Hugh Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk Hugh became Constable of Norwich Castle in 1122. Hugh initially supported Stephen of Blois as king of England. On the death of Henry I in 1135, his nephew Stephen usurped the throne, despite the oath Stephen and the barons had sworn to accept Henry's daughter Empress Matilda as his successor. It was Bigod who asserted that, in his last days, Henry I had named Stephen to become king at the expense of his daughter Matilda. Civil war resulted when, in 1139 Matilda, commanded the military strength necessary to challenge Stephen within his own realm. King Stephen had the initial support
Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine Brittany in April 1203, Henry effectively became the heir of his maternal uncle John Lackland to the English throne, this ended though when John's son (the future king Henry III) was born in October 1207. After he inherited further significant properties in Saxony from his brother William in 1213, Henry ceded the Palatinate to his son Henry the Younger and moved north. After his son's early death the next year, he left his Welf properties to his nephew, William's son Otto the Child, who became the first Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg in 1235. Henry died in 1227 and is entombed in