Hugh d'Avranches 1st Earl of Chester ^{1 2}

   Other names for Hugh were Hugh Lupus d'Avranches, Hugh "Lupus" d'Avranches 1st Earl of Chester and Hugh "the Fat" d'Avranches 1st Earl of Chester.

  Research Notes:

From thepeerage.com:
In 1066 he contributed 60 ships to the invasion of England, but did not fight at the Battle of Hastings.^2,5 He was created 1st Earl of Chester [England] in 1071.¹ He succeeded to the title of Vicomte d'Avranches after 1082.² He founded the Abbey of St. Sever in Normandy and St. Werburg at Chester.² On 23 July 1101 a monk.


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From Wikipedia - Hugh d'Avranches, 1st Earl of Chester :

Hugh d'Avranches (died 27 July 1101), called the Fat or the Wolf (Latin : Lupus, Welsh : Flaidd) was the first Earl of Chester and one of the great magnates of early Norman England .

Early career
Hugh was the son of Richard Goz, Viscount of Avranches , in the far southwest of Normandy , and inherited from his father a large estate, not just in the Avranchin but scattered throughout western Normandy.
Hugh became an important councillor of William, Duke of Normandy . He contributed sixty ships to the invasion of England , but did not fight at Hastings , instead being one of those trusted to stay behind and govern Normandy.

Earl of Chester
After William became king of England, Hugh was given the command of Tutbury Castle Staffordshire but in 1070 he was promoted to become Earl of Chester , with palatine powers in view of Cheshire 's situation on the Welsh border . Tutbury with its surrounding lands was passed to Henry de Ferrers . [1]

Hugh spent much of his time fighting savagely with his neighbours in Wales . Together with his cousin Robert of Rhuddlan he subdued a good part of northern Wales. Initially Robert of Rhuddlan held north-east Wales as a vassal of Hugh. However in 1081 Gruffydd ap Cynan King of Kingdom of Gwynedd was captured by treachery at a meeting near Corwen . Gruffydd was imprisoned by Earl Hugh in his castle at Chester, but it was Robert who took over his kingdom, holding it directly from the king. When Robert was killed by a Welsh raiding party in 1088 Hugh took over these lands, becoming ruler of most of North Wales, but he lost Anglesey and much of the rest of Gwynedd in the Welsh revolt of 1094, led by Gruffydd ap Cynan , who had escaped from captivity.

In time Hugh became so fat he could hardly walk; he is often referred to as "the Fat". The Welsh, for his brutality, called him Flaidd ("the Wolf").

Norwegian invasion
In the summer of 1098 Hugh joined with Hugh of Montgomery, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury in an attempt to recover his losses in Gwynedd. Gruffydd ap Cynan retreated to Anglesey, but then was forced to flee to Ireland when a fleet he had hired from the Danish settlement in Ireland changed sides. The situation was changed by the arrival of a Norwegian fleet under the command of King Magnus III of Norway , also known as Magnus Barefoot, who attacked the Norman forces near the eastern end of the Menai Straits . Earl Hugh of Shrewsbury was killed by an arrow said to have been shot by Magnus himself. The Normans were obliged to evacuate Anglesey, and the following year Gruffydd returned from Ireland to take possession again. Hugh apparently made an agreement with him and did not again try to recover these lands.

Marriage and succession
Hugh married Ermentrude of Claremont , by whom he had one son, Richard , who succeeded him. Richard married Matilda of Blois , daughter of Stephen, Count of Blois and Adela, a daughter of William the Conqueror . Both Richard and Matilda died in the White Ship disaster (1120), and Hugh was then succeeded by his nephew Ranulph le Meschin, Earl of Chester . Hugh was buried beneath the stained glass windows in the Chapter House of Chester Cathedral .

  Noted events in his life were:

• Created: Earl of Chester, 1070.

Hugh married Ermentrude de Clermont, daughter of Hugh de Clermont-en-Beauvaisis and Marguerite de Rameru. (Ermentrude de Clermont was born about 1066 in <Clermont-en-Beauvaisis (Clermont), (Oise), Picardy, France>.)