially English-
thinking government.
Chapter 13 1230–1231 Henry’s Odyssey of Wasted Time 109
Henry with Hubert in reluctant tow, meanders around his few remaining Continental
possessions, but fails to make any belligerent impression on the French. Henry tries
to blame Hubert for his negative attitude to the expedition and punishes him with
confiscation of some of his lands and treasure.
Chapter 14 1232–1234 Fortitude and Survival 117
The Angevin court faction becomes dominant and causes Hubert’s fall from the King’s
favour. He is hunted and chased across southern England for months by Henry III’s
Angevin henchmen, but is rescued from captivity in a night raid by a posse of his
former comrades-in-arms and taken to Wales for safety.
Chapter 15 1 234–1243 The Sunset Years of England’s Elder
Statesman 130
Hubert de Burgh survives all the threats to his life by a demonstration of consummate
political cunning: and he lives to see all his enemies either die, or leave the realm. In
opposition to the young and easily led Henry III he publicly berates the King for his
vindictive attitude. He is granted back almost all his lands and treasure, and then
follows a richly deserved retirement to his country estate in Surrey where he dies in
peace, a grand and respected old courtier.
Chapter 16 In Memoriam 140
The physical memorials to be seen today recalling Hubert de Burgh to modern
memory.
Postscript 144
Appendix 145
Notes and References 147
Select Bibliography 151
Index 155
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Dedicated to the memory of my late cousin – Geoffrey Clements ACII, FSA.
A Home Counties man born and bred, Geoffrey – man of many talents –
from his eighteen-year tenure as treasurer to the Victoria County History
of Essex, and later as its vice-president, knew well, and shared with me his
encyclopaedic knowledge of the southern counties exploits of Hubert de
Burgh, Earl of Kent.
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SCOTLAND
Edinburgh
Newcastle
Carlisle Durham North Sea
Ulster
Connacht York
Meath
Dublin
Chester Lincoln
Leinster Nottingham
PRINCIPALITY
OF WALES Leicester Norwich
Bridgnorth
Munster Cardigan Builth
Hereford Northampton Orford
Colchester
Carmarthen Oxford
Bristol Windsor RochesLteorndon CanterSbaunrdywich
Dover
SSoaultishbaumrpyton Winchester
Bouvines
1214
Rouen
Château Gaillard
Normandy
Paris
ATLANTIC OCEAN
Brittany
Anjou
N Angers
Nantes Ancenis
Chinon Loches
Poitou
W E
Vouvant Poitier
Lusignan
Niort
La Rochelle
S Saintes
e
n
The Angevin Empire A q u itai
Bordeaux
Angevin Empire at its Greatest Extent
French territory retained by John in 1214 Gascony Nîmes
Battle site Bayonne
0 100 km
0 100 miles
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