Life of Sir William Wallace of Elderslie, Vol. 2 (of 2) - John D. Carrick

“Aymer de Valence was the third son of William de Valence, who was created Earl of Pembroke by his uterine brother King Henry the Third. He was born about 1280, and succeeded his father in his honours on the 13th June 1296, both of his elder brothers having previously died without issue. The earliest notice of him which is recorded, is, that on the 26th January, 25th Edward I., 1297, he was summoned to Parliament as a baron, though, according to modern opinions on the subject, he was fully entitled to the earldom of Pembroke, nor was the title ever attributed to him in public records, until the 6th November, 1st Edward II. 1307; and the first writ to Parliament addressed to him as “Earl of Pembroke,” was tested on the 18th of the following January. Upon this remarkable circumstance, some observations have been recently made; but it is wholly impossible to explain the cause of the anomaly in a satisfactory manner. Although never styled “Earl of Pembroke” until the accession of Edward II., it is manifest, that from the death of his father, he ranked above all barons excepting Henry of Lancaster, who being of the blood royal, is uniformly mentioned next to Earls; hence it appears, that notwithstanding his claim was not positively acknowledged, he was considered to be entitled to a higher degree of precedency than belonged to the baronial dignity. In the 25th Edward I., he was in the expedition into Flanders, and, in the same year, was appointed a commissioner to ratify an agreement between the King and Florence, Count of Holland, relative to some auxiliaries from the Count in that war; and was likewise one of the ambassadors sent by Edward to treat for a truce between England and France. In the 26th and 27th Edward I., he was in the Scottish wars, and in June 1300, in the 28th Edward I., was present at the siege of Carlaverock, when he must have been about twenty-one years of age; but the poet pays him no other compliment than what a pun upon his name suggested.

“Le Valence Aymars li Vaillans.”

“In the following year, he was a party to the Barons’ letter to the Pope, in which, though his name occurs immediately after that of the Earl of Arundel, and before Henry de Lancaster’s, he is only styled ‘Lord of Montiniac.’ Shortly afterwards, he was appointed to treat with the ambassadors of the King of France on the subject of peace. In the 31st Edward I., he was again in the wars of Scotland; and, in the same year, received permission to leave the realm upon his own affairs. He obtained a grant, in 1305, of the Castles of Selkirk and Traquair, and of the borough of Peebles in Scotland, to hold by the service of one knight’s fee, together with other possessions in that kingdom; and, in the 34th Edward I., was constituted Guardian of the Marches of Scotland towards Berwick, when he was intrusted with the sole command of the English forces which had been levied against Robert Bruce. In the instrument by which he was appointed to that important duty, as well as in most others, he is styled “Dilectum consanguineum et fidelum nostrum.” The appellation of “Cousin” was not then a mere title of honour, when addressed to a peer, but was used in its most literal sense; and Aymer de Valence’s claim to it is shown by the following slight pedigree.

“The successes which attended this nobleman against Robert Bruce, are described by a contemporary chronicler; and it is said that Valence, after a severe contest, pursued Bruce, and presuming that he would take refuge in Kildrummie castle, he gained possession of that place, but finding only Nigel de Bruce, brother of Robert, there, he caused him and all who were with him, to be immediately hung. This action has given rise to some pertinent remarks by the able biographer of the Earl in the beautiful work before noticed,[96] who has satisfactorily shown that Nigel was not put to death by him, but that at least the forms of law were practised on the occasion. On the deathbed of Edward I., Pembroke, with some other personages, received the King’s dying injunctions to afford his son their counsel and support, and not to permit Piers de Gaveston to return into England. His strict adherence to this command, naturally excited the favourite’s displeasure; and he is said, in derision of his tall stature and pallid complexion, to have termed him “Joseph the Jew.” In the first year of the young monarch’s reign, Valence was, as has been before observed, allowed and summoned to Parliament by his proper title of Earl of Pembroke; and at the coronation of that monarch, he carried the King’s left boot, but the spur belonging to it was borne by the Earl of Cornwall. In the same year, after performing homage upon the death of his mother for her lands, he was joined with Otho de Grandison in an embassy to the Pope; and in the 3d Edward II., was found heir to his sister Agnes, or more probably Anne. It has been considered, from the circumstance of the Earl being a witness to the instrument by which the King recalled Gaveston, and bestowed the possessions of the Earl of Cornwall upon him, that he approved of, or at least consented to, those acts; but this idea rests upon far too uncertain evidence to be relied upon; and if he ever changed his opinion it was of short duration, for in the 3d Edward II., he joined the Earl of Lancaster against Gaveston, and when he was banished the realm in 1311, the Earl of Pembroke was one of the persons deputed to petition the King that he should be rendered incapable of ever holding any office.

