Hugh de Cressingham

Hugh de Cressingham was the English treasurer in Scotland who advised the disastrous attack at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297, where he was killed, and the Scots famously flayed his body.

 

 

Hugh de Cressingham was born in 1264 in Gressingham, Lancashire, England. He was the son of William de Cressingham and Emma Elizabreth de Norfolk. Hugh's wife's name is lost to history; however, they had one daughter, Alice.

Hugh was a clerk and an officer of the English exchequer. He was employed in a matter arising from some wrongdoings to the abbot of Ramsey in 1282. He was attached to the household of Eleanor of Castile, queen of Edward I, as her steward and one of her bailiffs for the barony of Haverford.

In 1292, Hugh was employed by King Edward to audit the debts due to his late Father, King Henry III, and in doing that, for the next three years, was the head of the justice itinerant for the northern counties.

In 1296, after John Baliol surrendered the crown of Scotland to Edward, Cressingham was made treasurer of Scotland. King Edward charged him to spare no expense for the complete reduction of the country. Cressingham was described as a pompous, harsh, and overbearing man. As he drew more power from his position, the people of Scotland's hate for him intensified.

At the same time, William Wallace was driving the English out of northern Scotland as he took back Scone and headed to Stirling. This roused John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey, to take action, and he marched north to Stirling to confront Wallace at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

Hugh de Cressingham, who, it is said, never put on armor, now put on a helmet and breastplate and joined de Warenne's army. De Warenne was hesitant to cross the bridge at Stirling to face Wallace's army, which was perched on the high ground across the River Forth. But it was Cressingham who urged him to give the order to advance.

"It's no use, sir earl", Cressingham said, "to delay further and waste the King's money; let us cross the bridge and do our devoir as we are bound."

With that, the Earl of Surrey gave the fateful order, and the English were badly defeated with great slaughter by the Scots as they attempted to cross the bridge. Hugh de Cressingham crossed the bridge with the army and was among the first killed in battle.

After the battle, the Scots mutilated his body and flayed him. The chronicle of Lanercost Priory reported that rebels dried and cured de Cressingham's hide and "of his skin William Wallace caused a broad strip to be taken from his head to the heel, to make therewith a baldric for his sword.”

There is no record of what became of Hugh de Cressingham's body after the mutilation or if or where he was buried.