Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/38

 and at the same time he was made governor of the castles of Rochester and Canterbury (, i. 670; List of Sheriffs to 1831, p. 67). On 29 Jan. 1262 Walerand was elected one of a commission of six, of whom three were barons, to appoint sheriffs (Fœdera, i. 415). On 10 March he was made a member of the embassy appointed to negotiate peace with France (Royal Letters, ii. 138; cf. Flores Hist. ii. 423;, v. 741; Fœdera, i. 385, 386). Walerand with his colleagues laid their report before the magnates in London a little later (Flores Hist. ii. 428), and peace was finally made with Louis (Fœdera, i. 383, 389).

Walerand's diplomatic skill was rewarded. In 1261 he was made warden of the Forest of Dean (Excerpta e Rot. Fin. ii. 358). In 1262 Henry entrusted to him the castles of Dover, Marlborough, and Ludgershall (, Chron. et Ann., and, Opus Chronicorum, p. 9, in both of which he is called ‘Sir E. de Waleran;’ Flores Hist. ii. 468; Red Book of Exchequer, ii. 706). He also became warden of the Cinque ports (Royal Letters, Henry III, ii. 244). During the chancellorship of Walter de Merton [q. v.] in 1262, the great seal was put into the hands of Walerand and Imbert of Munster. In 1263, when Prince Edward committed his robbery of jewels and money upon the New Temple, Walerand was one of his chief helpers (‘Ann. Dunstaple’ in Ann. Mon. iii. 222).

In 1261 discord between Henry and the barons was renewed. Walerand, together with John Mansel and Peter of Savoy, were regarded as the three chief advisers of Henry (‘Ann. Osney’ in Ann. Mon. iv. 128). In 1263 the barons seized Walerand's lands. Henry restored them, save the castle of Kilpeck (, i. 670). Walerand had rendered himself so indispensable that in February 1263 the king excused himself from sending Walerand and Mansel to France, and despatched other envoys instead (Royal Letters, ii. 239; misdated in Fœdera, i. 394). When the barons went to war against Henry in 1264, Walerand exerted himself on the royalist side. After the battle of Lewes he and Warren of Bassingbourne still held Bristol Castle in the king's name. They marched to Wallingford, where Richard of Cornwall and Edward were confined, and vigorously attacked the castle in the hope of relieving them, but failed (, Chron. de Bello, Camden Soc. p. 40). After Evesham he was rewarded by large grants (, i. 670), including most of the lands of Hugh de Neville (Liber de Antiquis Legibus, pp. lxvi, lxvii). Walerand pronounced the sentence of disinheritance against all who had taken up arms against the king at Evesham (‘Ann. Worcester’ in Ann. Mon. iv. 455). He and Roger Leybourne induced the Londoners to pay a fine of twenty thousand marks to the king for their transgressions (Liber de Antiquis Legibus, pp. 78, 80, 81). In 1266 Walerand was one of the original six who by the dictum of Kenilworth were elected to settle the government (‘Ann. Waverley’ and ‘Ann. Dunstaple’ in Ann. Mon. ii. 372, iii. 243; Flores Hist. iii. 12).

Walerand now devoted himself to affairs in Wales. Owning much land in and near the Welsh marches, he had necessarily been frequently employed in the Welsh wars, and was constantly consulted as to the treatment of the Welsh (Royal Letters, Henry III, ii. 219, 2 Oct. 1262; Fœdera, i. 339, 340). On 21 Feb. 1267 a commission was issued, empowering him to make a truce for three years with Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, and with Edmund, the king's son, to make peace (Fœdera, i. 472, 473, 474). He now resumed his work as judge, and from April 1268 till August 1271 we find many records of assizes to be held before him (Excerpta e Rot. Fin. ii. 441, 468–546; Abbreviatio Placitorum, pp. 181, 182). When Edward went to the Holy Land he placed, on 2 Aug. 1270, the guardianship of his lands in the hands of four, of whom Walerand was one (Fœdera, i. 487). He died in 1273, before the king's return (Ann. Mon. iv. 254).

The chronicler describes Walerand as ‘vir strenuus.’ He had throughout his career been hated as a royal favourite, though respected for his ability and strength. A curious political poem from Cottonian MS. Otho D, viii., quoted in the notes to Rishanger's ‘Chronicon de Bello’ (Camden Society, p. 145), thus refers to him: Exhæredati proceres sunt rege jubente Et male tractati Waleran R. dicta ferente. Walerand married in 1257 Matilda (d. 1306–7), the eldest daughter and heiress of Ralph Russell, but left no issue (, i. 670; cf. Cal. Geneal. p. 194). His nephew and heir, Robert, was an idiot, and never received livery of his lands, some of which passed to his sister's son, Alan Plugenet.

Robert Walerand, the subject of this article, must be distinguished from Waleran Teutonicus, custodian of Berkhamstead in 1241, to whom Henry gave the custody of several Welsh castles.

[Calendarium Inquisitionum post mortem, vol. i.; Calendarium Genealogicum; Rymer's Fœdera, vol. i.; Abbreviatio Placitorum; Ex-