Hugh de Morville, Lord of Cunningham

Who was Hugh de Morville, Lord of Cunningham?

Hugh de Morville was a Norman knight who made his fortune in the service of David fitz Malcolm, Prince of the Cumbrians and King of Scots.

His parentage is said by some to be unclear, but G. W. S. Barrow, in his Anglo-Norman era states:

"it seems probable that the father of William, and the first Hugh de Morville, was the Richard de Morville who witnessed charters by Richard de Redvers for Montebourg and the church of St. Mary in the castle of Néhou in the early twelfth century."

On the other hand, it is thought to be pretty well established that Hugh came to David's service when David held Cotentin in north France, which in turn indicates that Hugh was personally from Normandy and therefore unlikely to be son of a Morville who already had settled to England.

Hugh came from Morville in the Cotentin Peninsula, territory controlled by David since it had been given to him by King Henry I of England some time after 1106. It must have been sometime soon after 1106 that Hugh joined David's small French household followers and military retinue. In 1113 David became Earl of Huntingdon-Northampton and Prince of the Cumbrians, after forcing his brother Alexander, King of Scots, to hand over territory in southern "Scotland". David achieved this with his French followers