reward the noble founder of the priory, by intercession in his favour with heaven. Hic Guillelme comes, locus est laudis tibi fomes, See Lewes Register, p. 132 This Norman noble was allied to the ducal family of Normandy, by consanguinity, and was present at the battle of Hastings. When the names of the captains were read from the roll of the army, by command of William the Conqueror, after that battle, that of Guillaume de Garennes was called. From which it may be remarked, that the surname Warren was usually spelled in Normandy with an initial G, by the same orthographical variation, that the Christian name William was then, and is still Guillaume, throughout France; wherefore, the name of Warren is still to be considered a foreign appellation, his father having been created Count de Garennes, or Warren; from a place called Guarenna, or Varenna, in the county of Caletes, or the Pays du Caux, in Normandy. The previous family name was Saint Martin, Walterus de Sancto Martino duxit neptem Gunnoridis Ducisse Normanniæ, (Heraldic Re-. cords,) whose son became Comte de Garennes, and was the father of the first Earl of Warren and Surrey. Gunnora was daughter of a Dane, one of the chieftains of that race who, having ravaged France, were, by compact, located in Normandy; her brother Herfastus, it is said, was grandfather of William Fitz-Osborn, Earl of Hereford; her sister Wevia, was grandmother of Roger de Beaumont, whose sons, Robert, Earl of Mellent and Leycester, (ancestor of the family of Hamilton,) and Henry de Newburgh, Earl of Warwick, were amongst the most powerful Norman nobles, and whose family was allied, by subsequent intermarriages, with the house of Warren. Werina, another sister of Gunnora, does not, by the similarity of her name with that of Warren, furnish any better clue to the origin of that name, than what is above mentioned. Ralph de Mortimer (de Mortuomari), a brother of William de Warren, is thus spoken of in the Harleian MSS. No. 293.-" Radulphus de Mortuo mari omnium strenuissimus, velut alter Samson, cum leonina ferocitate +". He brought *Duchess of Richard I. Duke of Normandy. + Ralph de Mortuomari, the boldest of all, was of a leonine fierceness, like to a second Sampson. one hundred and twenty ships to join William, itt his invasion of England; he was a chief leader in the battle of Hastings, and became Constable of England. The Earls of March were his descendants, (Dugd. Bar. Vol. I. p. 138). It is not surprising, from the great assistance which Duke William received from this powerful and warlike family, who were all of them related to his own house, that he should have so largely rewarded their services. William de Warren received from the Conqueror a grant of the principal part of Sussex and Surrey. Mortimer received lands in Essex, Hampshire, Yorkshire, and in ten other counties; and the Earl of Mellent had the grant of the greatest part of Leicestershire; his family were known by the name of the great Earls of Leycester, and founded the celebrated Abbey of that town, with the same munificence with which William de Warren founded this of St. Pancras, in Lewes. The Earl of Warren and Surrey married Gundreda, daughter of William the Conqueror. Rapin thus recounts William's five daughters, by his Queen Matilda;-Cicely, the eldest, was Abbess at Caen; Constance married Alain Fergeant, Duke of Britanny, (vide Hastings, Plate 1, Page 6.); Adela married Stephen, Earl of Blois; Margaret died young; Eleanor, the fifth, married Alphonso, King of Galicia in Spain. Unless Rapin mistook as to Margaret, who, he says, was betrothed to Harold, Gundrad must have been a sixth daughter, supplying the fifth place, upon the early decease of Margaret. In the Cottonian Library, under Vespasian F. xv., is the Nigrum Registrum prioratus de Lewes, which is said to have been in the possession of the Earl of Dorset, in 1621; from which the following passage appears to have been taken :-" Ego Willielmus de Warenna, donavi, &c.-pro salute anime mee, et anime Gundrede uxoris mee, et pro anima Domini mei Willielmi regis qui me in Anglicam terram adduxit, et pro salute Domine mee Matildis regine matris uxoris mee, et pro salute Domini, mei Willielmi regis filii sui, post cujus adventum in Anglicam terram hanc cartam feci, et qui me comitem Surregie fecit, &c."Camden produces this passage also in nearly the same words, as being an extract from the foundation charter of Lewes Priory. Thus it is pretty clear, that Rapin and others, who neglect to enumerate Gundreda amongst the children of William and Matilda, are under some mistake. William de Warren, and Richard des Bienfaits, or Tonebridge, were chief justiciaries of England (vicarii regis); and in 1073, King William being then in Normandy, gave battle to the Earls of Norfolk and Hereford at Fagadune, (perhaps Fakenham, in Suffolk,) and defeating them, obliged them to take shelter in Norwich. "Généreusement Willaume et Richard, vont desployans la bannière en l'air, et chargent vaillamment ces séditieux à Fagadun, et y demeurerent victorieux; prindrent grand nombre de prisonniers, ausquels sans y considérer la différence des conditions, ils trancherent le pied dextre à chacun d'eux, pour rendre reconnuz par céte marque ceux-là qui chancellerent de leur devoir, et avoient esté veus manqueur de la fidélité deuë au Roy *."-Rouen History. William I. is recorded to have spoken of him as, "Un fidele et valiant homme, Willaume de Varenne.". William de Warren built the castles of Holmesdale, or Reigate, in Surrey, Lewes in Sussex, and Castle-Acre in Norfolk; and also resided sometimes in Coninsburgh Castle, in Yorkshire. On the death of William I., Eart Warren sided with William Rufus, against the claim of Robert; he was at the siege of Rochester Castle, and persuaded William II. to pardon, in life and limb, the Norman nobles in that garrison, who were about to be put to death by the king. * Generously did William de Warren and Richard unfurl their banners in the air, and valiantly they charged those revolters at Fagadun, and gained a complete victory; they made a great many prisoners; and without taking into consideration the difference of rank, they struck off the right foot of all those who fell into their power, that they might distinguish, by that mark, all those who had failed in their duty, and had been seen to waver in the fidelity due to their king. |