# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Puiset, Hugh de

​PUISET or PUDSEY, HUGH de (1125?–1195), bishop of Durham and earl of Northumberland, born about 1125, was in all probability the son of that Hugh de Puiset, viscount of Chartres, who was for many years ​the opponent of Louis VI of France. His mother, Agnes, must have been an otherwise unknown daughter of Count Stephen of Blois and Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror; for King Stephen, in a charter to Hugh as bishop, describes him as his nephew. Hugh is also called the king's nephew by Geoffrey of Coldingham; other writers speak of him as ‘cognatus regis’ (Hist. Dunelm. Scriptores tres, pp. 5, xxvii, xxxii). Hugh's elder brother Ebrard was viscount of Chartres, and his great-uncle, Hugh de Puiset, had been made first count of Jaffa by his kinsman Baldwin I of Jerusalem (cf. a notice of the family pedigree ap. Stubbs, Pref. to Rog. Hov. vol. iii. p. xxxiii n.)
Hugh was probably born in the latter part of 1125 (Will. Newb. ii. 436; but cf. Geoffrey of Coldingham, p. 4). He perhaps came to England under the protection of his uncle, Henry of Blois [q. v.], bishop of Winchester, who made him his archdeacon. In September 1143 his cousin William was consecrated archbishop of York, and from him Hugh received the treasurership of that church, thus commencing his lifelong connection with the north of England (John of Hexham, p. 155). This connection Hugh strengthened by an alliance with Adelaide de Percy, who was certainly mother of his son Henry, and perhaps of his other son Hugh also. After Hugh became bishop, Adelaide seems to have married a Morevill, and thus Hugh was closely connected with two great northern families (Stubbs's Pref. to Rog. Hov. vol. iii. p. xxxiv n. 3). Hugh, who styled himself ‘Dei gratia Ebor. thesaurarius et archidiaconus’ (Monasticon Anglicanum, v. 315), supported his cousin William in his contention for the archbishopric, and in 1147 was one of those who joined in the election of Hilary (d. 1169) [q. v.] in opposition to Henry Murdac [q. v.] In 1148 Murdac excommunicated Hugh, who replied by excommunicating the archbishop, but soon after withdrew to his uncle Henry in the south. When, in 1151, Henry of Winchester went to Rome, Hugh was left in charge of his uncle's possessions, and kept his castles and trained his soldiers. Henry of Winchester obtained from Pope Eugenius an order for his nephew's absolution, and after Hugh had been taken into favour at Yarm, the trouble in the northern province for a time was healed (John of Hexham, pp. 155, 158, 162; Norgate, Angevin Kings, i. 382). It was, however, renewed when, on 22 Jan. 1153, Hugh was chosen bishop by Prior Lawrence (d. 1154) [q. v.] and the monks of Durham. Murdac, supported by Bernard of Clairvaux, quashed the election on the score of Hugh's uncanonical age, worldly character, and lack of the requisite learning (Geoffrey of Coldingham, pp. 4, 5). In the consequent quarrel between Murdac, the monks of Durham, and their supporters, Hugh, who was still in the south of England, took no part. But in August he made a fruitless visit to York, and soon after set out for Rome in the company of Lawrence of Durham, and with the approval of Theobald of Canterbury. Before Hugh and his supporters reached Italy they heard that Eugenius, the Cistercian pope, was dead; Anastasius, his successor, approved Hugh's election, and on 20 Dec. consecrated him bishop (ib. p. 6).
