Kathryn Warner

Hugh Despenser the Younger & Edward II: Downfall of a King’s Favourite

(Pen & Sword Books, 2018), 232 pp. $20.00

In her introduction, Kathryn Warner states bluntly that, as there has never been a study dedicated to Hugh Despenser the Younger, a surprising omission given his infamous and important role in the later years of King Edward II’s reign, her book is designed “as a personal biography of Hugh Despenser the Younger” and to “present a fresh and original take on a notorious figure” (xiii). Truly, the book centers Hugh rather than the other figures with whom he is normally associated: his father, Hugh the Elder, or the king himself. Yet, although Warner endeavors to clear Hugh’s name of certain crimes which by rumor, bias, or legend have traditionally, but perhaps unjustly been ascribed to Hugh, she does not whitewash his brutality or lawlessness, the characterization of which she admits is accurate. Indeed, she does an excellent job illuminating Hugh’s grasping, devious, and callous nature, and his propensity for using people, even relatives, for his own greedy ends. As these are abundantly illustrated throughout her book, Warner has clearly not set out to rehabilitate Hugh’s reputation.

Warner organizes her material broadly chronologically into fifteen manageable (some might say short) chapters that trace Hugh’s life from beginning to end. Warner’s book is exhaustively researched, relying heavily and admirably on a primary source base including both edited and manuscript sources. She especially has tapped the collection of Hugh Despenser’s French letters, and has provided new translations for excerpts of several. Quotes from these letters are provided under chapter headings, which adds a personal touch to each chapter; although a preface does explain that all such quotes are from Hugh’s letters, they are not independently cited, which is odd given how thoroughly Warner has provided citations throughout her book. Warner also carefully engages with the existing historiography. As such, this is not a book geared towards the casual reader, but rather towards a more academic audience that can both appreciate and digest the plethora of specifics and citations. This is apparent not only in the main text, but also in the helpful appendices that provide meticulous detail, properly cited, of both Hugh Despenser’s itinerary, and mini-biographies of Hugh’s many children.

Warner’s attention to detail in providing as comprehensive a view of Hugh’s life as possible is both a strength and weakness of the book. On the one hand, the wealth of specifics she brings to the narrative – from the details about the minstrels who played at Hugh’s wedding (20) to Hugh’s expenditures on cloth for his household knights (117) – brings to life the intricacies of his daily realities, the nuances of his personality, and the nature of his personal relationships. On the other hand, Warner’s penchant for detail often goes too far, as if she tried to include every detail she gleaned about Hugh, his family, and life into her book. The reader is left wondering how certain details are significant or relevant to the thrust of the narrative, and how they shed further light on Hugh’s life. For example, we are told that when Hugh stayed with the king and others at Langdon Abbey in August 1325, “[t]hey ate seafood in the abbot’s garden” (121); is this really a necessary piece of information? Elsewhere in the book, this tendency to provide rather too much information takes the form of lengthy digressions, such as a genealogical discussion of Roger Damory, one of Hugh Despenser’s contemporaries and adversaries (52), and an economic discussion detailing Hugh’s fondness for purchasing horses (128); better transitions might have been useful for contextualizing such digressions, or indeed, for explaining their importance for Hugh’s biography. Moreover, a lengthy explanation of the future marriages and deaths of Hugh’s daughters seems superfluous in the midst of the narrative of the latter half of 1323 (100), especially given the appendix devoted to his children’s biographies where that information would be better placed. However, rather surprisingly, the chapter dealing with Hugh’s role in the War of Saint-Sardos is lacking in key information. The text never actually explains what the war was or why it was fought; a brief explanation would have provided sorely needed context for understanding Hugh’s – and Edward’s – behavior.

It is with the family information particularly that Warner gets most carried away. Her passion for knowing the intricate relationships and bonds that were forged by the Despenser family through marriage and inheritance over several generations is clear, yet the articulation of such relationships in the book is cumbersome. The genealogical material in the first four chapters is incredibly dense, with a fair amount of repetition and jumping around chronologically that some reorganization may have helped. While the family trees provided are welcome, they are woefully incomplete compared to the crowded discussion in the text; it is not simply, as the first chapter title implies, a matter of “A Plethora of Hugh Despensers”, but rather an almost overwhelming collection of names, relationships, dates, and factoids about the individuals without much explanation about their relative importance for Hugh’s story. One wonders whether all was really necessary for a biography of Hugh Despenser, or whether more judicial editing of details would have provided a clearer and more streamlined discussion of the pertinent information.

There were two odd decisions made in conceptualizing the finished book. Firstly, the subtitle, “Downfall of a King’s Favourite”, while amply dramatic does not seem to describe the book accurately, as only the last two chapters address that aspect of Hugh Despenser’s life (and death). Secondly, the choice to include several color plates – mostly of details of Tewksbury Abbey, where the Despenser family tombs remain, or various Welsh castles held by Hugh – is puzzling, especially as none of the images are directly cited or described in the text. While they are of high quality and certainly pleasant to look at, their purpose for the book is unclear.

Overall, it is obvious that Warner attacked her subject with vigor and scholarly competence. The strength of her book largely lies with her expansive research agenda and her immense knowledge of all matters Hugh Despenser the Younger. That expertise partly fails to translate effectively in the narrative, whose smooth and logical flow is at times disrupted, with the result of reducing somewhat the impact of her biography of this thoroughly unpleasant yet historically influential man.

Ilana Krug
York College of Pennsylvania
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