Baron le Despencer  Baron le Despencer is a title that has been created several times by writ in the Peerage of England. Sir Hugh le Despenser I was a large landowner in Leicestershire, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Rutland. He was appointed High Sheriff of Staffordshire and Shropshire in 1222 and High Sheriff of Berkshire in 1226 and 1238. The first creation was in 1295, when Hugh the elder Despenser was summoned to the Model Parliament. He was the eldest son of the sometime Justiciar Hugh Despenser (d. 1265), son of Sir Hugh le Despenser I (above). The sometime Justiciar was summoned in 1264 to Simon de Montfort's Parliament and is sometimes considered the first baron. Hugh the younger Despenser, son of Hugh the elder, was also summoned to Parliament in 1314, during his father's lifetime, the second creation of the title. Both elder and younger Despensers were attainted and executed in 1326, extinguishing the two creations. In 1338, Hugh le Despenser, son of Hugh the younger, was summoned to Parliament, the third creation of the title. He died without issue in 1349, and the title became extinct. In 1357, this Hugh's nephew, Edward Despenser, 1st Baron Despenser was summoned to Parliament, the fourth creation. His son Thomas inherited the title in 1375. Thomas was created Earl of Gloucester in 1397, and in 1398, the attainders of the elder and younger Despensers were reversed, making him (in modern law) heir to the first and second creations as well. Thomas himself was attainted in 1400 for his part in the Epiphany Rising. Upon the death of Anne de Beauchamp, 15th Countess of Warwick in 1449, claims to his baronies passed into abeyance, so that the reversal of his attainder in 1461 had no immediate effect. In 1604, the first creation of the barony was called out of abeyance for Mary Fane, the first barony by writ of summons to so be revived. When calling it out of abeyance, the House of Lords gave it precedence as if it had been created in 1264. Her successor in the barony was the first Earl of Westmorland, and the next six earls held the barony and the earldom together.