<g>Pembrokeshire</g>.
“Hic exarmatum terris cingentibus æquor,
Clauditur, et placidam descit servare quietem.”
“In agro totius Walliæ amœnissimo, principale provinciæ municipium
Demetiæq. caput, in Saxosa quadam et oblonga rupis in capite
bifurco complectitur. Unde Britannis <g>Pembro</g> dicitur, quod caput
marinum sonat, et nobis Penbroke.”--_Gyrald._
<g>Earldom.</g>--“There have been divers Earls of Pembroke,” says Camden, “out
of sundry houses. As for <g>Arnulph</g> of Montgomery, who first wonne it, and
was afterwards outlawed, and his castellan <g>Girald</g>, whom King Henry the
First made afterwards president over the whole country, I dare scarcely
affirm that they were <g>Earles</g>. The first that was styled Earle of
Pembroke was Gilbert, surnamed ‘Strongbow,’[367] son of Gilbert de
Clare, in the time of King <g>Stephen</g>. This Gilbert, or Gislebert, de
Clare, let it unto his sonne, the said Richard Strongbow, the renowned
conqueror of Ireland, and descended, as Gyraldus informs us, “ex clara
Clarenium familia”--the noble family of Clare, or Clarence. His only
daughter, <g>Isabel</g>,[368] brought the same honour to her husband, William,
surnamed the <g>Mareschal</g>, for that his ancestours had beene by inheritance
mareschals of the King’s palace, a man most glorious in war and
peace,[369] and protector of the kingdome in the minority of <g>K. Henry</g>
the Third,[370] concerning whom this pithie epitaph is extant in
Rodburne’s Annales: ‘Sum quem Saturnus,’[371] &c., which is thus done
into English--
‘Whom Ireland once a Saturn found, England a sunne to be;
Whom Normandie, a Mercury, and France, Mars,--I am he.’”
“After him,” continues our authority, “his five sons were successively,
one after another, Earles of Pembroke; namely, William, called the
younger; Richard, who, after he had rebelled against King Henry the
Third, went into Ireland, where he was slain in battle; Gilbert, who, in
a tournament at <g>Ware</g>,[372] was unhorsed, and so killed; Walter and
Anselm, who severally enjoyed the honor but a few daies; and all dying
without issue, the King invested in the honor of this earldome William
de <g>Valentia</g>, his brother by the mother’s side, who had to wife Joan,
daughter of Gwarin de <g>Montchensi</g>, by the daughter of the foresaid
William the Mareschal.”
Of this Earl Valence we read, shortly after this, that the King,
solemnizing the festival of St. <g>Edward’s</g> translation, in the church at
Westminster, with great state, sitting on his royal throne in “a rich
robe of Baudekyn,” and the crown on his head, caused this William de
Valence, with divers other young noblemen, to be brought before him, and
so girt him with the sword of knighthood.
In a tournament held at Bruckley, it is said that he much abused Sir
William <g>Adingsells</g>, a valiant knight, through the countenance of
Richard, Earl of Gloucester. The following year he was signed with the
<g>cross</g>, together with the King himself, and divers other noble persons,
in order to an expedition to the Holy Land; and at the same time he
obtained the King’s precept to Robert Walrane, to distrain all such
persons as did possess any of the property belonging to Joan his wife,
one of the cousins and heirs to Walter Mareschal, Earl of Pembroke, to
perform their suit to the county of Pembroke, as they had wont to do in
the time of that earl.[373]
This Earl <g>Valence</g> was present at the battle of Lewes, some particulars
of which have been detailed in the first volume of this work. “When he
had lost the day, and with the Prince was made prisoner, William de
Valence, then called Earl of Pembroke, though not before, as it is
thought, being a principal commander in the van of the King’s army,
seeing the day lost, with the Earl of Warren and some others, escaped by
flight, first to the castle of Pevensey, and thence to France. After
which, all being in the power of the Barons, his lands were seized, and
those in Surrey and Sussex committed to the custody of John de Aburnum
and John de Wanton. And whereas <g>Joan</g> his lady was then great with child,
and with her family and children in Windsor Castle, she was commanded to
depart thence, and betake herself to some religious house or other place
near at hand, until after her delivery. In which distress, the King,
still their prisoner, being forced to comply with them in whatsoever
they required, submitted to their ordinances of Oxford; the chief of his
friends also giving oath for the due observance of them; amongst whom
this William de Valence, then come back into England, was one.”
