Hugh IVThe Younger Baron SPENCER, SIR

                   Note:
1 Took part in Edward I's Scottish campaigns and engaged innegotiations with France. On accessio of Edward II, alienatedthe baronial party by support of Piers Gaveston. In 1312 becamechief adviser to the King. Both he and his son were banished in1321 but returned in 1322 after the barons were defeated atBoroughbridge and were the real rulers of England until 1326when they were executed after the invasion of Queen Isabella in1326. See J.C. Davies, Baronial Opposition to Edward II (1918,repr. 1967). COLUMBIA ENCYCLOPAEDIA.
BIOGRAPHY: Supposedly the boyfriend of King Edward II. Fled with Edward II upon rebellion of Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer. Captured with the king, then tried and hanged.
Earl of Gloucester. Lord of Glamorgan on Eleanor's brother's death. Granted forfeited estates of wife's half sister Joan when Joan declared rebel. Wealth enormously increased by Eleanor's 1/3 share of the de Clare estates. Said fortune increased enormoously by violence in 1321-6. Estates & fortune forfeited in 1326, partially restored in 1328. Buried in Tewkesbury Abbey. 2nd Lord Despenser.
BIOGRAPHY: Michael Altschul, *A Baronial Family in Medieval England: The Clares, 1217-1314*, Baltimore MD (The Johns Hopkins Press) 1965, concerning the partition of the de CLARE estates after the death of the last Gilbert, p 170-171: Hugh Despenser and Eleanor [Gilbert's sister] received the lordship of Glamorgan, the most important of all the Clare holdings, along with Rotherfield in Sussex and scattered manors in Devon and Somerset. In addition, each heir acquired two-ninths of the liberty of Kilkenny in Ireland, although there is no evidence that any of them every visited it. (P) The death of the countess in the summer of 1320 completed the division of the estates among th heirs. Maud probably died on July 2, and the properties she held in dower must have been partitioned shortly thereafter. Each received an equal portion of her third of Kilkenny. More importantly, Despenser obtained a substantial share of the honor of Gloucester, including the manor and town of Tewkesbury, the manor of Bushley and the castle and manor of Hanley in Worcester, and other demesne lands in Berkshire, Oxford, and Buckingham. The partition of the Clare estates has been described as the most important territorial upheaval of the reign.
[Denham-Young *Vita Edwardi Secundi, pp xii-xiii*]
Hanged and quartered at Hereford.