Hugh returned to England in the spring of 1154, and on 2 May was enthroned at Durham. Murdac had died in the previous October, and William of York had recovered his archbishopric, according to Gervase, through Hugh's influence with the new pope (Gervase of Canterbury, i. 157). William had hardly reached home when he died in June 1154, and one of Hugh's first acts as bishop was to celebrate the funeral of his cousin and metropolitan. During the first years of his episcopate Hugh was chiefly engaged in securing his position in the north, and took little part in general affairs. He was, however, present at the coronation of Henry II on 19 Dec. 1154, and he seems to have attended at the royal court with tolerable frequency. Thus he was with the king at York in February 1155, and at Windsor in September 1157, and in Normandy when Henry made peace with Louis VII in May 1160 (Eyton, Itinerary of Henry II, i. 5, 30, 49). He was again at Rouen in April 1162, and was an assessor in the royal curia at Westminster on 8 March 1163 (Dugdale, Mon. Angl. vi. 1275). In May 1163 he was one of the English bishops who attended the council of Tours (Ralph de Diceto, ii. 310). In 1166, on the occasion of the marriage of Matilda, daughter of Henry II, he made a return of the military tenures and services within his franchise (Surtees, Hist. Durham, vol. i. pp. xxiv, cxxvi). He steered comparatively clear of the quarrel between the king and Thomas Becket, probably sympathising with the archbishop's ecclesiastical principles, but not wishing to compromise his own political position by decided action. He was, however, present with Roger (d. 1181) [q. v.], archbishop of York, at the coronation of the young king on 14 June 1170, and was in consequence suspended by Alexander III; but he received absolution without having to take an oath of submission to the pope (Gesta Henrici, i. 5–6; Materials for the History of T. Becket, vii. 477–8). ​Three years later, when the king's sons rebelled, Hugh, perhaps influenced by his connection with the French court, for the first time endeavoured to play an important part in political affairs. Though he did not actually join in the rebellion, he permitted William the Lion to enter England unopposed in 1173, and in January 1174 held a conference with the Scottish king at Revedale and purchased a truce for himself for three hundred marks (Ralph de Diceto, i. 376; Gesta Henrici, i. 64). He also fortified Northallerton Castle, and put it in charge of his nephew Hugh, count of Bar, who brought over a force of Fleming mercenaries to his uncle's aid. When the failure of the rebellion was manifest, Hugh came to the king at Northampton on 31 July. But his temporising policy had displeased Henry, and the bishop had to purchase peace by the surrender of his castles of Durham, Norham, and Northallerton; it was with difficulty that he could obtain permission for his nephew and his Flemings to go home undisturbed (ib. i. 73).
During 1174 Hugh made an agreement with Roger of York as to the rights of Hexham and the churches belonging to the see of Durham in Yorkshire (Rog. Hov. ii. 70–1; Raine, Historians of Church of York, iii. 79–81). He was with the king at Woodstock and Nottingham in July–August 1175, and at Westminster in March 1176 (Eyton, Itinerary, pp. 192–3, 200). In March 1177 he was again present in the council at Westminster when the king arbitrated between the kings of Castile and Navarre, and in the following May was allowed to purchase his peace for two thousand marks and obtained a grant of the manor of Whitton for his son Henry. About this time Northallerton Castle was dismantled; nor does the bishop appear to have recovered his castles of Norham and Durham till somewhat later (Gesta Henrici, i. 160). After keeping Christmas 1178 with the king at Windsor, Hugh went abroad to attend the Lateran council at Rome in March 1179. In the following year he was commissioned with Roger of York to excommunicate William the Lion for his action with reference to the bishopric of St. Andrews. In 1181 Hugh and Roger, by the pope's orders, threatened the clergy of St. Andrews with suspension, and put Scotland under an interdict. Hugh was afterwards, in 1182, present at the meeting of Bishop John of St. Andrews with the papal legates (ib. i. 263, 281–282). On 26 June 1181 he had been employed on another papal commission at London on the matter of the dispute between the monks of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, and the archbishop (Gervase of Canterbury, i. 296). Roger of York had died in November 1181, and the long vacancy of the northern primacy which ensued tended to increase Hugh's power and importance. After Roger's death Hugh refused to account to the king for three hundred marks which he had received from the archbishop for charity. Henry, in wrath, ordered the castle of Durham to be taken into his hands; but Hugh's disgrace was not of long duration. He seems to have owed his reconciliation to the king to Geoffrey, the future archbishop of York (Gir. Cambr. iv. 367). He was with Henry at Windsor for Christmas 1184, and in the following March was present at the council at Clerkenwell, where, like many other magnates, he took the cross. On 16 April he passed over to Normandy with the king, and seems to have spent the next twelve months abroad. In March 1186 Henry sent him back to England; Hugh rejoined the king at Carlisle in July, and during the autumn was with Henry at Marlborough and Winchester (Ralph de Diceto, ii. 33–4; Eyton, Itinerary, pp. 263–273). He was at Canterbury on 11 Feb. 1187, when Henry intervened in the dispute between Archbishop Baldwin and the monks of Christchurch, and was afterwards one of the bishops to whom the monks appealed in January 1188 (Gerv. Cant. i. 353; Epistolæ Cantuarienses, p. 148). At the council of Geddington in February 1188, when the news of the fall of Jerusalem was considered, Hugh, with many others, renewed his crusading vows, and afterwards was sent to collect the Saladin tithe from William the Lion, whom he met for this purpose at Birgham in Lothian.