“<g>But</g> long it was not ere the two principal ringleaders in this tragic
action, namely, <g>Montfort</g>, Earl of Leicester, and <g>Clare</g>, Earl of
Gloucester, fell at odds--Clare stomaching Leicester for assuming to
himself the whole sway in the government; betaking him, therefore, to
those true-hearted Royalists who had stood firm to the King in his
greatest miseries, a means was contrived for the Prince to escape from
Hereford Castle, where, with the King his father, he was kept prisoner.”
“Whereupon this
<g>William</g>, Earl of Pembroke, with John, Earl <g>Warren</g>, who had been banished
the realm by a public edict of Montfort, landing at <g>Pembroke</g>, about the
beginning of May, with about a hundred and twenty men, horse and foot,
joined with them; and within a short time after, giving battle to
Montfort and his party at <g>Evesham</g>, totally vanquished all their whole
army; whereby the King, being set at liberty, was again restored to the
exercise of his regal power.”[374]
This Earl William had issue three sons: to wit, John, who died young;
William, and Aymer. “William was lord of Montygnac and Belluc; and in
the 7th Edw. I. did oblige himself, on the behalf of John, Lord <g>Visci</g>,
who had married Mary, the sister of Hugh de Lezinian (Lusignan), Earl of
<g>March</g>, for the repayment of two thousand five hundred pounds _Tournois_,
in case she should die without issue. After which, being with Gilbert,
Earl of Gloucester, in a skirmish which he had with the <g>Welsh</g>, near
Llantipowhir, was there slain in his father’s lifetime.” So that
<g>Aymer</g> de Valence, the third son--a name of great celebrity--succeeded to
the earldom of Pembroke. He attended the King in the expedition made
into Flanders; and the same year was assigned one of the commissioners
to ratify the agreement betwixt the King and Florence, Earl of Holland,
touching those auxiliaries which he was to have from that Earl in his
present wars; as also one of the ambassadors sent to treat of truce
betwixt King Edward and the King of <g>France</g>. He next attended the King
two years in his wars in Scotland; and was then sent ambassador to treat
with those from the King of France, touching a peace with the Scots. Two
years after this he was again in Scotland; and the same year (33d Edw.
I.) he had license to go beyond sea on his own occasions.
On his return he obtained a grant from the King, of the castles of
Selkirk and Troquair in Scotland; also of the borough of Peebles, to
hold by the service of one knight’s fees; likewise of the whole forest
of Selkirk in fee-farm, paying a hundred and thirty pounds per annum;
and to be sheriff there [as Sir Walter Scott was in our own times,
though with very different powers]; with authority to build towns,
churches, castles, and other fortifications; as also for free warren,
and power to _deafforest_ and make parks therein at his own pleasure.
Shortly after which he made a “pile”[375] at Selkirk, and placed a
garrison therein. <g>Next</g> year he was sent, as Warden of the Marches of
Scotland, toward Berwick-upon-Tweed; and being thereupon made the King’s
Lieutenant, and Captain-General of the soldiery--horse and foot--for the
defence of those parts against Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, and his
complices, he had an assignation of two hundred pounds in part of his
wages, to be paid to him by John de Sandale, Chamberlain of
Scotland.--[Chronicle.]
Shortly after this, Bruce, compassing that realm, and receiving the
homage of many, came near to St. Johnstone [or Perth], to the defence
whereof this Earl being arrived but a little before, Bruce sent to him,
by way of challenge to battle, whereunto returning answer that he would
meet him the next day, Bruce retired; which being discovered by this
Earl, he sallied out and slew divers of the Scots, unarmed, as it is
said. Bruce therefore being advertised hereof, fled to the Isle of
Kintyre, whereupon he followed him, supposing to find him in the castle
there. But upon his taking possession thereof, and discovering none but
his wife, and Nigel de Bruce, his brother, he hanged up Nigel and all
the rest who were with him, excepting only her. Bruce, therefore,
growing exceedingly exasperated at this his great cruelty, raised all
the power he could, and giving battle to him, forced him to flee to the
castle of Ayr. Soon after this, being with King Edward, on his
death-bed, at Burgh-upon-the-Sands, not far from Carlisle, he was one of
those whom the King desired to be good to his son, and not to suffer
Piers de Gaveston to come into England again, to set him in riot; for
which he was much hated by Piers, as divers others of the nobility were,
being called by him <g>Joseph the Jew</g>, in regard that he was tall, and pale
of countenance.--[Chronicle.]
