Hugh, abbot of Lagny

His birth in any case made Hugh a half-brother of Count Henry I of Champagne who was married to Marie, elder daughter of King Louis VII of France.

Hugh was also half-brother to Cardinal William, Archbishop of Sens and then of Rheims and the first cousin of Henry de Sully, Abbot of Fécamp.

Later (1146-1150) Hugh served as abbot of St Benet's Abbey, situated at Holme or Hulme, on the River Bure within the Broads in Norfolk, England.

The story in John of Oxnead's Chronicle[11] is that Hugh was a capable and serious abbot but made powerful enemies who framed him by having a woman slipped into his bed and then sent armed men to punish the supposed crime by castrating him.

[12] After the violence, John of Oxnead says, Hugh's uncle King Stephen obtained for him the post of abbot of Chertsey Abbey (1149-1163) in Surrey.

It was also a shrine of the relics of a member of the family, Saint Theobald of Provins, who had died a Camaldolese monk in 1066 and was canonized in 1073 by Pope Alexander II.