Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/375

 upstart's behaviour much irritated Warenne, who ‘never showed a cheerful countenance to Peter after that tournament’ (ib. p. 161). He was conspicuous in 1308 in procuring the banishment of the favourite, but in 1309, after Gaveston's unauthorised return, he was induced by Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln [q. v.], to become his ‘friend,’ probably at the parliament at Stamford in July, where on 6 Aug. he signed the letter of the barons to Clement V (London Annals, p. 162). With three other royalist earls he was appointed to enforce order at the parliament of March 1310 (Fœdera, ii. 103). On 15 June he was granted the castle, honour, and forest of the High Peak (Cal. Close Rolls, 1307–13, p. 283). That summer he accompanied Edward II and Gaveston against Robert Bruce (London Ann. p. 174; Ann. Paulini, p. 269). In February 1311 he traversed Selkirk forest, receiving the foresters into the English obedience (, p. 214).

Archbishop Winchelsea reconciled Warenne with the barons (, ii. 277), who appointed him to keep the peace in London and the eastern counties. In May 1312 he was sent with his kinsman, Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke [see ], against Gaveston, and besieged Scarborough, forcing Peter to surrender on 18 May, on conditions which they swore to observe (London Ann. pp. 204–5; Lit. Cantuar. iii. 388–92). Disgusted at Warwick's putting Gaveston to death, they again went over to the king, and in August joined Edward's army against the ordainers (Flores Hist. iii. 337). In the pacification of October 1313 Warenne was specifically pardoned all offences since the king's accession. Early next year, however, he was again at variance with the court, and on 22 Feb. 1314 the sheriff of Derbyshire was ordered to resume by force the possession of Castleton and Peak Forest (Cal. Close Rolls, 1313–18, p. 38). In June he refused, like Lancaster, to follow Edward to Bannockburn (, p. 201). In September 1314 at the parliament at York he supported the northern primate in his attack on Archbishop Reynolds (Cal. Close Rolls, 1313–18, p. 194).

The fluctuations of Warenne's policy during these years are partly explained by his domestic troubles. His marriage with Joan of Bar was unhappy, and he was now living in open adultery with Matilda de Nerford, a Norfolk gentleman's daughter. In May 1313 he was threatened with excommunication, which was postponed on the prayer of the king (Fœdera, ii. 216). In June and July the Countess Joan was living at the king's cost in the Tower (ib. 1313–18, p. 45). Before long, however, the bishop of Chichester issued the threatened sentence, and an unseemly fray ensued between Warenne's followers and those of the bishop. Warenne now sought to procure a dissolution of his marriage in the ecclesiastical courts on the ground of nearness of kin and want of consent. Archbishop Greenfield of York summoned Joan to appear at Michaelmas 1314 (Letters from Northern Registers, pp. 228–30; Blaauw in Sussex Arch. Coll. vi. 117–27). On 23 Feb. 1316 Warenne bound himself to pay 200l. a year to the king for Joan's support during the time the suit ran (Cal. Close Rolls, 1313–18, p. 325). The marriage was never dissolved, but the parties henceforth lived apart. In the interests of Matilda de Nerford and her children, Warenne on 11 July 1316 surrendered his Yorkshire, Welsh, Sussex, and Lincolnshire lands to the king (ib. p. 347), receiving them back for life with reversion to the crown, and obtaining on 4 Aug. the settlement of the West Riding estate after his death on Matilda and her sons (, ii. 14–16).

The king and Warenne were for the moment close allies. On 9 Feb. 1317 the earl attended a council at Clarendon, where, perhaps, a plot was formed to attack Lancaster (Cont., ed. Hall, pp. 21–2). Warenne's fears prevented his carrying out this scheme (Flores Hist. iii. 179). However, the Countess Alice of Lancaster was on 9 May carried off by Warenne from Canford to Reigate. Alice welcomed the abduction, and she was then or later guilty of adultery. Though it is probable that Warenne was not her lover, the abduction was a deadly insult to Lancaster, and private war at once broke out in Yorkshire and the north march of Wales, where Warenne and Lancaster were neighbours. Lancaster captured Sandal and Conisborough with the estate which they protected, and on 25 Oct. Warenne saved Grantham and Stamford from him by surrendering them to the king (Cal. Close Rolls, 1313–18, p. 569). It was vain for Edward on 3 Nov. to forbid Lancaster to continue hostilities (Fœdera, ii. 345). When, in March 1318, a new reconciliation between Edward and Thomas was effected, Lancaster was allowed to except his quarrel with Warenne. In June 1318 Lancaster attacked Bromfield and Yale, and, despite royal prohibitions, conquered them with their castles. He pleaded the king's favour to Warenne as an excuse for not attending the council at Leicester (, p. 235). When, in August, another pacification was patched up, Warenne was again excluded from its terms (Cal.