But as it would far exceed our present limits to notice all that the
chronicles have recorded of him, we conclude with a few brief
particulars:--In the second of Edward II. he was sent with Otto de
Grandison and others to the Pope upon special business; he next joined
the Earl of Lancaster and others in the design of putting down
Gaveston--agreeably to the promise he had made to the dying King; so
likewise with John de Warren, Earl of Surrey, in the siege of
Scarborough Castle, in which Gaveston had taken refuge; and having there
seized upon him, intended to have carried him to Wallingford, but
lodging him at Deddington in Oxfordshire, he was taken thence in the
night by the Earl of Warwick, and by him beheaded on Blacklow Hill, near
Warwick, where a monument has been erected to perpetuate the deed.
Three years after this, the Earl was sent again to Rome, and obtained a
grant in general tail from the King, of the house and place called the
“New Temple” in London, as also of certain lands called _Fleet-crofts_,
with all other the lands in the city and suburbs of London, which
belonged to the <g>Knights-Templars</g>, with remainder to the King and his
heirs.
In the tenth of Edward II. he was engaged in the Scottish wars; but
before the end of that year, being taken prisoner by Sieur Moilly, a
Burgundian, and being sent to the Emperor, he was constrained to give
twenty thousand pounds of silver for his ransom, by reason, as Moilly
alleged, that himself having served the King of England, had not been
paid his wages. Upon this occasion King Edward wrote letters to divers
foreign princes, soliciting his deliverance, which was effected; for we
find him immediately thereafter appointed governor of Rockingham Castle,
and heading the King’s army in Scotland. But at last, after many
important and honourable services to the State, performed with great
ability, he was constituted Warden of all the Forests south of Trent;
and being still Warden of Scotland, had license to travel beyond sea.
Upon the taking of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, at Boro’bridge, he was one
of those who passed sentence of death upon him at Pontefract. “After
which it was not long that he lived; for, attending Queen Isabella into
France in 1323, he was there murdered in the month of June, by reason,”
as the chronicle supposes, “of his having had a hand in the death of the
Earl of Lancaster.” He left vast demesnes in England, in nine or ten
counties, but no issue by any of his three wives.--[Chronicles.]
His eldest sister, Elizabeth, one of his heirs, “wedded unto John, Lord
<g>Hastings</g>, brought this dignity into a new family; for Laurence Hastings,
his grandson, Lord of Weishford and Abergavenny, was made Earle of
‘<g>Penbrock</g>,’[376] by virtue of King Edward the Third, his <g>brieffe</g>, the
copy whereof I thinke good to set doune here, that we may see what was
the right by heires generall in these honorary titles. It runs
thus:--<g>Rex</g> omnibus ad quos ... Salutem, etc. The which being
interpreted, is--
“<g>Know ye</g> that the good praesage of circumspection and vertue which we
have conceived by the towardly youth and happy beginnings of our most
welbeloved cousin <g>Laurence Hastings</g>, induce us worthily to countenance
him with our especiall grace and favour, in those things which concerne
the due preservation and maintenance of his honor: <g>Whereas</g>, therefore,
the inheritance of Aimar de Valence, some time Earle of Penbrok (as he
was stiled), deceased long since, without heire begotten of his body,
hath beene devolved unto his sisters, proportionably to be divided among
them and their heires: because we know for certain that the foresaid
<g>Laurence</g>, who succeeded the said <g>Aimar</g> in part of the inheritance, is
descended from the elder sister of <g>Aimar</g> aforesaid; and so, by the
avouching of the learned with whom we consulted about this matter, the
prerogative both of name and honor is due unto him: <g>Wee</g> deem it just and
due that the same Laurence, claiming his title from the elder sister,
assume and have the name of <g>Earl of Penbroke</g>, which the said Aimar had
whiles he lived: which verily <g>Wee</g>, as much as lieth in Us, confirme,
ratifie, and also approve unto him: willing and granting that the said
<g>Laurence</g> have and hold the prerogative of Earle Palatine in those lands
which he holdeth of the said Aimar’s inheritance, so fully and after the
same manner as the said Aimar had and held them at the time of his
death. In <g>witnesse</g>, the King at Mont-Martin, the thirteenth day of
October, and in the thirteenth of oure reign.”