During the last years of the reign of Henry II Hugh had been taking a more prominent part in general English politics. The commencement of the new reign, and the intention of Richard to go on the crusade, opened to him the opportunity to turn his position in the north and his accumulated wealth to further advantage. The appointment of Geoffrey, the new king's half-brother, to be archbishop of York, threatened to interfere with his plans, and Hugh at once joined with Hubert Walter in appealing against the election. On 3 Sept. he was present at Richard's coronation, and walked on the king's right hand. In the subsequent general sale of offices Hugh's wealth placed him at a great advantage; the manor of Sadberge was purchased for his see for six hundred marks, and for the earldom of Northumberland he paid two thousand marks. The latter transaction Richard completed with a jest, saying: ‘See what a fine workman I am, who have made ​an old bishop into a new earl’ (Will. Newb. i. 305; Rog. Hov. iii. 13, 15, and Preface, p. xxviii; Hist. Dunelm. Scriptores tres, Appendix, pp. lix–lxii). At the council of Pipewell on 15 Sept. Hugh was also made justiciar as the colleague of William de Mandeville, third earl of Essex [q. v.], paying one thousand marks for the office. Hugh had thus expended the money which he had accumulated for the crusade, and he now procured exemption from his vow, either on the plea of age or because his presence was needed in England (ib. App. p. lxiii). He had, however, obtained the political position which he aimed at, and endeavoured to secure it by preventing Geoffrey's consecration. Geoffrey had refused to be ordained priest by Hugh in September, and Hugh would not recognise his claims as archbishop, styling himself not only bishop of Durham and earl of Northumberland, but also custos of the church of York (Gir. Cambr. iv. 375, 377).
During the latter part of 1189 Hugh was chiefly engaged in the south of England; on 1 Dec. he was with Richard at Canterbury when the quarrel between Baldwin and his monks was settled. Four days later he once more appealed against Geoffrey's election, but under pressure from the king withdrew and accepted confirmation of his privileges from the archbishop-elect. Through the death of Mandeville in November, a resettlement of the justiciarship had become necessary. Before Richard left England, on 11 Dec., William Longchamp, Hugh Bardulf, and William Brewer were assigned to Hugh de Puiset as his colleagues. Hoveden actually makes Longchamp co-justiciar with Hugh; but the latter may have been really chief justiciar for a short time; it was probably during the ensuing months that the pleas were held in Hugh's name in Northumberland, Yorkshire, and Cumberland (Pipe Roll, 1 Richard I, pp. 84, 139, 243). The real power was, however, in the hands of Longchamp, who held the Tower of London, while Hugh held Windsor. Longchamp would not admit Hugh to the exchequer, nor recognise him as in charge of Northumberland, probably because the payment for the county had not actually been made. In March 1190 Hugh was summoned to the king in Normandy, and the chief-justiciarship was bestowed on Longchamp, Hugh's jurisdiction being confined to the district north of the Humber. Longchamp went back to England before Hugh, and in May visited York to punish those who had been concerned in the persecution of the Jews. Whether justly or not, the punishment fell most heavily on Richard Malebysse [q. v.] and the Percys, the allies and relatives of Hugh of Durham. Hugh's position was too strong for Longchamp to accept it without a struggle, and the chancellor may have deliberately intended to assert his authority within his rival's jurisdiction. Meantime Hugh had come back from Normandy, and now met Longchamp at Blythe in Nottinghamshire. Hugh displayed his commission as justiciar; but Longchamp contrived to postpone a settlement, and when the rivals met again a week later, at Tickhill, produced a commission to himself of later date than the one held by Hugh. The bishop of Durham, who had been forced to enter the castle alone, was then arrested by his rival and taken prisoner to Southwell, where he was kept in custody till he consented to surrender his castles, justiciarship, and earldom, and to give his son Henry and another knight as hostages for his good behaviour (Devizes, p. 13; Gesta Ricardi, ii. 109). As Hugh proceeded northwards he was again arrested, at Howden, and compelled to give security that he would reside there during Longchamp's pleasure. Hugh at once sent messengers to Richard at Marseilles, and the king, perhaps feeling that the bishop had been harshly treated, ordered the manor of Sadberge and earldom of Northumberland to be restored to him (ib. ii. 110; Rog. Hov. iii. 38).
