he asked Gilbert Foliot [q. v.] why he suffered the archbishop to bear his own cross (Materials, &c., iii. 57). He accompanied Becket in his exile, but before 1170 was reconciled to the king with the archbishop's consent. Hugh now appears to have entered the royal service, and was closely attached to the court throughout the rest of the reign of Henry II; he is referred to by Giraldus Cambrensis (Opera, iv. 394) and in the ‘Gesta Henrici’ (ii. 3) as a clerk and friend of the king. Arnulf wrote to Henry that he might employ Hugh with confidence, for, though devotion would not make him loyal, fear and self-interest would (Epistola, 127). Hugh was made archdeacon of Oxford in 1183 by his countryman, Walter de Coutances (Le Neve, Fasti, ii. 64), but the first particular mention of him in Henry's service does not occur till 1184, when he was sent to Pope Lucius to intercede with him on behalf of Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony. Hugh found the pope at Verona. He returned to Winchester in January 1185, and was rewarded for his success by promotion to the see of Lichfield and Coventry, or Chester, as it was then commonly styled. Gervase of Canterbury (i. 326) says that Hugh was ‘thrust into the see,’ so that he was probably from the start in a position of antagonism to the monks at Coventry, to whom the right of election belonged.
In 1186 Hugh was sent on another mission to the pope to procure one or two cardinals to act as legates with him in Ireland for the coronation of Henry's son John. In December he returned with the Cardinal Octavian; on 24 Dec. the two legates, though neither of them was a bishop, entered the cathedral at Canterbury with their mitres on and their crosses erect, and on 1 Jan. 1187 they were received by the king at Westminster. They claimed to have authority in all ecclesiastical matters, and Archbishop Baldwin, taking alarm at their pretensions, persuaded Henry to postpone the coronation and take the legates over to Normandy (Gesta Henrici, ii. 3, 4). However, Hugh was first sent to Canterbury with the bishops of Norwich and Worcester to try and effect an arrangement between the archbishop and his monks, but without result. On 27 Feb. Hugh went abroad with the king, and we find him with Henry at Alençon in August, and at Cherbourg on 1 Jan. 1188. About 27 Jan. Hugh returned with Baldwin to England, and on 31 Jan. he was at length consecrated by the archbishop at Lambeth. Henry himself crossed over on 30 Jan., and Hugh at once rejoined him at Otford. On 11 Feb., at the council of Geddington, Hugh was foremost in violence against the monks of Canterbury (Epp. Cant. p. 259). Immediately afterwards he was sent on a second fruitless errand to advise submission. In March Hugh went over to France, and was present at the enactment of the Saladin tithe. On 16 June he was sent on an embassy to Philip Augustus. Probably he remained with the king in France, and was one of the small band that continued faithful to Henry till the last; he was certainly with the king at La Ferté in June 1189. Like other of Henry's courtiers, Hugh seems to have been at once reconciled to the new king, and was sent over by Richard to England in August. He was present at the coronation on 3 Sept., and at the council of Pipewell on 15 Sept. On 1 Dec. he was present at the pacification of Baldwin's long quarrel with his monks at Canterbury, and on 5 Dec. witnessed the charter of release to William the Lion.
Up to this time Hugh had remained a court official, but he had already become involved in a quarrel with his monks at Coventry, similar to the one which had caused so much trouble at Canterbury. William of Newburgh says that as soon as Hugh was made bishop he attacked the monks, and, after stirring up discord between them and their prior, took advantage of the scandal to expel them by force (i. 395). Gervase of Canterbury (i. 461) says that Richard, in his greed to obtain money for the crusade, sold Coventry priory to Hugh for three hundred marks, and that the monks were expelled on 9 Oct. 1189. According to Giraldus Cambrensis (Opera, iv. 64–7), Hugh was repulsed with violence, and, coming to London, appealed to the other bishops in the council held at Westminster on 8 Nov.; he obtained the excommunication of his opponents, and advised a general substitution of secular clergy for monks, promising that if the other bishops concerned would give two thousand marks to be sent to Rome, he would add another one thousand out of his own revenues. Archbishop Baldwin opposed this suggestion, and Hugh then set out for Rome with letters from his colleagues. It hardly seems possible that Hugh went to Rome in person, for in March 1190 he joined Richard at Rouen (Epp. Cant. p. 324; Rog. Hov. iii. 32). The expulsion of the monks does not seem to have been finally effected till the latter part of 1190, for we know that their exile lasted seven and a half years (Ann. Mon. i. 54). From Newburgh we learn that Hugh gained his end through the assistance of William Longchamp. Richard of Devizes says that the ejection of the monks was ordered in the council held by Longchamp as papal legate at Westminster on 13 Oct. 1190. On the receipt of Hugh's request the
