The heroism of Hubert St.Clair has been a favourite theme with English annalists. Lord Lyttelton, Stowe, Camden, Speed, Sir William Pole, Polwhele, etc., all notice the noble self-sacrifice of his life. Hubert was the son of Hamo de St.Clare, whom Henry I had appointed Constable of Colchester, and in course of time succeeded his father in that office. Lord Lyttelton’s account of his fate, appearing in his Life of Henry the Second, gives us a vivid presentment of the scene: -
"Mortimer, though abandoned by his friends, would not lay down his arms. Henry, incensed at his obstinacy, led a great army against him, with which, having divided it into three bodies, he at once assaulted the three castles of Clebury, Wigmore, and Bridgenorth; and though it was expected that each of them would stand a long siege, they were all surrendered to him in a short time. Before that of Bridgenorth, which was defended by Mortimer, he commanded in person, and exposed himself to so much danger, that he would there have been slain, if a faithful vassal had not preferred his life to his own. For while he was busied in giving orders too near the wall, Hubert de St.Clare, constable, or governor of Colchester Castle, who stood by his side, seeing an arrow aimed at him by one of Mortimer's archers, stepped before him, and received it in his own breast. The wound was mortal: he expired in the arms of his master, recommending his daughter (Adelaide), an only child, and an infant, to the care of that prince. It is hard to say which most deserves admiration, a subject, who died to save his king, or a king whose personal virtues could render his safety so dear to a subject, whom he had not obliged by any extraordinary favours! The daughter of Hubert was educated by Henry, with all the affection that he owed to the memory of her father, and when she had attained to maturity, was honourably married to William de Longueville, a nobleman of great distinction. In Knight's "History of England" an illustration of the event is given.
Speed ("History of Great Britain", 1611) has: "It bound Tiberius most of all to Sejanus, when a part of the banqueting cave in which they were, suddenly falling, Sejanus was found to have borne the ruins from the emperor, with the peril of his life; but Sejanus survived that adventure, which our Senclere did not, save only in the better renown thereof, which deserves to be immortal being an act of piety worthy of a statue with Codrus, Curtius, Manlius, or whosoever else have willingly sacrificed themselves". The incident is also recorded by Ralph Niger, a contemporary chronicler under the year 1165, who further tells us that William Longville acquired with Hubert's heiress her paternal heirship, and had by her a son, whom he called by his own name and surname.