Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 28.djvu/167

Hugh Wales, and put several bands to flight, he was not able to repress their ravages; at Michaelmas 1095 they took Montgomery and slew all his men that were in the castle. Early in 1098 he joined forces with Hugh, earl of Chester [q.v.], and made war in Anglesey, for the Welsh had made an alliance with the Northmen of Ireland. The earls treated the Welsh with great cruelty [see under ]. When the fleet of the Norwegian king, Magnus Barefoot, appeared, the two earls met at Dwyganwy on the mainland, Hugh of Shrewsbury being first on the spot and waiting some days for his ally. They crossed over into Anglesey, and when the fleet drew near Hugh of Shrewsbury rode along the shore, spurring his horse, for he was in haste to marshal his men lest the Northmen should land before they were drawn up in battle array. As he did so the ships came within bow-shot of him, and Magnus and one of his men both shot at his face, for the rest of him was covered with mail. The king's arrow pierced his eye and killed him. His body was buried in the cloister of Shrewsbury Abbey, which had been built by his father and finished by himself. His death was much lamented. He was a valiant warrior, and, save for his cruelties to the Welsh, was gentle in manner and amiable in disposition. He does not appear to have been married, and was succeeded by his brother Robert of Bellême.

[Orderic, pp. 578, 581, 708 (Duchesne); Ann. Cambr. p.26 (Rolls Ser.); Brut y Tywysogion, pp. 61, 63, 66 (Rolls Ser.); Anglo-Saxon Chron. ann. 1094, 1098 (Rolls Ser.);Florence,an.1098 (Engl.Hist. Soc.); Will. of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum, iv. 306; Powel's Caradoc, p.155; Laing's Heimskringla, iv. 93, ed. Anderson; Giraldus Cambr. Itin. Kambr. ii. 7, Op. vii. 128, 129 (Rolls Ser.); Dugdale's Baronage, p.26, Monasticon, iii. 520; Freeman's Norman Conq. v.113; Freeman's William Rufus,i. 57, 473, ii. 62,129-47.]  HUGH (d. 1101), called, , son of Richard, called Goz, viscount of Avranches, is said to have been a nephew of William the Conqueror, his mother, to whom the name of Emma is given, being a daughter of Herleva ; but for this there seems to be no authority earlier than the fourteenth century. His father, Richard, was the son of Thurstan Goz, lord of Hiesmes, son of Ansfrid, a Dane. Thurstan was unfaithful to Duke William in 1040, and helped Henry, king of France, in his invasion of Normandy. His son Richard remained loyal and made his father's peace with the duke. When the duke was about to invade England, Hugh, who had by that time succeeded to his father's viscounty, was one of his chief councillors, and contributed sixty ships to the invading fleet (, ap. Gesta Willelmi I, p. 121, see also p. 22). He was richly rewarded with grants of English land. When Gerbod, earl of Chester, left England in 1071, the Conqueror bestowed his earldom on Hugh, who was invested with singular power, for he was overlord of all the land in his earldom save what belonged to the bishop, he had a court of his barons or greater tenants in chief, offences were committed against his peace not against the king's, and writs ran in his name. These characteristics became recognised as constituting apalatine earldom. The exceptional power which he held was designed to strengthen him against the Welsh, against whom he carried on frequent and sanguinary wars in conjunction especially with Robert of Rhuddlan [q.v.] and his own baronial tenant Robert of Malpas; he fought successfully in North Wales, invaded Anglesey, and built the castle of Aberlleiniog on the eastern coast of the island. Besides his earldom he held lands in twenty shires.

Extravagant without being liberal he loved show, was always ready for war, and kept an army rather than a household. An inordinate craving for sport led him to lay waste his own lands that he might have more space for hunting and hawking. He was gluttonous and sensual, became so unwieldy that he could scarcely walk, and was generally styled Hugh the Fat; he had many children by different mistresses. His wars with the Welsh were carried on with a savage ferocity, which makes the name Wolf (Lupus) bestowed on him in later days an appropriate designation. At the same time he was a wise counsellor, a loyal subject, and not without strong religious feelings; his household contained several men of high character, his chaplain was a learned and holy man, and both the earl and his countess, Ermentrude, daughter of Hugh of Claremont, count of Beauvais, were friends and admirers of Anselm (, pp. 522, 598;, Historia Novorum, ii. 363). When in 1082 Bishop Odo was planning an expedition to Italy, Hugh prepared to accompany him, but the scheme came to nothing. In the rebellion of 1088 he remained faithful to William Rufus. As viscount of Avranches he upheld the cause of his count Henry [see ], though when both Rufus and Duke Robert marched against the count in 1091, he surrendered his castle to them. The story that it was by his advice that Henry occupied Mont St. Michel is probably without foundation (,1. 14624;, William Rufus, ii. 530). In 1092 he designed to turn out