A Most Pious but Impoverished Knight…

 

Hugo Flambard was born around the year 1140, the son of Thurstin who was the illegitimate offspring of Ranulf Flambard, Bishop of Durham and his mistress, Aelfgifu. Hugo’s grandfather was a senior advisor to King William Rufus and held numerous ecclesiastical offices. Most notoriously, Ranulf was responsible for collecting the King's taxes, which he did with legendary efficiency, making him highly unpopular with the vast majority of the population. Ranulf was arrested when Rufus’ brother Henry became king, but subsequently wrote himself into the history books by becoming the first person to escape from the White Tower of the Tower of London. His grandson, Hugo, clearly inherited his grandfather’s courageous and enterprising genes and was able to rise from total obscurity to a position of minor command in King Henry’s army in Wales in the 1160s. When Henry’s forces suffered a major reverse on the Berwyn Mountains, Hugo’s bravery fighting in the rear guard, as the army retreated back over the border, brought him to the attention of the King himself, who rewarded him handsomely for his efforts. In the later stages of the retreat, Hugo was wounded in a Welsh ambush, only being saved by the intervention of the man who had become his great friend during the campaign, Jerrard Sibton. Hugo’s wounds forced him to leave the King’s service and he and Jerrard returned to the north to settle on a small estate inherited, with dubious legality, from his grandfather.

When the Great Rebellion against King Henry began and the current Bishop of Durham, Hugh de Puiset, clandestinely sided with the rebels in order to further feather his own nest, Hugo called upon friends, retainers and the local population to join him in a “Crusade” against the ungodly depredations of the Bishop. With little in the way of resources, Hugo’s struggle was a “David versus Goliath” affair, as he not only had to stand up to the Bishop with his vast wealth, but also, potentially, would have to face the army of King William the Lion and his wild array of marauding Scots. Unbeknown to Hugo, at the outset of the rebellion, the Bishop had called upon his nephew, the Comte du Bar-sur-Seine, for military assistance and so, Hugo and his band of retinue men and local levy would have to stand up to an array of veteran French soldiers as well the Bishop’s loyal retinue.

Having been born on the wrong side of the blanket, Hugo was unable to bear the arms of the Flambard family, so he chose instead to wear the Cross Bottony as his emblem; the three lobes on the arms of the cross, signifying truth, justice and undying loyalty to the king.