In the complicated politics of the next few years Hugh's first purpose was to avoid making formal submission to Geoffrey of York, and in 1190 he accordingly obtained from Pope Clement the privilege of exemption (Gir. Cambr. iv. 383, says he did so by bribery). This privilege was, however, reversed through the intervention of Queen Eleanor in the following year, when Celestine III ordered Hugh to attend and make his profession of obedience at York (Raine, Historians of the Church of York, iii. 88; Rog. Hov. iii. 78). Nevertheless when the outrage on Archbishop Geoffrey furnished the pretext for an attack on Longchamp, Hugh joined the opposition. He had been one of the mediators in the agreement between Earl John and Longchamp at Winchester on 30 July 1191 (ib. iii. 134), but his own wrongs were now made a ground of complaint against the chancellor, and he was present at the deposition of Longchamp on 8 Oct. (ib. iii. 145). No sooner was his more formidable rival disposed of than Hugh resumed his quarrel with Geoffrey. He refused to make his profession, declaring that he had made it once and for all to Archbishop Roger, and appealed to the pope. Geoffrey, after three citations, excommunicated Hugh in ​November or December 1191. In spite of the sentence, Earl John spent Christmas with the bishop of Durham at Howden. On 2 Feb. 1192 Geoffrey repeated his sentence, and rejected the offer of arbitration which Hugh made in the following month. Shortly afterwards the excommunication of Hugh was annulled by a papal letter, and delegates were appointed to deal with the dispute. After several adjournments the matter was at length decided in October 1192, and Hugh was ordered to make his submission (ib. iii. 171–2; Will. Newb. i. 371; Gerv. Cant. i. 513; Hist. Dunelm. Script. tres, App. p. lxiii).
In February 1192 Hugh had been sent to France by Queen Eleanor to mediate with the legates whom the pope had sent to decide the dispute between Longchamp and Walter de Coutances, but his intervention was attended with little success (Gesta Ricardi, ii. 246–50). Hugh was summoned by Walter de Coutances to the council held at Oxford on 28 Feb. 1193 to consider the measures rendered necessary by the king's captivity, and in April joined Archbishop Geoffrey in besieging John's castle of Tickhill. It was with reluctance that Hugh abandoned the siege on the conclusion of a truce, and when the war broke out again in February 1194 he collected a fresh force, and in the following month captured the castle (Rog. Hov. iii. 196–197, 208, 238). On 27 March he met Richard at Nottingham, and was favourably received; three days later he was present at the great council. On 11 April Hugh was appointed to provide for the escort of William the Lion to the court. Next day he went to his manor of Brackley, and there quarrelled with the king of Scots, who complained of his conduct to Richard. On 17 April Hugh attended the coronation at Winchester, and a week later was still with Richard at Portsmouth (Ancient Charters, p. 102, Pipe Rolls Soc.) Richard appears to have rebuked him sharply for his conduct at Brackley, and Hugh, observing the change in the king's disposition, thought fit to surrender his earldom of Northumberland, which was promptly bestowed on Hugh Bardulf (Rog. Hov. iii. 245–7; Vita S. Godrici, p. 178; Will. Newb. ii. 416). Almost immediately afterwards Bishop Hugh offered two thousand marks for a renewal of his grant, and refused to give Bardulf possession. Richard agreed to Hugh's request if security were given for the payment. Bardulf then cheated Hugh by a trick, and deceived the king, who ordered the bishop to be deprived not only of his county and castles, but of the two thousand marks and manor of Sadberge as well (Rog. Hov. iii. 260–1). On 29 Sept. Hugh came to York under a papal commission, and declared Archbishop Geoffrey's sentences against his opponents null and void (ib. iii. 273). He was still endeavouring to recover his position, and Geoffrey of Coldingham (p. 15) says that the king was appeased and Sadberge restored on