John FitzHugh (; –1220) was an Anglo-Norman royal counsellor to

King John of England John (24 December 1166 – 19 October 1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philip II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empi ...

. FitzHugh was claimed to be part of a family called the Fitzhughs of Ravensworth, based in northern

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, but it is more likely that his name is merely a

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, b ...

and he was of relatively lowly birth. FitzHugh appears on the

Pipe Rolls The Pipe rolls, sometimes called the Great rollsBrown ''Governance'' pp. 54–56 or the Great Rolls of the Pipe, are a collection of financial records maintained by the English Exchequer, or Treasury, and its successors, as well as the Exche ...

for 1176, ''ad parandas domos'' ("for preparing buildings"); in other years he oversaw repair of castles, including Odiham Castle, Hampshire. He collected taxes, such as

scutage Scutage was a medieval English tax levied on holders of a knight's fee under the feudal land tenure of knight-service. Under feudalism the king, through his vassals, provided land to knights for their support. The knights owed the king militar ...

and

tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Modern tithes are normally voluntary and paid in money, cash, cheques or v ...

s, and in 1212 was recorded as making payments to the keeper of

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'', native to Sub-Saharan Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body (biology), body; a short, rounded head; round ears; and a dark, hairy tuft at the ...

s at the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic citadel and castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamle ...

. In 1204 he was granted land at

Kirtlington Kirtlington is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Oxfordshire about west of Bicester. The parish includes the Hamlet (place), hamlet of Northbrook. The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census recorded the parish's popula ...

, Oxfordshire. FitzHugh was Sheriff of Surrey from 1207 to 1213, and in 1213 was sent as an envoy to the

County of Flanders The County of Flanders was one of the most powerful political entities in the medieval Low Countries, located on the North Sea coast of modern-day Belgium and north-eastern France. Unlike the neighbouring states of Duchy of Brabant, Brabant and ...

. He also had charge of the confiscated estates of the dioceses of Canterbury and

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

when England was under an interdict, and FitzHugh is also recorded as handling large sums of state funds. He was

Constable and Governor of Windsor Castle The Constable and Governor of Windsor Castle is in charge of Windsor Castle in England on behalf of the sovereign. The day-to-day operations are under the Superintendent, who is an officer of the Master of the Household's Department of the Roya ...

in 1201–04 and again in 1205–16. FitzHugh is notable as one of 27 ecclesiastical and secular magnates who had counselled John to accept the terms of

Magna Carta (Medieval Latin for "Great Charter"), sometimes spelled Magna Charta, is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardin ...

in 1215 and is named in the preamble to the document. He joined the rebellious barons in the

First Barons' War The First Barons' War (1215–1217) was a civil war in the Kingdom of England in which a group of rebellious major landowners (commonly referred to as English feudal barony, barons) led by Robert Fitzwalter waged war against John of England, K ...

(1216) and as a result lost control of

Hertford Castle Hertford Castle is a Norman era castle built beside the River Lea in Hertford, the county town of Hertfordshire, England. Most of the internal buildings of the structure have been demolished. The main surviving section is the Tudor gatehouse ...

and Kirtlington. John died in 1216 and FitzHugh returned to the royal side after the

Battle of Lincoln (1217) The Second Battle of Lincoln occurred at Lincoln Castle on Saturday 20 May 1217, during the First Barons' War, between the forces of the future Louis VIII of France and those of King Henry III of England. Louis's forces were attacked by a reli ...

. John FitzHugh married Gunnora de Bendinges; they had a daughter, Juliana, who married Adam FitzHervey. FitzHugh died in 1220 during the

Fifth Crusade The Fifth Crusade (September 1217 - August 29, 1221) was a campaign in a series of Crusades by Western Europeans to reacquire Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land by first conquering Egypt, ruled by the powerful Ayyubid sultanate, led by al- ...

; after his death, his marriage to Gunnora was disputed as invalid.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:FitzHugh, John Year of birth missing 1220 deaths 12th-century English people 13th-century English people Christians of the Fifth Crusade High sheriffs of Surrey