Hubert de Burgh, 1st Earl of Kent

Hubert de Burgh (c. 1165 – 12 May, 1243) was Earl of Kent, Justiciar of England and Ireland, and one of the most influential men in England during the reigns of John and Henry III.

Life

Birth and origins

De Burgh came from a minor gentry family about which little is known. He was possibly a brother of William de Burgh, Governor of Limerick.

Early life

He was a minor official in the household of Prince John in 1197, and became John's chamberlain the next year. He continued as John's chamberlain when the latter became king in 1199.

Honours from John

In the early years of John's reign de Burgh was greatly enriched by royal favour, receiving the honor of Corfe in 1199 and three important castles in Gwent in 1201 (Grosmont, Skenfrith, and Llantilo). He was also sheriff of Dorset, Somerset, and Herefordshire, and castellan of Laucester and Wallingford castles.

The next year de Burgh was appointed Constable of Dover Castle, and also given charge of Falaise, in Normandy. He is cited as having been appointed a Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports by 1215, and although the co-joint position of this office to that of the constableship of Dover Castle was not fully established until after the Baron's War, a rather long period seems to have elasped between the two appointments. (White and Black books of the Cinque Ports Vol XIX 1966)

Captor of Arthur

Now comes the part of his early career for which he is best remembered. After John captured his nephew Arthur of Brittany, niece Eleanor and their allies in 1202, de Burgh was made their jailor.

There is a story (used, for example, by Shakespeare in his play King John) that the king ordered de Burgh to blind Arthur, but that de Burgh refused. The truth of this has been much doubted, however.

Chinon

In any case de Burgh retained the king's trust, and in 1203 was given charge of the great castle at Chinon, in Touraine, a key to the defence of the Loire valley. There de Burgh held out while the rest of the English possessions fell to the French. Chinon was besieged for a year, and finally fell in June, 1205.

During the year he was trapped in Chinon, and the two following years when he was a prisoner of the French, de Burgh lost most of his estates and posts. The reasons are much debated. After his return to England in 1207, he acquired new and different lands and offices. These included the castles of Lafford and Sleaford, and the shrievalty of Lincolnshire. Probably, however, de Burgh spent most of his time in the English holdings in France, where he was seneschal of Poitou.

French invasion

De Burgh remained loyal to the king during the barons' rebellions at the end of John's reign. The Magna Carta mentions him as one of those who advised the king to sign the charter, and he was one of the 25 guarantors of its execution.

De Burgh played a prominent role in the defence of England from the invasion of Louis of France, the son of Philippe II who later became Louis VIII. Louis' first objective was to take Dover Castle, which was in de Burgh's charge. The castle withstood a lengthy siege in the summer and fall of 1216, and Louis withdrew. The next summer Louis could not continue without reinforcements from France. De Burgh gathered a small fleet which defeated a larger French force at the Battle of Dover and Battle of Sandwich, and ultimately lead to the complete withdrawal of the French from England.

Regent to Henry III

After the death of William Marshal in 1219, de Burgh effectively became regent of England. In this position de Burgh acquired a number of enemies and rivals, who were to dog him for the rest of his life.

When Henry III came of age in 1227 de Burgh was made Earl of Kent, and he remained one of the most influential people at court. But in 1232 the plottings of his enemies finally succeeded and he was removed from office and soon was in prison. Two years later, in 1234, Edmund Rich, Archbishop of Canterbury effected a reconciliation.

Death

He died in 1243 in Banstead, Surrey, England.

Marriages and issue

De Burgh married three times:

(1) Beatrice de Warrenne, by whom he had two sons, John and Hubert. The former inherited de Burgh's estates but not his earldom or other titles.
(2) Isabel of Gloucester, ex-wife of King John of England (c. 1217)
(3) Princess Margaret of Scotland, daughter of King William I of Scotland (1221), by whom he had a daughter, Margaret (c. 1222 - 1237), called "Megotta", who married Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester.

Before all these marriages he had a marriage contract with Joan, daughter of William de Reviers, 5th Earl of Devon, but that engagement was broken off in 1200.

Relationship to other de Burghs

The relationship between Hubert de Burgh and the later de Burgh's Earl of Ulster and Lord of Connaught is not clear. They descend from William de Burgh (c. 1160? - 1204) but the relationship between Hubert and William, while generally believed to be true, has never being exactly verified; at most they were brothers, at the very least, cousins.

He was possibly a brother of William de Burgh, Governor of Limerick.

References

Eamon Burke, "Burke People and Places", Dublin, 1995.
D. A. Carpenter, "The Fall of Hubert De Burgh", Journal of British Studies, vol. 19 (1980)
C. Ellis, Hubert de Burgh, A Study in Constancy (1952)
S.H.F. Johnston, "The Lands of Hubert de Burgh", English Historical Review, vol. 50 (1935)
Michael Weiss, "The Castellan: The Early Career of Hubert de Burgh", Viator, vol. 5 (1974)

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