DESPENSER, HUGH LE (d. 1265), chief justiciar of England, first played an important part in 1258, being promi nent on the baronial side in the Mad Parliament of Oxford. In 126o the barons chose him to succeed Hugh Bigod as justiciar, and in 1263 the king was further compelled to put the Tower of Lon don in his hands. On the outbreak of civil war he joined the party of Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, and led the Lon doners when they sacked the manor-house of Isleworth, belonging to Richard, earl of Cornwall, king of the Romans. Having fought at Lewes (1264) he was made governor of six castles after the battle, and was then appointed one of the four arbitrators to medi ate between Simon de Montfort and Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester. He was summoned to Simon de Montfort's parlia ment in 1 264, and acted as justiciar throughout the earl's dictator ship. Despenser was killed at Evesham in Aug. 1265.
See C. Belmont, Simon de Montfort (Paris, 1884) ; T. F. Tout in Owens College Historical Essays, pp. 76 ff. (Manchester, 5902).