payment of two thousand marks. According to William of Newburgh, Hugh wished to repurchase the earldom, and Richard, though he gave an evasive reply, offered, if Hugh would bring the money to London, to associate him in office with Hubert Walter. Hugh accepted gladly, and started southwards. On Shrove Tuesday (15 Feb.) he was at Craike, and on the following day came to York. From York he rode to Doncaster, where he was taken so ill that he had to proceed to Howden by boat. He reached Howden on 20 Feb., and, growing steadily worse, died there on 3 March. His body was taken back to Durham and buried in the chapter-house. Both Geoffrey of Coldingham and William of Newburgh assert that Hugh's death was due to his having partaken too freely of the Shrovetide feast at Craike. St. Godric was said to have prophesied that Hugh would be blind for seven years before his death, and the bishop, deceived by his unimpaired vigour, thought he had still long to live. After his death men interpreted the prophecy as referring to the moral blindness which immersed him for the last years of his life in political affairs (Will. Newb. ii. 439–40; Geoffrey of Coldingham, p. 15; Rog. Hov. iii. 284–5).
Hugh de Puiset was in many respects one of the most remarkable men of his time. In person he was tall and handsome, and preserved his remarkable bodily vigour till the end of his life. In public affairs he was keen and energetic, eloquent in speech, affable in manners, and prudent in action. His secular ambition and thirst for riches made him selfish, but he was nevertheless lavish and splendid in the use that he made of his power and wealth. His position as a bishop was unique in England; as earl-palatine of Durham he was a secular as well as an ecclesiastical potentate, and his secular authority extended over much of the present county of Northumberland, the whole of which lay within his ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Thus the duty of keeping the marchland between England and Scotland devolved naturally upon him. In Hugh's own case the importance of this position was enhanced by his long tenure of office, by the vacancy of the metropolitan see of York after 1181, and by his acquisition for a time of the earldom of Northumberland. Had he realised his ambitions to the full, he would have filled a place more exactly resembling that held by the ​great ecclesiastical princes of Germany than anything that has ever existed in England. Even as it was, he left a mark upon the north which is not yet effaced (Stubbs). At first he won golden opinions as bishop by his affable and prudent bearing, but as his position became more secure his attitude changed. He governed his bishopric and palatinate with a strong hand, and with a not too scrupulous regard for their ancient customs; but though he would brook no interference from his subjects, he was firm in the maintenance of their joint privileges against king and archbishop. If his government was vigorous, it was on the whole beneficent; and if his subjects groaned under his exactions, they nevertheless took pride in his magnificence. He was a great builder of castles and churches, had a royal love for the chase, and lived in almost kingly state. Northallerton Castle, the keep at Norham, the galilee at Durham Cathedral, the church and bishop's mansion at Darlington, all owed their existence to him; while at Durham he also repaired the castle, built the Elvet bridge, and completed the city wall. When he was preparing to go on the crusade he had equipped a number of fine ships, one of which was sailed by Robert de Stockton to London for the king's service (Madox, History of the Exchequer, i. 493). In the forest of Weardale he had his ‘great chace’ (Boldon Buke, p. liv). Hugh's benefactions were not less splendid; at Sherburn, near Durham, he founded a hospital for lepers, which still exists as an almshouse (Surtees, Hist. Durham, i. 127–37, 283). At Durham he provided a shrine for the relics of Bede, and gave a cross and chalice of gold to the cathedral (for his buildings and benefactions