WURTS MAGNA CHARTA provided a brief accounting of the feudal headquarters of some
of the Magna Charta Barons. Some of the castles have been badly damaged. Some have
disappeared entirely. Often we can learn of them through Medieval and Renaissance
accounts, and some of them require the discerning eye of the archeologist. Others await
the evidence brought out with a shovel and pick, by the trained archeological historian.
A portion of the information concerning Surety Baron ROGER BIGOD is as follows:
Bigod is the name associated with Framlingham Castle in Suffolk. It is an imposing
structure. The outer walls are forty-four feet high and eight feet thick. Thirteen towers
fifty-eight feet in height remain, along with a gateway and some outworks. In early Roman
times it was probably the site of the fortified earthwork that sheltered Saint Edmund when
he fled from the Danes in 870, but we cannot be sure of the authenticity of this
tradition. The Danes seized the fort, but they lost it in 921; it then remained a Crown
possession, which passed into the hands of William the Conqueror when he became King. In
1100 Henry I granted the Castle to Roger Bigod, and possibly Roger was the one to erect
the first masonry building.
The ruins indicate a 12th Century dating, though material from an older building may
very well have been used in the walls. Evidently the Castle was completely rebuilt in
1170. It remained in the Bigod family for some generations, then passed into the hands of
the Mowbrays.
ROGER BIGOD, the Surety, was born about 1150 and succeeded as second Earl of Norfolk
and Suffolk. It is fitting that, after Richard's return to England after his captivity in
Germany, Roger Bigod was chosen to be one of the four Earls who carried the silken canopy
for the King, as Hugh Bigod had borne the Royal sceptre in the Royal procession.
Roger Bigod was appointed in 1189 by King Richard one of the Ambassadors to King Philip
of France, to obtain aid for the recovery of the Holy Land. In 1191 he was keeper of
Hereford Castle. He was chief judge in the King's Court from 1195 to 1202. In 120() he was
sent by King John as one of his messengers to summon William the Lion, King of Scotland,
to do homage to him in the Parliament which was held at Lincoln, and subsequently attended
King John into Poitou; but on his return he was won over to the opposition by the rebel
Barons and became one of the strongest advocates of the Charter of Liberty, for which he
was excommunicated by Pope Innocent III He died before August 1221, having married as his
first wife, Isabella daughter of Hameline Plantagenet, who was descended from the Earls of
Warren.
Appreciation is expressed to Reed M. W. Wurts, one of the Heralds of the Society for
furnishing the Barons Shield on this page.