Here Lies (bits of) The Younger Despenser?

In the 1970s, the jumbled bones of a man, minus a skull, several vertebrae and a thigh bone, were unearthed at Hulton Abbey. That they had been buried in the chancel immediately suggested that the remains were those of either a wealthy member of the congregation, or one of the Audley family who had endowed the abbey. In 2004 the remains were transferred to the University of Reading, where a closer examination of the bones suggested that the body had been hung, drawn and quartered. This unusual and brutal form of execution was normally reserved for higher status individuals and inflicted for the most serious of state crimes such as treason. Radiocarbon analysis dated the remains to between 1050 and 1385, and further tests suggested they were those of a man over 34 years old.

Hugh Despenser the Younger in the Founders and Benefactors
Book of Tewkesbury Abbey, c. 1525.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Who the man was was unknown, though various candidates from the Audley clan were put forward, but each in turn was ruled out. Then, in an academic article published in 2008, Dr Mary Lewis of the University of Reading suggested that the remains could be those of  Hugh Despenser the Younger. Despenser was the son of Hugh Despenser the Elder, Earl of Winchester, and was related by marriage to the Audley family. He became a favourite, and possible lover, of Edward II and as a result held great influence at court. Despenser's greed, duplicity and politicking however, earned him numerous enemies, including many of his own relations and more dangerously Edward II’s estranged wife Queen Isabella. Despenser’s crimes finally caught up with him when, in 1326, Isabella and her ally, Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, arrived in England at the head of an army of mercenaries, deposed the king and sentenced the Despensers, father and son to death as traitors. On Queen Isabella's orders, the Younger Despenser was hung, drawn and quartered.

‘On 24 November 1326…Despenser was roped to four horses…and dragged through the city to the walls of his own castle, where enormous gallows had been specially constructed…Despenser was raised a full 50 feet…and was lowered onto the ladder. A man climbed along side him sliced off his penis and testicles, flinging them into the fire below…he then plunged a knife into Despenser's abdomen and cut out his entrails and heart…the corpse was lowered to the ground and the head cut off. It was later sent to London, and Despenser's arms, torso and legs were sent to be displayed above the gates of Newcastle, York, Dover and Bristol.’

Dr Lewis based her identification on Despenser's relationship to the abbey's benefactors the Audleys (Hugh de Audley was his brother-in-law, but the family was not on the best of terms with Despenser, having been victims of his covetousness), the age of the remains, the age of the individual (Despenser was 39 at the time of his execution) and the cause of death, while the missing bones were cited as proof by their very absence. When in 1330, Hugh de Despenser's widow, Eleanor de Clare, petitioned the crown for the return of her husband's remains, she is said to have only received his head, a thigh bone and a number of vertebrae which were interred at Tewksbury; these match the parts missing from the Hulton skeleton.

The identification has yet to be proven conclusively by comparing the two sets of remains, but it is an interesting analysis and it is fun to speculate that the partial remains of one of English history’s bad boys somehow wound up being buried in a small, obscure abbey in North Staffordshire.

Reference: Mary E. Lewis,  'A traitor’s death? The identity of a drawn, hanged and quartered man from Hulton Abbey, Staffordshire', published in Antiquity. A quarterly review of archaeology vol. 82 (2008) p. 113-124.