Sharon Bennett Connolly - Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey

Defenders of the

Norman Crown

To my family and friends, with love .

Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey

Sharon Bennett Connolly

First published in Great Britain in 2021 by

Pen & Sword History

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

Copyright Sharon Bennett Connolly 2021

ISBN 978 1 52674 529 3

eISBN 978 1 52674 530 9

Mobi ISBN 978 1 52674 531 6

The right of Sharon Bennett Connolly to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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W riting my fourth book, the second for Pen & Sword, has been an incredible experience and I would like to thank everyone who has helped and encouraged me throughout the process. I would like to thank the staff at Pen & Sword, especially my editors Claire Hopkins and Danna Messer for giving me the opportunity to write this book and for their continuous support, Paul Wilkinson for the stunning cover and Laura Hirst for her incredible work on the technical side, turning my Word document into the book you see before you.

I would particularly like to thank Amy Licence, whose help, advice and friendship has been invaluable to me in my journey to become an author. I am also grateful to my fellow authors, Kristie Dean and Annie Whitehead, who have offered advice and encouragement throughout. And thank you to: Bev Newman, for the discussions on the Poynings and the Warenne affinity; Catherine Hanley for helping me resolve the age of Isabel, the fourth countess, and the issue of the confusing numbering of the earls; Rich Price for his invaluable work on King Johns letters; and Elizabeth Chadwick for all the little Warenne-related chats weve had over the years. Thanks also go to some amazing historians, including Louise J. Wilkinson, Ralph V. Turner, Richard Cassidy, Simon Forder, Michael Jones, James Wright and David Santiuste for helping me with all my little queries about various aspects of the Warenne family and their associates.

Writing can be a lonely experience, you spend your time reading books for research, or sitting, staring at the computer screen, trying to think of something to write. But social media has changed all that, there are always friends just a click away to give you a diversion or encouragement. I would therefore like to thank the readers of my blog, History the Interesting Bits . com for their wonderful support and feedback. A special thank you goes, too, to my friends in the online community, whose amusing anecdotes and memes have given me that boost when I needed it, particularly Karrie Stone, Tim Byard-Jones, Karen Clark, Geanine Teramani-Cruz, Anne Marie Bouchard, Harry Basnett, Derek Birks and every one of my Facebook friends and Twitter followers. Also, the online author community has proved invaluable to me. So, I would like to extend a special thank you to Darren Baker, Matthew Lewis, Dan Spencer, Julian Humphreys, Nathen Amin, S.J.A. Turney, Tony Riches, Sarah Bryson, Matthew Harffy, Dr Janina Ramirez, Giles Kristian, Justin Hill, Mary Anne Yard, Paula Lofting, Samantha Wilcoxson, Lynn Dawson, Jacqueline Reiter, Stephanie Churchill and Prue Batten for all your support and encouragement with this book and the previous ones.

And thank you to the various historical sites I have visited, including the British Library, Doncaster Museum, Conisbrough Castle, Lewes Castle and Priory, Sandal Castle, Castle Acre Castle and Priory, Pevensey Castle, Lincoln Castle and Cathedral, and all the wonderful staff who have been happy to talk about all things Warenne. I am grateful to Conisbrough residents Brenda Houlbrook and Peter Henderson for bringing to my attention the story of the mysterious knight who is buried in St Peters churchyard, Conisbrough; and to my cousin Andrea Houlbrook for going out especially during the coronavirus lockdown to take a photograph of St Peters Church for this book. I also have to thank my friend Andrea Raee, who took a photograph of the Warenne tomb at Southwark Cathedral and has kindly allowed me to use it in the book, as the lockdown prevented my planned field trip to the cathedral. And my gratitude goes to Trinity Church, Southover and the Dean and Chapter of Southwark Cathedral for graciously allowing me to use photographs taken within their churches. I must also thank the Sussex Archaeological Society for their support and encouragement in this project and wish them happy 175th birthday. The Society were founded in 1846, shortly after the discovery of the tomb of Gundrada de Warenne, during the excavations for the new railway line in Lewes.

I would like to include some thank yous to those who supported the release of my previous books, Heroines of the Medieval World , Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest and Ladies of Magna Carta : Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England . Particular thanks have to go to Sasha and Gill at Lindum Books in Lincoln for hosting my author talks and being a huge support of this local author. I am grateful to Victoria, Nicola, Marian and everyone at Gainsborough Old Hall, for hosting my book signings and being my place of refuge when I need to get away from the computer. And to Gavin, Liam and the staff at Conisbrough Castle who are always happy to talk about the Warennes.

A thank you must also go to my friends closer to home, particularly Sharon Gleave, Jill Gaskell, Di Richardson, Helen Walker, Bernadette Blaevoet-Fletcher and all my local friends, for their wonderful support and for dragging me out for a coffee every once in a while.

I reserve a special thanks to my family, especially my niece, Jessica, for her drawing of Conisbrough Castle, for me, as a souvenir. And my sister, Suzanne, whose support has been incredible and very much appreciated, and my brother Stephen. And to my mum and dad for all their love and encouragement, and for their own passion for history. A huge thank you also goes to my research assistant and son, Lewis Connolly, who has travelled to various wonderful places with me in the process of making this book a reality and has turned into a fabulous sounding-board for my ideas and arguments, as well as a source for numerous Warenne-related jokes mainly about rabbits! And to my husband, James, thank you for putting up with all the history talks. I could not have done it without all of you.