see Sym. Dunelm. i. 168, Rolls Ser.; Geoffrey of Coldingham, pp. 11, 12; De Cuthberti Virtutibus, p. 215; Surtees, i. xxvi; the hospital of St. James at Northallerton, sometimes set to Puiset's credit, was founded by his successor, Philip of Poitiers [q. v.]; Archbishop Gray's Reg. Surtees Soc. lvi. 180). If Hugh was not learned, he was a patron of learning in others. Reginald of Durham dedicated his life of St. Godric to him (Vita Godrici, p. 1), and Alan de Insulis addressed his ‘Historia Bruti’ to him in a preface in which he compared him to Mæcenas (Laurence of Durham, Poemata, pp. 88–89, Surtees Soc.) At his death Hugh left books to Durham Cathedral, among them a bible in four volumes, which is still preserved there, and also a collection of the letters of Peter of Blois, who had benefited by Hugh's protection after the death of Henry II (Wills and Inventories, i. 4, Surtees Soc.; Peter of Blois, Epist. 127). Roger of Hoveden may have lived under Hugh's protection at Howden, and derived some of his information from this connection. The bishop had a chaplain, William of Howden, who was perhaps a brother of the historian (Stubbs's Pref. to Rog. Hov. vol. i. pp. xiv, lxviii). A letter from Hugh to Archbishop Richard, describing a miracle worked by Thomas Becket, is printed in the ‘Materials for the History of T. Becket,’ i. 419. There are letters to Hugh from Gilbert Foliot and from Roger of York among the ‘Epistles’ of Foliot (Migne, Patrologia, vol. cxc. cols. 911, 1106), and from John of Salisbury, Ep. 25 (ib. vol. cxcix.) Charters of Bishop Hugh's are to be found in the ‘Feodarium Prioratus Dunelmensis,’ ‘Finchale Priory,’ and ‘Historiæ Dunelmensis Scriptores tres’ (all published by the Surtees Society). There is an engraving of his seal in Surtees's ‘History of Durham,’ vol. i. plate 5.
At the feast of St. Cuthbert in 1183 Bishop Hugh ordered a survey to be made of all settled rents and customs due to him from the bishopric. This survey may be described as the ‘Domesday Book’ of the Durham Palatinate, and is popularly known as ‘Boldon Buke.’ The original manuscript has not been preserved, although four transcripts have survived, the earliest of which dates from about 1300. ‘Boldon Buke’ was printed in the appendix to Domesday, and was again edited for the Surtees Society by the Rev. W. Greenwell in 1852.
William of Newburgh (ii. 440–1) states that Hugh de Puiset, before he became bishop, had three bastards by different mothers. Henry, the eldest, whom we know to have been the son of Adelaide de Percy (cf. a charter of Henry de Puiset, ap. Rog. Hov. vol. iii. Pref. p. xxxiv), was brought up to a military career, and received considerable grants of land from his father (cf. Priory of Finchale, Surtees Soc.). He was in disgrace in 1198 (Madox, Hist. Exchequer, i. 366). In May 1201 he was sent by John on a mission to the king of Scots (Rog. Hov. iv. 163). That same year he went on the crusade (Cal. Rot. Pat. i. 3), but survived to come home, and died in 1212. He was a great benefactor of Finchale Priory and of Sallay Abbey (Rog. Hov. iv. 39, 43; Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, v. 310). He married Dionysia, daughter of Odo de Thilli (Madox, Hist. i. 513), but, as his estates escheated to the crown (Cal. Rot. Claus. i. 124), presumably left no issue. It does not therefore appear that the later family of Pudsey, in Craven, can have traced their descent from Bishop Hugh, as is sometimes supposed (cf. Whitaker, Hist. of Craven, 3rd edit. p. 126). According to William ​of Newburgh, the bishop's second son was Bouchard, archdeacon of Durham, for whom Hugh purchased the treasurership of York in 1189; but Bouchard is generally described as the bishop's nephew. He died in 1196 (Rog. Hov. iii. 16–18, 31, iv. 14). The third son, Hugh, was chancellor to Louis VII of France in 1179, and attests charters of Philip Augustus from 1180 to 1185, in which latter year he died (ib. ii. 193). The bishop's nephew, Hugh, count of Bar, died in 1189, and was buried in the galilee at Durham (ib. iii. 19).
C. L. K.