Hugh le Despenser, 1st Baron le Despenser (also known as the Younger Despenser; c. 1287/1289 – 24 November 1326) was an English nobleman and royal favourite. He was the son and heir of Hugh Despenser, Earl of Winchester (the Elder Despenser) and his wife Isabel Beauchamp, daughter of William Beauchamp, 9th Earl of Warwick. Despenser rose to national prominence as chamberlain of the royal household and a close favourite of Edward II of England. His influence at court earned him many enemies among the English nobility. After the overthrow of Edward II, Despenser was charged with high treason and ultimately hanged, drawn and quartered.
Despenser the Younger rose to become Chamberlain of the royal household, a position of significant influence as one of King Edward II’s closest advisors. In that role he managed the king’s domestic finances and court affairs, gaining favour and power at court. In 1317 he claimed the Lordship of Glamorgan through his marriage to Eleanor de Clare, daughter of Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Gloucester, a vast Anglo‑Welsh estate inherited after her brother’s death, which made him one of the wealthiest magnates in south Wales. Through royal favour and marriage alliances he then gained additional lands in the Welsh Marches and in England.
At various times he was knight of Hanley Castle in Worcestershire and served as Constable of Odiham Castle. He was also appointed Keeper of Bristol Castle, Portchester Castle, and Dryslwyn Castle, and oversaw the surrounding towns and the Cantref Mawr region in Carmarthenshire. In Wales his authority extended across his lordship’s estates, and in England he was entrusted with the manors and lands of Brecknock, Hay and Cantref Selyf, as well as Huntington in Herefordshire.
Despenser was additionally granted Wallingford Castle in Berkshire, a royal fortress that had previously been held for life by Queen Isabella of France, demonstrating the extraordinary royal confidence he enjoyed.
In May 1306, Despenser was knighted at the Feast of the Swans at Westminster Abbey alongside Prince Edward, and in that summer he married Eleanor de Clare, daughter of the powerful noble Gilbert de Clare and Joan of Acre. Eleanor's grandfather, Edward I, had owed the elder Despenser 2,000 marks, a debt which the marriage settled. When Eleanor's brother, Gilbert, was killed in 1314 at the Battle of Bannockburn, she unexpectedly became one of the three co-heiresses to the rich Gloucester earldom, and in her right, Hugh inherited Glamorgan and other properties. In just a few years Hugh went from a landless knight to one of the wealthiest magnates in the kingdom.
Eleanor was also the niece of the new king, Edward II of England, and this connection brought Despenser closer to the English royal court. He joined the baronial opposition to Piers Gaveston, the king's favourite (and Despenser's brother-in-law, through Gaveston's marriage to Eleanor's sister Margaret). Eager for power and wealth, Despenser seized Tonbridge Castle in 1315, after his brother-in-law's death under the misapprehension that it belonged to his mother-in-law; he relinquished it on discovering that the rightful owner was, in fact, the Archbishop of Canterbury. He was accused of having Llywelyn Bren, a Welsh hostage in his custody, hanged, drawn and quartered on his own authority in 1318, despite the fact that Llywelyn had been "promised leniency" by Roger Mortimer and the earl of Hereford. However, this may actually have been done "at the command of the king himself", with Despenser being blamed because Mortimer and Hereford "could not publicly demonstrate their anger at" King Edward.
Eleanor and Hugh had nine children who survived infancy:
Hugh le Despenser (c. 1308/9 – 8 February 1349), Baron le Despenser, who was summoned to Parliament in 1338. At his death without issue, his nephew Edward, son of his brother Edward, was created Baron le Despenser in 1357.
Edward le Despenser (c. 1310 – 30 September 1342), soldier, killed at the siege of Vannes; father of Edward Despenser, Knight of the Garter, who became Baron le Despenser in a new creation of 1357
Isabel le Despenser, Countess of Arundel (c. 1312 – aft. 1356), the first wife of Richard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel. The marriage was annulled and their child, Edmund, was disinherited.
Joan le Despenser (c. 1314 – 15 November 1384), nun at Shaftesbury Abbey
Gilbert le Despenser (c. 1316 – April 1382)
John le Despenser (c. 1317 – June 1366)
Eleanor le Despenser (c. 1319 – February 1351), nun at Sempringham Priory
Margaret le Despenser (c. August 1323 – 1337), nun at Whatton Priory
Elizabeth le Despenser (c. December 1325 – 13 July 1389), married Maurice de Berkeley, 4th Baron Berkeley.
Despenser became royal chamberlain in 1318. As a royal courtier, he manoeuvred into the affections of King Edward, displacing the previous favourite, Roger d'Amory. This came much to the dismay of the baronage, who saw him as taking their rightful places at court at best; at worst, they feared him becoming another Piers Gaveston, a previous favorite of Edward's who notoriously influenced the king. By 1320, Despenser's greed was running free. He also supposedly vowed revenge on Roger Mortimer, because Mortimer's grandfather had killed his own. By 1321, he had earned many enemies in every stratum of society, from Queen Isabella in France, to the barons, to the common people. There was even a plot to kill Despenser by sticking his wax likeness with pins.
Eventually, the barons took action against King Edward and, at the beseeching of Queen Isabella, forced Despenser and his father into exile in August 1321. However, Edward's intent to summon them back to England was no secret. The king rallied support after an attack against Isabella's party at Leeds Castle, an event possibly orchestrated. Early in the following year, with Mortimer's barons busy putting down uprisings in their lands, the Despensers were able to return. Edward, with the Despensers backing him once more, was able to crush the rebellion, securing first Mortimer's surrender and then that of the earl of Lancaster, who was subsequently executed.