As I've been accused by certain persons of bias and unfairness by starting a thread about the misdeeds of Roger Mortimer, to even things out, here's one containing some of the many, many reasons why Hugh Despenser The Younger Was Totally Crap:

- he was a tyrant.

- he was a despot.

- he was greedy to the outer extremes of greediness.

- he treated women badly.

- he ruled England when he had no right to do so.

- he did nothing of any importance while Roger Mortimer was being wildly heroic and brilliant.

- he humiliated Queen Isabella.

- he was a threat to his neighbours in South Wales.

- he caused a civil war.

- he stole sweets from small children. (Probably.)

Feel free to add some more!

He took Eleanor's cart horses once, so that Isabella had to pay for horses to transport Eleanor's goods.

He left England without royal license once.

He assaulted John de Ros. In a cathedral, no less!

He was an extortionist.

He had Llywelyn Bren (sp?) executed.

He took lands from his own sisters-in-law.

Well, what else is a royal favourtite to do - other than abuse his position?

Piers, of course, was just perfect:)

Hehe - you put this up here on purpose didn't you?! Let's see...

He tried to starve himself to death thereby attempting to do Isa and Mort out of an executionfest.

He failed miserably when it came to controlling the weather, especially when he and Ed were trying to escape from south Wales. Mind you, he did once admit that even he couldn't control the wind!

He never managed to match Piers for celebrity status - or insults!

He failed in getting Mort executed when he had the chance.

He failed in getting rid of Isa too, although I'm sure he tried!

For all his letter writing he still didn't leave us enough info in the record collections!

No-one could match Piers No-one could - he was so perfect - so poor Hugh was on a loser there. Did he really try and starve himself?

Susan - I know! How inconsiderate can you get! And then there are all the official records in Latin. Heavens, didn't the man want us to get to know about him 700 odd years later?

Anerje - Yep, he did try and starve himself to death - straight after his capture. I guess he knew what was coming to him and wanted to make sure he was the author of his own death, not Mort or Isa. Also, maybe he was worried that if he reached London they would have executed him in front of his family - or even Edward.

Of course, Isa and Mort had their way in the end by executing him early, in Hereford instead. Even so, he must have been in a very weakened state after 8 or 9 days without food or water.