Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/370

 de Warenne (1286–1347) [q. v.] He had a daughter married to Guy de Laigle (, i. 187).

[Benedictus Abbas, Roger Hoveden, Chronicles of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, Ralph of Diceto, Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, Giraldus Cambrensis, Red Book of Exchequer, Epistolæ Cantuarienses, in Chronicles of the reign of Richard I (all the above in Rolls Series); Calendar of Papal Letters, vol. i.; Rotuli Cartarum and Rymer's Fœdera, vol. i. (both in Record Comm.); Dugdale's Baronage, i. 75–6, and Monasticon, vol. vi.; G. E. C[okayne]'s Complete Peerage, vii. 326; Doyle's Official Baronage, iii. 470; Eyton's Itinerary of Henry II; Hunter's South Yorkshire, vol. i.; Norgate's England under the Angevin Kings; Watson's Memoirs of the Earls of Warren and Surrey, i. 154–73, a useful storehouse, but to be employed with the utmost caution.] 

WARENNE, JOHN, or  (1231?–1304), was the son of William de Warenne, earl of Warenne or Surrey (d. 1240) [q. v.], and of his wife Matilda, daughter of William Marshal, earl of Pembroke (d. 1219) [q. v.], and widow of Hugh Bigod, third earl of Norfolk. Roger Bigod, fourth earl of Norfolk (d. 1270) [q. v.], was thus his elder half-brother. He is said in the Lewes register to have been five years old at his father's death (, i. 225), but two chronicles give 1231 as the date of his birth (Cont. ii. 129; ‘Lewes Chron.’ in Sussex Archæological Collections, ii. 24). Henry III's alien kinsmen benefited largely by his long minority. Peter of Savoy [q. v.] was made guardian of his estates (Sussex Arch. Coll. iv. 133), and on 16 April 1247 he was married at London to the king's half-sister, Alice of Lusignan (Liber de Antiquis Legibus, p. 12). Warenne's earldom was thought too rich a provision for the needy Poitevin lady (, iv. 629). In the next few years the young earl was closely attached to his Lusignan brothers-in-law, joining them in 1253 in the attack on the official of Archbishop Boniface, and sharing their excommunication (ib. v. 359). Absolved from this, he went abroad with William of Valence [q. v.] and Richard de Clare, seventh earl of Gloucester [q. v.] (Sussex Arch. Coll. ii. 26), probably to take part in the tournament at Paris that celebrated the betrothal of Gloucester's son Gilbert to Warenne's wife's niece, Alice of Angoulême. On 29 May 1254 he accompanied Edward, the king's son, to Gascony (, v. 447), whence he attended Edward on his visit to Spain to wed Eleanor of Castile. He was knighted along with Edward (Sussex Arch. Coll. ii. 26) at Las Huelgas by Alfonso X of Castile. The statement that he took a prominent part in Gascon affairs at this time is due to a confusion between him and John de Plessis, earl of Warwick [q. v.] (, Rôles Gascons, supplément au tome i. p. 130. ‘Johannes comes de War.’ was extended into ‘Warenne’ instead of ‘Warwick’ by Michel. The confusion is, however, older: see e.g. Flores Hist. ii. 412; and, i. 227–8). His association with the courtiers made Warenne unpopular (, v. 514).

On 15 Jan. 1256 the countess Alice gave birth to a son, William. Two days later her husband took ship from Dover to the continent. However, on 9 Feb. Alice died, and was buried by her brother, Bishop Aymer de Valence [q. v.], at Lewes priory (Sussex Arch. Coll. ii. 26). In May 1256 Warenne had the grant of the third penny of the Sussex county revenues. He soon became a member of the king's council.

During the earlier stages of the baronial troubles Warenne strongly upheld the king. He witnessed on 2 May 1258 the king's consent to the baronial project of reform (Select Charters, p. 381), and was one of the twelve ‘fideles de concilio nostro’ associated with twelve opposition barons to draw up the plan of reform for the great council at Oxford on 11 June (Burton Annals, p. 447). In this ‘Mad’ parliament Warenne joined with William de Valence and his other Poitevin brothers-in-law in refusing all concessions, even when Henry III and his son Edward had accepted the reforms (, v. 696–7). They thereupon fled from Oxford to Winchester, where Bishop Aymer sheltered them in Wolvesley Castle. When the aliens gave up the struggle, Warenne took the oath to the Provisions of Oxford (Burton Annals, p. 444), and on 5 July escorted his Poitevin kinsmen to Dover.

Like many of the young nobles, Warenne was now strongly attracted by Simon de Montfort. In 1260 he acted as justice in Somerset, Dorset, and Devon (, Biographia Juridica, p. 705). In the same year he twice crossed the Channel to take part in tournaments (Sussex Arch. Coll. ii. 27). On 18 July 1261 he joined with the other barons in requesting the king of France to arrange their differences with the king (, Simon de Montfort, p. 331). On 21 Nov. he took part in the compromise by which the Provisions were submitted to the arbitration of six magnates, and was included among those who received pardons (ib. p. 193). Warenne now commonly acted with Henry of Cornwall [q. v.] In the spring of 1263