21 Facts About Hugh Bardulf

Hugh Bardulf or Hugh Bardolf was a medieval English administrator and royal justice.

Hugh Bardulf served three kings of England before his death.

Hugh Bardulf served as a royal justice and a sheriff during Henry's reign and continued as sheriff under Henry's son and successor, Richard I Because Bardulf was a vassal of Richard's younger brother John, who rebelled against his older brother, Bardulf was denounced briefly as a traitor to Richard.

Hugh Bardulf was quickly restored to royal service and continued in service throughout the rest of Richard's reign and into the reign of John.

Hugh Bardulf died sometime before 1203, and his heir was his brother, Robert Hugh Bardulf.

Ralph V Turner, revising John Horace Round's entry in the Dictionary of National Biography for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says that Hugh was the son of a Hugh Bardulf who died around 1176.

The younger Hugh Bardulf acquired land at Waddington, Lincolnshire as a tenant of Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester, sometime in the middle 1140s.

Hugh Bardulf held that office until Henry's death in 1189.

From about 1185 until 1203, Hugh Bardulf was a royal justice almost annually, usually as a justice of eyre rather than sitting at Westminster.

In 1194, Hugh Bardulf was mentioned on the escheat roll as responsible for the farm of lands held by Osbert de Bayeux, an archdeacon of York.

In 1189, Hugh Bardulf was one of only five sitting sheriffs who retained their office when Richard took the throne; the others included Geoffrey fitzPeter, William Briwerre, and Ranulf de Glanvill.

However, in 1189, Hugh Bardulf did lose custody of Salisbury Castle, which he had held under Henry.

Hugh Bardulf then was involved in the attempts of Walter de Coutances to remove Longchamp from office, which led to Longchamp excommunicating Hugh Bardulf.

In 1193, Hugh Bardulf helped with the defences of Doncaster against the forces of Prince John, Richard's brother, who was rebelling against Richard while the king was on crusade.

However, Hugh Bardulf refused to besiege Tickhill near Doncaster, because he was a vassal of John's, which led to him being denounced as a traitor.

Hugh Bardulf served as a Baron of the Exchequer during the reigns of Henry, Richard and John.

Around 1197, Hugh Bardulf was named as responsible for the "bail and custody" of the Jewish population in England, along with William of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, the Bishop of London, who was his fellow escheator in the north.

Hugh Bardulf continued to serve Richard until the king's death and then served John, who became king, until sometime before Michaelmas 1203, when records show that Hugh Bardulf was known to be deceased.

Hugh Bardulf was known for his legal expertise, which led to him being one of the few justices mentioned by name in Glanvill, an early medieval English legal text, although whether by the original author or by a glossator, is unclear.

Hugh Bardulf remained on such good terms with Hubert Walter, that when Walter was appointed chancellor at the beginning of John's reign, Bardulf made a comment to the new chancellor that included a pointed barb about the last Archbishop of Canterbury to be chancellor, Thomas Becket.

Hugh Bardulf gave land capable of pasturing 500 sheep to Barlings Abbey.