Roger Bigod [a] b abt 1049, of Framlingham, Suffolk, England, d 8 Sep 1107, Earsham, Norfolk, England. He md Adelize/Alice de Toeni [b] abt 1082, daughter of Sir Robert de Toeni, Lord of Belvoir, and Adeliza.
Children of Roger Bigod and Adelize/Alice de Toeni were:
- Maud Bigod b abt 1085, prob Norfolk, England. She md William "Pincera" d'Aubigny, Lord of Buckenham, abt 1097, son of Roger d'Aubigny and Amice.
- Sir William Bigod b abt 1188, d 25 Nov 1120.
- Sir Hugh Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, b abt 1099.
- Cecily Bigod b abt 1102, of Suffolk, England. She md Sir William d'Aubigny, Lord of Belvoir, abt 1115, son of Main d'Aubigny and Adelaide de Bohun.
- Jane Bigod b abt 1104, of Suffolk, England, d bef abt 1138. She md Sir Richard Fitz Eustace, Constable of Chester, abt 1120, son of Eustace Fitz John and Agnes Fitz William.
- Gunnor Bigod b abt 1106, Norfolk, England. She md Sir Robert Fitz Suein of Essex, Lord of Rayleigh, abt 1124.
Child of Hugh Bigod and Juliana de Vere was:
Sir Roger Bigod [d], Earl of Norfolk, Magna Carta Surety, Lord of Middleham, b abt 1150, Norfolk, England, d bef 12 Aug 1221, Thetford, Norfolk, England. He md Ida de Toeni [e] abt 1181, probable daughter of Sir Ralph V de Toeni and Margaret de Beaumont. She was b abt 1158.
Children of Roger Bigod and Ida were:
- Margaret Bigod b abt 1182, Thetford, Norfolk, England, d 31 Mar 1237; md Sir William de Hastings abt 1196.
- Sir Hugh Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, b abt 1185.
- Alice Bigod b abt 1188, Thetford, Norfolk, England; md Sir Aubrey IV de Vere, Earl of Oxford.
- Mary Bigod b abt 1192, Thetford, Norfolk, England. She md Sir Ralph Fitz Randolf, Lord of Middleham, abt 1205, son of Sir Robert Fitz Ralph, Lord of Middleham, and Helewise de Glanville.
Children of Hugh Bigod and Maud Marshal were:
- Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, b abt 1209, Thetford, Norfolk, England, d 3 Jul 1270; md Isabella of Scotland May 1225, Alnwick, Northumberland, England.
- Isabel Bigod b abt 1212, Thetford, Norfolk, England, d 1250. She md:
-
[1] Gilbert de Lacy abt 1225, son of Sir Walter de Lacy, Lord of Meath and Weobley, and Margaret/Margery de Braose; and
[2] Sir John Fitz Geoffrey, Justiciar of Ireland, abt 1235, son of Sir Geoffrey Fitz Piers, Earl of Essex, and Aveline de Clare. - Sir Hugh Bigod, Chief Justice of England, b abt 1215.
- Sir Simon Bigod, Knight, b abt 1218, Thetford, Norfolk, England, d bef 1242.
Child of Hugh Bigod and Joan de Stuteville was:
Joan Bigod b abt 1252. She md Sir Philip de Kyme, Lord Kyme, Knight, abt 1266, son of William de Kyme and Lucy de Ros.
NOTES:
a. Roger Bigod, whose parentage is uncertain, held Earsham in Suffolk, in or before 1071. Sometime between 1076-1079, he was one of the King's barons holding pleas at Bury St. Edmunds. Around 1080, his name begins to appear as a witness to royal charters, in which year he was Sheriff of Norfolk. In 1082, he was with the King in Normandy. He also served as Sheriff of Suffolk in 1086, and was also Sheriff of Norfolk the same year. He held great estates in Norfolk and Suffolk, both as tenant-in-chief and as sub-tenant, as well as lands in capite in Essex. He joined the revolt of 1088 and ravaged the countryside and appears to have temporarily lost his estates as a consequence. He continued to witness charters under William II, and in 1091 attested as Steward. He was again Sheriff of Norfolk under William Rufus. He gave the church of St. Felix of Walton to Rochester Cathedral, and in or after 1096 gave land in Norfolk to Norwich Cathedral. On the death of William Rufus, Roger adhered to Henry I, and was present at his Coronation at Westminster on 5 Aug 1100. Henry I subsequently made him one of his councillors, and when Robert of Normandy threatened an invasion of Whitsun in 1101, Roger remained faithful to his King, and continued to act as a steward to the royal household. In 1103, Roger founded the priory of Thetford, in lieu, it is said, of making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He died at Earsham and was buried at Norwich.
b. Alice, sister and coheir of William de Tosny, Lord of Belvoir, succeeded to Belvoir in or before 1130, and was still living in 1136. The consensus of current opinion is that Roger Bigod married but once, and that the two women he was traditionally thought to have married, Adelize and Alice de Toeni, are, in fact, one and the same individual.
