Hugh de Morville, Lord of Westmorland

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13th century depiction of Thomas Becket's murder; Hugh de Morvile was among the assassins
13th century depiction of Thomas Becket's murder; Hugh de Morvile was among the assassins

Hugh de Morville (died c. 1202) was an Anglo-Norman knight who served King Henry II of England in the late 12th century. He is chiefly infamous as one of the assassins of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1170. He held the title Lord of Westmorland, which he inherited from his father, Hugh de Morville, Lord of Cunningham and Lauderdale.

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[edit] Westmorland

Hugh is thought to have been his father's eldest son. He appears in the service of King Henry from 1158. University of Edinburgh historian Geoffrey W. S. Barrow identifies two charters given by the younger Hugh in his capacity as Lord of Westmorland, one being read aloud to his court at his castle of Appleby on the upper River Eden. One of the witnesses was Harvard de Malnurs, Constable of Knaresborough Castle. This rare surname may refer to a hamlet on the border of Brittany and Maine now called La Malnoyere. Reginald de Beauchamp, who witnessed both charters, suggests a relative of Hugh's mother, Beatrice de Beauchamp.[1]

Another mentioned, Peter de Lacelas, appears to be a kinsman of Gerard de Lacelles and his son Alan, who were firmly established as tenants of the de Morvilles in Westmorland. Alan de Lascelles was captured with his lord at the siege of Alnwick Castle in July 1174. Lascelles has a beauchamp rather than a Morville association, for Loucelles, when the name was derived, is one of a small group of parishes between Bayeux and Caen from which the Beauchamps of Bedford drew their vassals of knightly rank.[2]

[edit] Becket's murder, excommunication and exile

Hugh de Morville and three other of King Henry II's knights, Reginald Fitzurse, William de Tracy, and Richard le Breton (or de Brito), plotted Thomas Becket's murder after interpreting the king's angry words (supposedly "who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?") as a command. They assassinated the archbishop in Canterbury Cathedral on December 29, 1170, and after Henry advised them to flee to Scotland they subsequently took refuge in de Morville's Knaresborough Castle.

It is known that Hugh de Morville, Richard de Brito, and William de Tracy built a church at Alkborough, near Scunthorpe in today's South Humberside, where, until 1690, an inscribed stone on the chancel recorded the benefaction.[3] Any such benefactions made by the assassins failed to impress Pope Alexander III, however, and he excommunicated Tracy and the other murderers on Maundy Thursday, March 25, 1171. Tracy paid scutage on his lands in 1171 and set out for Rome after the end of September, but before Henry II's expedition to Ireland in October.[4] The departure of Hugh de Morville and the other knights to Rome was delayed until two of them, FitzUrse and de Morville, had taken part in the rebellion against the king of 1173-4. The Archbishop's murderers finally gained their audience with the Pope, who, despite their penitance, declared they should be exiled and fight "in knightly arms in The Temple for 14 years" in Jerusalem, and after the given time return to Rome.[5]

Hugh de Morville appears in service to the Crusader-king Richard I in the 1190s. It seems probable that this individual is one and the same as the Lord of Westmorland. He stood hostage for Richard in 1194, when the king had been captured by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor. The German poet Ulrich von Zatzikhoven claimed he got the French language sourcebook for his romance Lanzelet from Hugh de Morville.[6]

[edit] Death and burial

Sir William de Tracy's journey east is confirmed by Romwald, Archbishop of Hovenden and Salerno, who says the Pope instructed the knights, once their duties were fulfilled, to visit the Holy Places barefoot and in hairshirts and then to live alone for the rest of their lives on the Black Mountain near Antioch, spending all their time there in vigils, prayers, and lamentations. Romwald of Hovenden continues that after their death the bodies of the knights were buried at Jerusalem before the door of The Temple. But this does not conform exactly to the tradition that the murderers were buried under the portico in front of the Aqsa mosque, which was the refrectory of the Knights Templars.[7] Another tradition is that the bodies of the knights were returned to the island of Brean Down, off the coast of Weston-super-Mare and buried there.

The Lordship of Westmorland passed to Hugh's sister (some sources say niece), Maud, in 1174; she held the lands until Hugh's expiation. Hugh must have been confirmed dead before 1202 or 03, when his English lands were in the hands of co-heiresses.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Barrow, Geoffrey W. S. "Some Problems in 12th and 13th century Scottish History", p.100-101.
  2. ^ Barrow, Geoffrey W. S. "Some Problems in 12th and 13th century Scottish History", p.101.
  3. ^ Sudeley, Lord, Becket's Murderer William de Tracy, in The Sudeleys - Lords of Toddington, London, 1987, pps:77-8, 82, 88, ISBN 0261-1368
  4. ^ Sudeley, p.85
  5. ^ Sudeley, pp 87-8
  6. ^ Schultz, James A. (1991). "Ulrich von Zatzikhoven". In Norris J. Lacy, The New Arthurian Encyclopedia, pp. 481–482. New York: Garland. ISBN 0-8240-4377-4.
  7. ^ Sudeley p.90-91

[edit] References

  • Barrow, Geoffrey W. S., "Some Problems in 12th and 13th century Scottish History - a Genealogical Approach", in The Scottish Genealogist, Vol. XXV, no. 4, December 1978. ISSN 0300-337X.
  • Lacy, Norris J. (1991). The New Arthurian Encyclopedia. New York: Garland. ISBN 0-8240-4377-4.
  • Ulrich von Zatzikhoven; Kirth, Thomas (translator), Lanzelet, Columbia University Press, 2005. ISBN 3-11018-9364
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