“In the 6th Edward II., he was again sent on a mission to Rome, and in the same year obtained a grant of lands in London, in which was included the New Temple. In the 7th Edward II. he was appointed Custos and Lieutenant of Scotland, untill the arrival of the King, and was present at the fatal battle of Bannockburn. Two inedited MSS. cited in the “Monumental Remains,” allude to the Earl’s conduct on that occasion, in words fatal either to his loyalty or his courage: the one stating that “Insuper Comes de Pembrok, Henricus de Bellomonte, et multi magnates, cordetenus Pharisei, a certamine recesserunt;” and the other, that “in pedibus suis evasit ex acie et cum Valensibus fugientibus se salvavit.” In all probability, however, the language was in both instances that of an enemy, and deserves but little credit; though, even if it were true, “there is no great disgrace,” as the learned biographer, from whose memoir these extracts are taken, has truly remarked, “in seeking safety by flight when defeat was inevitable, and the whole army pursued a similar course.”

“In the 9th Edward II., the Earl was a commissioner for holding a Parliament in the King’s absence, and he took an active part in the proceedings therein. Being sent to Rome on a mission to the Pontiff, a singular misfortune befel him, as he was taken prisoner on his return by a Burgundian called John de Moiller with his accomplices, and sent to the Emperor, who obliged him to pay a ransom of 20,000 pounds of silver, upon the absurd pretence that Moiller had served the King of England without being paid his wages. Edward used every exertion to procure the Earl’s liberty, and wrote to several sovereign princes, soliciting them to interfere on the subject; but he did not immediately succeed. In the 11th Edward II., Pembroke was once more in the Scottish wars, and was appointed governor of Rockingham castle; and upon the King’s purposed voyage in the 13th Edward II., to do homage to the King of France for the Duchy of Acquitaine, he was constituted Guardian of the realm during his absence, being then also Custos of Scotland. In the 15th Edward II., he sat in judgment on the Earl of Lancaster at Pontefract; and for his conduct on the occasion, was rewarded with the grant of several manors.

“In March 1309, the Earl of Pembroke was one of the peers appointed to regulate the royal household; in the 5th Edward II., he was commanded not to approach the place where the Parliament was held with an armed retinue, or in any other manner than was observed in the time of the late King; in the 8th Edward II., he was a commissioner to open and continue a parliament at York; in the 12th Edward II., he was sent to Northampton with others to treat with the Earl of Lancaster, for the better government of the realm, and was one of the peers then appointed to be about the King’s person, at which time he signed the agreement between the King and that Earl; he advised the reversal of the judgment against Hugh le Despencer the younger; by writ tested on the 19th January, 14 Edward II. 1321, he was appointed a commissioner to treat for peace with Robert de Brus; and in the 18th Edward II., the Earl, as Justice in Eyre of the Forest of Essex, claimed the appointment of Marshal thereof.

“The Earl of Pembroke accompanied Isabel, Queen of England to France in 1323; and is said to have lost his life in that year, at a tournament given by him, to celebrate his nuptials with his third wife, Mary, daughter of Guy de Chastillon, Count of St Paul’s; though, from the obscure manner in which his death is mentioned by some chroniclers, and the attempt which they have made to consider it as a mark of the vengeance of Heaven for his conduct relative to the Earl of Lancaster, Dugdale asserts that he was murdered on the 23d June 1324, “by reason he had a hand” in that affair. But the former statement his recent biographer considers to be corroborated by the following lines in a long MS. poem, containing a life of the Earl, in the Cottonian collection, written by Jacobus Nicholaus de Dacia, who calls himself a scholar of Mary de St Paul, Countess of Pembroke; by which he probably meant that he belonged to Pembroke Hall, which she had founded.

Mors Comitem Comitum necuit, mors ipsa cruenta
Ipsa cruore rubrum campum facit et rubicundum.