of the Archbishop of Canterbury, averred upon oath, that King Henry upon his death-bed disinherited his daughter Maud the Empress, and appointed Stephen his heir; for which services (as some say) he was advanced by him to the earldom of the East-Angles, for in the 6th of King Stephen, he was so styled; and in the 12th year of King Henry II. he advanced him anew to the dignity and title of Earl of Norfolk, and to the office of steward, to hold it as amply as Roger his father did in the time of Henry I. notwithstanding all which honours and great favours, conferred on him, he took part with Robert Earl of Leicester, adhering to young King Henry in his rebellious insurrection; for which disloyal practices, he was forced to make his peace with a fine of 1000 marks, a prodigious sum in those days! and going soon after with the Earl of Flanders to the Holy Land, he died in 1177, and the King seized on his treasure; but it was afterwards restored, or at least great part of it, to
Roger Bigod his son and heir, who upon payment of 1000 marks more to King Richard I. in the first year of his reign, viz. 1189, was restored by special grant, both to the earldom and stewardship, and the whole inheritance of his father, to hold them as freely and honourably as his father and grandfather did; and was not only a favourite of the King's, but was entrusted by him, and much employed in publick affairs; for in 1190, he was ambassadour to Philip King of France, to solicit an aid towards the recovery of the Holy-Land; he attended William de Longcamp Bishop of Ely, when he went to King Richard, then made captive in Almaigne; he was one of the four knights which carried the canopy of state over that King's head at his second coronation. He was sent to require William King of Scotland to come to Lincoln and do his homage to King John, whom he attended into Poictou in 1213; but in 1215, he deserted that Prince, being one of those rebellious barons that met in a hostile manner at Stamford, and afterwards at Brackley, and by their power exacted from the King those strict covenants, whereby he insolently wrested the government out of his hands, and put it into the management of himself and his accomplices; for which violent proceedings, he and his twenty-four comrades, who had thus obtained the real government, were excommunicated by Pope Innocent III. He died in 1220, leaving
Hugh Bigot his son and heir, who married Maud, eldest daughter of Will. Marshal Earl of Pembrook and Marshal of England, who outlived him; in 1222, he was with the King's army in Wales, but dying in 1224, this manor and all his inheritance descended to
Roger Bigod their son and heir, who was knighted in 1232; and at a tournament between the southern and northern lords in 1236, was taken much notice of for his singular skill in those warlike exercises. Upon levying the aid to marry the King's eldest daughter, he paid 162l. 11s. for 125 knights fees of the old feofment, and 37 and an half of the new. In 1241, he was with the King in France, and behaved gallantly at the famous skirmish betwixt the French and English near Xantoigne. In 1245, he was one of those that were sent to the council of Lyons, to complain of the burthen the kingdom laid under from the see of Rome, and finding no redress, was one of those lords who subscribed a letter to the Pope, requiring a remedy from such future exactions, and unjust oppressions; and the same year
