Hugh de Beauchamp

Eaton Bray, Bedfordshire

1186

The details of the life of Hugh de Beauchamp, founder of the lineage of the barons of Eaton, can only be reconstructed from documentary sources. He was a member of a minor branch of the greater de Beauchamp family who were the lords of Bedford, identified as a knight of Simon de Beauchamp. In addition to his lands in Bedfordship, he seems to have held knights fees in Normandy and played an active role in military affairs during the Norman border conflicts between Louis VII of France and Henry II of England. An unedited charter of the cartulary of St. Neots in Hungtingdonshire records his wife Philippa de Trailly making a pious benefaction at the time when her husband Hugh de Bello [Campo] had undertaken the journey to Jerusalem. Hugh died at the Battle of Hattin in 1187 and his memory was kept alive in crusade recruitment sermons for decades afterwards.

Tyerman, England and the Crusades, 162; G.H. Fowler, ‘The Beauchamps, Barons of Eaton’, Bedfordshire Historical Record Society 2 (1914): 70 G.H. Fowler, ‘The Beauchamps, Barons of Eaton’, Bedfordshire Historical Record Society 2 (1914): 70