Henry took advantage of Roger's appeal to seize upon the late earl's treasure. Besides the vast estates which he inherited, Hugh Bigod was in receipt of the third penny levied in the county of Norfolk. He was twice married, his first wife being Juliana, sister of Alberic de Vere, earl of Oxford, by whom he had a son, Roger, d. 1221 [q. v.], his successor; and his second, Gundreda, who after his death was married to Roger de Glanville.
[Chronicles of Henry of Huntingdon, Rog. de Hoveden, Rad. de Diceto, Benedict of Peterborough, Gervase of Canterbury (Rolls Series, passim); Dugdale's Baronage, i. 132; Blomfield's Hist. of Norfolk, iii. 24 seq.; Stubbs's Constitutional History and Early Plantagenets; Eyton's Itinerary of Henry II; Additional MS. 31939 (Eyton's Pedigrees), f. 129.]
BIGOD, HUGH (d. 1266), the justiciar, was the younger son of Hugh Bigod, third earl of Norfolk. Nothing is known of his early life. In 39 Henry III he was made chief ranger of Farndale Forest, Yorkshire, in consideration of a payment of 500 marks, and in the next year became governor of the castle of Pickering. In 1257 he accompanied Henry in his expedition into Wales. In 1258, on the formation of the government under the Provisions of Oxford, of which his brother, Roger, d. 1270 [q. v.], earl of Norfolk and marshal of England, was a member, Bigod was named chief justiciar, and in that capacity had the custody of the Tower of London. He was likewise made governor of Dover Castle, but resigned that place in 1261. He must at this period have been very wealthy, for he paid 3,000l. for the wardship of William deKime, of Lincolnshire. His character as a judge has been placed high by Matthew Paris: ‘legum terræ peritum, qui officium justiciariæ strenue peragens nullatenus permittat jus regni vacillare.’ In 1259-60 he went with two of the principal judges on a circuit to administer justice throughout the kingdom. Soon after he became governor of Scarborough, and about the end of 1260 he resigned his office of justiciar, probably from dissatisfaction with the conduct of the barons. He afterwards, in 1263, joined the royal party, and was present on the king's side at the battle of Lewes on 14 May 1264, but fled from the field. He was afterwards reappointed to the government of Pickering Castle. He died about November 1266, leaving a son, Roger, who became in 1270 the fifth earl of Norfolk [q. v.] Bigod was twice married: first to Joanna, daughter of Robert Burnet; and secondly to Joanna, daughter of Nicholas de Stuteville and widow of Hugh Wake.
[Chronicles of Matthew Paris and Gervase of Canterbury (Rolls Ser.); Dugdale's Baronage, i. 135; Foss's Judges of England, ii. 239; Stubbs's Constitutional History.]
BIGOD, ROGER (d. 1221), second Earl of Norfolk, was son of Hugh, first earl [q. v.] On the death of his father in 1176, he and his stepmother, Gundreda, appealed to the king on a dispute touching the inheritance, the countess pressing the claims of her own son. Henry thereupon seized the treasures of Earl Hugh into his own hands, and it seems that during the remainder of this reign Roger had small power, even if his succession was allowed. His position, however, was not entirely overlooked. He appears as a witness to Henry's award between the kings of Navarre and Castile on 16 March 1177, and in 1186 he did his feudal service as steward in the court held at Guildford.
On Richard's succession to the throne, 3 Sept. 1189, Bigod was taken into favour. By charter of 27 Nov. the new king confirmed him in all his honours, in the earldom of Norfolk, and in the stewardship of the royal household, as freely as Roger, his grandfather, and Hugh, his father, had held it. He was next appointed one of the ambassadors to Philip of France to arrange for the crusade, and during Richard's absence from England on that expedition he supported the king's authority against the designs of Prince John. On the pacification of the quarrel between the prince and the chancellor, William Longchamp, bishop of Ely, on 28 July 1191, Bigod was put into possession of the castle of Hereford, one of the strongholds surrendered by John, and was one of the chancellor's sureties in the agreement. In April 1193 he was summoned with certain other barons and prelates to attend the chancellor into Germany, where negotiations were being carried on to effect Richard's release from captivity; and in 1194, after the surrender of Nottingham to the king, he was present in that city at the great council held on 30 March. At Richard's re-coronation, 17 April, he assisted in bearing the canopy. In July or August of the same year he appears as one of the commissioners sent to York to settle a quarrel between the archbishop and the canons.
After Richard's return home, Bigod's name is found on the records as a justiciar, fines being levied before him in the fifth year of that king's reign, and from the seventh onwards. He also appears as a justice itinerant in Norfolk. After Richard's death, Bigod succeeded in gaining John's favour, and in the first years of his reign continued to act as a judge. In October 1200 he was one of the
