William Bigod (died 25 November 1120), the heir to the Norfolk earldom, drowned in the disaster of the White Ship as she set sail from Normandy in 1120.
Duke William of Normandy, in becoming King of England, introduced with great vigour the architecture of European society.
William commissioned the church[1] at South Lopham, considered one of the finest examples of Norman architecture in Norfolk.
Arthur Mee states that Earl Hugh is stained with blood of the subsequent civil war, The Anarchy, which occurred between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda (or rather the Countess of Anjou and Normandy and daughter of Henry I).
There are many factors to question the accuracy of this, but certainly Earl Hugh was the scapegoat for a situation, in truth, engineered by the thoughtless ambitions of King Henry I in so marrying his daughter to Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, the natural enemy of the Norman aristocracy.