c. Sir Hugh's elder brother, William, apparently died unmarried, being among those nobles who drowned in the wreck of the White Ship, 25 Nov 1120, and Hugh succeeded him as lord of Framlingham in 1120. He was with the King at Portsmouth in June of 1123, preparing to travel to Normandy, and from 1130, seems to have been in close attendance to Henry I. Upon the latter's death 1 Dec 1135, Hugh returned to England and declared upon oath before the Archbishop of Canterbury, that the late King had disinherited his daughter and nominated Stephen as his heir, whereupon the Archbishop agreed to consecrate Stephen. Hugh received a false report of Stephen's death at the end of Apr 1136, and he seized Norwich Castle and refused to surrender it until Stephen himself arrived. When the disaffection of Stephen spread among the Barons in 1140, Hugh rebelled, and in early June, Stephen marched against him and took Bungay Castle in Suffolk. Again, in August, Stephen attacked Hugh, after which they came to terms, and Hugh was created Earl of Norfolk in Dec 1140 (or Jan 1141), which included the traditional earldom of Norfolk and Suffolk. Shortly after, on 2 Feb, Hugh was at the battle of Lincoln in the King's army, and was one of the nobles whose troops were routed and who fled at the first onset. He soon went over to the side of the Empress. In 1144, he joined with Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, in laying waste to the east of England, but in 1145, Stephen surprised them, routing their forces and laying waste to Hugh's lands. In 1148, when the Archbishop of Canterbury, in defiance of Stephen, returned to England and landed in East Anglia, he was entertained by Hugh at his castle of Framlingham. In 1153, at the invasion by the Duke of Normandy (afterwards Henry II), Hugh rebelled once more, and seized Ipswich Castle, upon which Stephen marched to Ipswich, besieged the castle, and forced Hugh's surrender. Hugh likely had good reason to revolt, as Stephen had entered upon treaty with Henry, Duke of Normandy, by which Stephen had granted his son William the town and castle of Norwich, as well as the entire comitatus of Norfolk, which would have made Stephen's son William the overlord, and Hugh one of his tenants-in-chief. In Nov 1153, Hugh attested the treaty by which Stephen recognized Henry as his successor, said treaty including a clause which indicated that both parties recognized Hugh's earldom. But once Henry was secure on the throne, he refused to recognize Stephen's original charter to Hugh, changing in effect, the power of Hugh's earldom. From about 1155 until the year before Hugh's death in 1177, the relationship between King Henry and Hugh Bigod vascillated between strained co-existence and outright hostility. In 1157, for an unknown reason, the King ordered surrender of Hugh's castles. Then, in 1166, Hugh was excommunicated by the Pope for his refusal to restore lands belonging to Pentney Priory, which had been alienated to him by the Prior (he was later given absolution by the Pope in this matter). In 1169, he was again excommunicated, this time by Thomas Becket, but again was absolved. By 1173, Hugh had joined the conspiracy of the young King, who promised him the hereditary constableship of Norwich Castle, and the whole of the great honor of Eye. Hugh's possession of the strongholds of Framlingham, Bungay and Walton, combined with his energy in old age, made him one of the most formidable rebels in England. Another rebellion by Hugh ended with a temporary truce between he and the King, but just as the truce was to expire, Hugh had amassed a new force, and in June 1174, led them into Norwich, where they sacked and burned the city and massacred a large number of inhabitants. In response the King formed a large army and was preparing to besiege Bungay and Framlingham simultaneously, when Hugh surrendered and did homage. After this, he appeared to have been restored to a semblance of favor as he witnessed a royal charter in 1175/76, but all was evidently not what it seemed, as the King destroyed Hugh's castles at Framlingham and Bungay in 1176. Hugh died the following year.
d. Son and heir by his father's first wife, Roger appears to have been a loyal subject to the Crown, and certainly not of the rebellious nature of his father. At the battle of Fornham in 1173, he bore the standard of St. Edmund, under which the royal forces fought, being thus in opposition to his father. Upon his father's death he became responsible for the balance of his father's fine. He appears to have attended the King at Windsor, and the young King at Westminster ca. Apr 1180. In 1182, Henry forgave him the fine for his father's debts and restored him the demesnes of the Crown which his father had held. He served as Steward in 1186, and on 3 Sep 1189, was among the barons who attended the Coronation of Richard I, who, on 25 Nov following made him Earl of Norfolk. In 1191, in Richard's absence, Earl Roger acted in support of the Chancellor against Prince John. For the following two years, he appears to have been mostly occupied with duty as a judge, both at Westminster and one eyre in the provinces. He attended Richard's second Coronation, 17 Apr 1194, and in 1195 and 1996 sat as one of the Barons of the Exchequer. He attended the Coronation of John at Westminster, 27 May 1190, and was one of the Earls sent to bring the King of Scotland to Lincoln to do homage to John. He was in England the following three years, until the summer of 1206, when he appears to been abroad in the King's service. In Jan of 1214/15, he was still acting as a royal official, but in June he joined the Barons in their ultimatum from Stamford to King John, and with his son, Hugh, was among the 25 Barons elected to maintain Magna Carta. Roger was among those magnates excommunicated by the Pope in December, whereby his lands were forfeited and ravaged by the King. But he returned to John's allegiance and had order for restoration of his lands Sep 1217. He died four years later.
e. Several preeminent contemporary genealogists now believe that Ida was also the mistress of Henry II, and by this affiliation, mother of William Longespee. Sir William names his mother as Countess Ida in one document, and, as Paul Reed states, if she was an English woman, she is the only Countess Ida of the proper time period. There are other circumstantial but compelling connections between the Bigod, de Toeni, and Longespee lines as pointed out by Douglas Richardson. Additionally, Messrs. Reed and Douglas both believe Ida may have been Ida de Toeni, daughter of Ralph V de Toeni and Margaret de Beaumont. For a full discussion of this subject, see soc.genealogy.medieval.
f. Hugh joined with his father in support of Magna Carta against King John, and was among the 25 Barons elected to support its provisions. He had seisin of his father's lands 2 Aug 1221, and in summer of 1223, he took part in the campaign against Prince Llewelyn. He is recorded as a witness to the confirmation of Magna Carta at Westminster 11 Feb 1224/25, but was dead less than a week later.
g. He served as Chief Justice of England, 1257-60.
CP Vol I[233], Vol VII[354], Vol IX[575-593]; AR: Line 69[28-29], Line 70[28-29], Line 72[29], Line 224[31], Line 246[26], Line 146D[26]
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