Bigod is the hero of an altercation with
King Edward I in 1297, which arose from the king's command that Bigod should serve against the
King of France in
Gascony, while Edward himself went to
Flanders. Bigod asserted that by the
feudal tenure of his lands he was only compelled to serve across the seas
in the company of the king himself, whereupon Edward said, "By God, Earl, you shall either go or hang," to which Bigod replied, "By the same oath, O king, I will neither go nor hang." Bigod gained his point, and after Edward had left for France, together with
Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford, Bigod prevented the collection of an
aid for the war and forced Edward to confirm the charters in this year of 1297 and again in 1301. The historian
William Stubbs reckoned Bigod and Bohun as "but degenerate sons of mighty fathers; greater in their opportunities than in their patriotism." Bigod had done good service for the King in the past. In August 1282, for instance, contemporary accounts record Bigod "going to Wales on the king's service." During his absence in Ireland, Bigod had sent letters nominating Reginald Lyvet and William Cadel to act as his attorneys in England for the year. Reginald Lyvet was probably the son of Gilbert de Lyvet, who was
Lord Mayor of Dublin for several terms in the early thirteenth century, and was a partisan of
William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke. Some scholars have wondered how English barons like Bigod and the Clares kept such a tight hold on their Irish lands during a time when the English grip on Ireland was starting to weaken. Apparently part of the secret was the delegation of authority, as in this case by Bigod to his lieutenants Lyvet and Cadel. ==Marriages==