Hubert de Burgh

Hubert de Burgh (?-1243), English statesman. He was in the service of King Richard I, and by 1201 he had become chamberlain to King John. According to Ralph of Coggeshall, a contemporary English chronicler, after the English subjugated Normandy (Normandie), Burgh, as jailer, refused to obey a royal order to mutilate his prisoner Arthur, duke of Brittany. Burgh also is said to have urged John to grant the Magna Carta. In 1215 the king appointed Burgh chief justiciar, or justice, of England, an office he held for 17 years. In 1217, after Louis VIII of France had invaded England, Burgh won a naval victory that forced Louis to withdraw and renounce his claims to the English crown. From 1219 until 1227 Burgh was virtual ruler of England as regent for John's successor, Henry III. When Henry attained his majority in 1227, he made Burgh earl of Kent. Later the two men quarreled about a military expedition to France and royal subservience to the papacy. Charged with treason in 1232, Burgh was jailed and stripped of his title and estates. These were restored in 1234, when he received a full pardon.