But as it would far exceed our present limits to notice all that the chronicles have recorded of him, we conclude with a few brief particulars:—In the second of Edward II. he was sent with Otto de Grandison and others to the Pope upon special business; he next joined the Earl of Lancaster and others in the design of putting down Gaveston—agreeably to the promise he had made to the dying King; so likewise with John de Warren, Earl of Surrey, in the siege of Scarborough Castle, in which Gaveston had taken refuge; and having there seized upon him, intended to have carried him to Wallingford, but lodging him at Deddington in Oxfordshire, he was taken thence in the night by the Earl of Warwick, and by him beheaded on Blacklow Hill, near Warwick, where a monument has been erected to perpetuate the deed.
Three years after this, the Earl was sent again to Rome, and obtained a grant in general tail from the King, of the house and place called the “New Temple” in London, as also of certain lands called Fleet-crofts, with all other the lands in the city and suburbs of London, which belonged to the Knights-Templars, with remainder to the King and his heirs.
In the tenth of Edward II. he was engaged in the Scottish wars; but before the end of that year, being taken prisoner by Sieur Moilly, a Burgundian, and being sent to the Emperor, he was constrained to give twenty thousand pounds of silver for his ransom, by reason, as Moilly alleged, that himself having served the King of England, had not been paid his wages. Upon this occasion King Edward wrote letters to divers foreign princes, soliciting his deliverance, which was effected; for we find him immediately thereafter appointed governor of Rockingham Castle, and heading the King’s army in Scotland. But at last, after many important and honourable services to the State, performed with great ability, he was constituted Warden of all the Forests south of Trent; and being still Warden of Scotland, had license to travel beyond sea.
Upon the taking of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, at Boro’bridge, he was one of those who passed sentence of death upon him at Pontefract. “After which it was not long that he lived; for, attending Queen Isabella into France in 1323, he was there murdered in the month of June, by reason,” as the chronicle supposes, “of his having had a hand in the death of the Earl of Lancaster.” He left vast demesnes in England, in nine or ten counties, but no issue by any of his three wives.—[Chronicles.]
His eldest sister, Elizabeth, one of his heirs, “wedded unto John, Lord Hastings, brought this dignity into a new family; for Laurence Hastings, his grandson, Lord of Weishford and Abergavenny, was made Earle of ‘Penbrock,’[376] by virtue of King Edward the Third, his brieffe, the copy whereof I thinke good to set doune here, that we may see what was the right by heires generall in these honorary titles. It runs thus:—Rex omnibus ad quos ... Salutem, etc. The which being interpreted, is—
“Know ye that the good praesage of circumspection and vertue which we have conceived by the towardly youth and happy beginnings of our most welbeloved cousin Laurence Hastings, induce us worthily to countenance him with our especiall grace and favour, in those things which concerne the due preservation and maintenance of his honor: Whereas, therefore, the inheritance of Aimar de Valence, some time Earle of Penbrok (as he was stiled), deceased long since, without heire begotten of his body, hath beene devolved unto his sisters, proportionably to be divided among them and their heires: because we know for certain that the foresaid Laurence, who succeeded the said Aimar in part of the inheritance, is descended from the elder sister of Aimar aforesaid; and so, by the avouching of the learned with whom we consulted about this matter, the prerogative both of name and honor is due unto him: Wee deem it just and due that the same Laurence, claiming his title from the elder sister, assume and have the name of Earl of Penbroke, which the said Aimar had whiles he lived: which verily Wee, as much as lieth in Us, confirme, ratifie, and also approve unto him: willing and granting that the said Laurence have and hold the prerogative of Earle Palatine in those lands which he holdeth of the said Aimar’s inheritance, so fully and after the same manner as the said Aimar had and held them at the time of his death. In witnesse, the King at Mont-Martin, the thirteenth day of October, and in the thirteenth of oure reign.”
And now to continue:—
After Laurence, succeeded his sonne John, who, being taken prisoner by the Spaniards in a battle at sea, and in the end ransomed, died in France in the yeere 1375. The circumstances are these: “Having undergone four years’ imprisonment in Spaine, with most inhumane usage, he sent to Bertrand Clekyn, Constable of France, desiring that he would use some means for his enlargement; who thereupon interceding for him to the Bastard of Spaine, then calling himself King, obtained his liberty, in consideration of part of that money due to himself: which being agreed upon, he was brought to Paris. But after his coming thither, it was not long ere he fell mortally sick of poysin, as some thought, given him by the Spaniards, who were reputed to have such a special faculty in that art, as that the potion should kill at what distance of time they pleased. The French, therefore, seeing his death approaching, being eager to get his ransom before he died, made haste to remove him to Calais; but on his journey thitherward he departed this life, upon the xvi. day of April, leaving his sonne and heire only two and a half years old.”
Agreeably to the superstition of the time, all his misfortunes and death were looked upon as judgments, for various alleged offences committed against the Church revenues: recommending that the clergy should be taxed more than the laity—for living an ungodly life—for “everything that could render him hateful in the eyes of monks, whom he insulted and exposed.”
After him followed his sonne John, second Earle of his line, who, in running a tilt[377] at Woodstock, was slaine by Syr John Saint John, casually, in the yeare 1397. And hereupon, for default of his issue, there fell very many possessions and fair revenewes into the King’s hands, as our lawiers use to speake: and the Castle of Penbrock was granted unto Francis At-Court, a courtier in especiell great favour, who commonly thereupon was called Lord Penbrock. Not long after, Humfrey, sonne to King Henry the Fourth, before he was Duke of Gloucester, received this title of his brother, King Henry the Fifth: and before his death Henry the Sixth granted the same in reversion—a thing not before heard of—to William De la Pole, Earle of Suffolk, after whose downfall the said King, when he had enabled Edmund of Wadham, and Jasper of Hatfield, the sonnes of Queen Katherine, his mother, to be his lawfull half brethren, created Jasper Earle of Penbroke, and Edmund Earl of Richmond, with pre-eminence to take place above all Earles—for Kings have absolute authority in dispensing honours. But King Edward the Fourth, depriving Jasper of all his honours by attainder and forfeiture, gave the title of Penbrok to Syr William Herbert, for his good service against Jasper in Wales;[378] but he shortly afterwards lost his life at the battle of Banbury. Then succeeded his son, bearing the same name, whome King Edward the Fourth, when he had recovered the kingdom, invested in the Earldom of Huntingdon, and bestowed the title of Penbrok, being surrendered, upon his eldest sonne and heire, Edward Prince of Wales.—[Chronicle.]