II. William Earl of Surrey, son and heir, supported Robert Curthose against Henry II., and with him retired to Normandy. On being pardoned, and his earldom of Surrey restored, he changed sides and fought for Henry at Tinchebrai. He gave to Roche Abbey the tythe of his Hatfield fisheries. He died 1138.
III. William Earl of Surrey, his son and heir, the third earl, joined in the mixed French, German, and English Crusade in 1145, during which, in 1148, he fell, leaving a daughter and heiress.
IV. Isabel de Warren, who married, first, William de Blois, a natural son of King Stephen; and, secondly, Hameline Plantagenet, natural son of Geoffry Earl of Anjou, and half-brother to Henry II.
William was Earl of Boulogne and Mortaigne, and, by his wife, possibly of Surrey. He died childless 1160.
King Henry seems to have taken and held the earldoms for a while in his own hands, but, in 1163, Isabel married Hameline Plantagenet, who enjoyed her honours and estates and, 12 Henry II., paid scutage on sixty knights’ fees. Hameline bore the probably Norman title of Earl Warren, and was an active soldier in his day, a faithful servant to Richard I., and much employed in transactions both of peace and war. Also, though engaged occasionally in Normandy, he appears to have passed most of his time in England, and was by no means an unlikely man to have added the keep to his castle of Conisborough. He died 3 John, 1201, Isabel having died in 1199. Their son succeeded. Earl Hameline founded an endowment for a priest for the chapel of St. Philip and James within the castle. This probably stood in the courtyard for the use of the garrison, for, 11 Edward II., the Earl of Lancaster gave timber from the wood of Conisborough to repair the roof of the chapel within the castle, which therefore could not be the oratory in the keep, which is vaulted. King John was here March 12, 1201, probably taking advantage of the earl’s death to view the castle and possessions.
V. William Plantagenet, or de Warren, son and heir of Hameline and Isabel, who succeeded as fourth Earl of Surrey, was probably then of age, as he had livery at the least of some of his lands, 4 John, 1202. He held the earldom for an unusually long time, and much added to its wealth and consequence. As a Magna Charta Baron, he behaved with great moderation, and upon John’s death he swore allegiance to Henry. He married, first, Maud, a daughter of the Earl of Arundel; and, secondly, Maud, widow of Hugh Bigot, Earl of Norfolk and Earl Marshal, by a daughter of the great William Marshal. He died 1240, 24–5 Henry III., leaving a son, John. Maud, the earl’s widow, had livery, 30 Henry III., of the rod and office of Earl Marshal, as elder co-heir of her brother. She also held the custody of the castles of Conisborough and Chepstow until her death in 1246, 32 Henry III.
Their son and successor, VI. John, fifth Earl of Surrey, who succeeded at five years old, married in 1247, being then very young, Alice le Brun, who died 1290, half-sister of Henry III. In 1254 he paid an aid upon sixty knights’ fees. He lacked much of the prudence of his father, and his general character was scarcely in accord with his famous answer to the “Quo Warranto” of Edward I., to whom, however, he was a better subject than to his sire. He died 32 Edward I., 1304, having held the earldom sixty-four years. He was summoned to Parliament as Earl of Surrey and Sussex.
William his son died 14 Edward I., 1286, and therefore before his father. His son, and the successor to the earldom, was, VII. John de Warren or Plantagenet, sixth Earl of Surrey, a posthumous child, born 1286. When nineteen years of age, he married Joan, daughter of the Earl of Barr, but had by her no issue. 17 Edward II. Conisborough Castle was in the king’s hands, and 18 Edward II. he appointed the Constable. 19 Edward II. the earl recovered his estates, but had surrendered them to the king and his heirs, taking a re-grant for his own life. He was also both Earl of Sussex and Earl of Strathern in Scotland. Joan Countess of Surrey was at her castles at Sandal and Conisborough in 1314.
Earl John died 1347, and his will is dated from Conisburgh Castle, and the title of Surrey seems to have gone to Edward Earl of Arundel, son of Alice, Earl John’s sister. Besides natural daughters, he left two sons by Maud de Nerford, John and Thomas de Warren, to whom and their mother he left, with the king’s permission, a very considerable property, including Conisborough. Thomas Earl of Lancaster seems to have obtained from Earl John some sort of forced occupation of Conisborough, which came to an end upon his attainder, so that Earl John recovered and died seized of it.
About its descent there is some uncertainty, for Henry, the brother and heir of Earl Thomas of Lancaster, did homage for the castle, 1 Edward III., to which John, Earl Warren, laid claim. Earl John held it 5 Edward III., and agreed to a grant of 65 acres of the waste lands of the manor by the king to William de Skargill. Similar grants were made in the five following years by the earl and confirmed by the king, with a note that the earl’s tenure was for life only.