Warenne, so early bereaved of both her parents, and at so childish an age consigned to the care of a profligate husband, though it began so brilliantly in courtly pomp, can be afterwards traced chiefly by the results of her husband's scandalous conduct. His almost rebellious siege of Piers Gaveston in Scarborough Castle had, in 1311, earned for him the displeasure of the king, and a few years later he incurred the sentence of excommunication from the Bishop of Chichester for adultery, and on assaulting that prelate's officers was even imprisoned.
Possibly local circumstances had led to the scene being so soon changed. Matilda de Neirford,[1] the partner of his guilt, appears to have belonged to an ancient knightly family in Norfolk, where the earl had such wide domains, and this vicinity may have led to his early familiarity with her. She was the wife of Sir Simon de Derby, at the time when she supplanted the Countess Joanna in the home and affection of the earl. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert de Winchelsey, previous to his death, which occurred May 11, 1313, had sent the earl, from a provincial council held in London, a solemn monition on the scandal of his disorderly life with this lady ("de vostre desordené vie que vous mesnez gardant et retenant Maude de Neyrford"); but this not having produced any effect on him, the succeeding archbishop, Walter Reynolds, with eleven of his suffragan bishops, again. May 23, 1314, admonished him to amend without delay, as otherwise they could no longer suffer such contempt of holy church. The earl's answer seems to have been an application for a divorce on account of consanguinity, a convenient plea often used in those lax times. The archbishop informing him in reply that such a suit could only be carried on by consent of the bishops in whose dioceses his lands lay, again urged him to have more regard for his soul, and for his lineage, and noble personal qualities, than to continue to grieve all his clerical and lay friends to the heart. ("Comme vus estes estret de si noble linage, et vos mesmes si bealx et si nobles par la grace que Dieu vous ad donné.")
- ↑ A family of the name of Nerford held extensive manors in Houghton Hundred and elsewhere in Norfolk. At Wreningham the manor was held of the Earl de Warenne, by Richard de Nerford, who sealed with " 3 fusils in fess ermine." Sir John de Nerford, who was summoned to Parliament, died 29º Edw. I, holding 32¼ fiefs. His arms were "Gules, a lion rampant ermine." Inq. p. mort.—Blomefield's Norfolk.
