Hugh Despencer The Younger

A royal chamberlains and a favorite of the English king Edward II, Hugh Despencer the Younger, became one of the most powerful and wealthy men in England.

Despencer was born in a noble family which was present on the English soil since the time of William the Conqueror. His father, Hugh Despenser the Elder was one of the king’s closest and most influential advisers. He arranged a marriage for his son with Eleanor de Clare, an heiress of the Clare fortune and a granddaughter of king Edward I. With the death of his brother in law, the Duke of Gloucester who was killed at Bannockburn in 1314, Despencer acquired one third of the Clare inheritance.

As a favorite of the king, he was appointed Royal Chamberlain in 1318 and had a great influence on the king and affairs of the state. Some historians think that their relationship was homosexual in nature. By 1329 his ambition and greed came to the fore. He used his position to extort vast sums of money and estates and randomly seized lands belonging to others by different immoral and aggressive methods.

English barons, disgusted by his tyranny and power, forced the king to banish Despencer in 1321. However, in the next year he succeeded to return even more powerful and greedy. By 1326 he owned Chepstow, Usk, Tonbridge Castle, Gower and vast tracts of England. He used his position to interfere in state affairs, to imprison and torture the king’s opponents and to obtain ever greater wealth through the abuse of the legal system.

But in 1326, the barons raised the rebellion again. Despencer's army was defeated at Hereford and Despencer and his father were executed, while king Edward II was deposed and murdered in Berkeley Castle the following year.

At the time of Despencer the Younger's death, his income amounted £7,514 a year, with movables worth £3,136 on his English estates and with £5,880 on deposit with Italian bankers. His lands were worth about £65,000. This gave him a total value of £80,000, 1.6% of a net national income of £5m, making him worth £17.7bn in 2010's money.