Hugh of Lincoln, St (c. 1135–1200)

French-born English saint. He entered the Carthusian order at the Grande Chartreuse c. 1160. He became procurator there and was invited to England by Henry II to establish at Witham, Somerset, the first English Carthusian monastery. In 1186 he became bishop of Lincoln, and was responsible for rebuilding much of the city's cathedral; in 1189 he went on an embassy to France; and in 1194 he excommunicated King John. In an important event in English constitutional history, in 1189 he was instrumental in a refusal of a money grant to finance King Richard I's wars. Hugh was born in Avalon, Burgundy, France. He was canonized in 1220.