This Day in History: 1318-08-07

On 7th August 1318, with Thomas of Lancaster , lord of Pontefract, and King Edward II having temporarily resolved their differences, somewhere between Loughborough and Leicester, those barons that had opposed Lancaster presented themselves before him and were ‘received into his grace’; a notable exception being John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey and owner of Sandal Castle. It would appear that King Edward II abandoned John de Warenne in the interests of peace, leaving Lancaster to pursue his private feud with John. This had seen Lancaster’s wife, Alice, abducted by one St Richard de St Martin, a knight in de Warennes’s retinue, whilst Lancaster was opposed to John’s divorce from his wife Joan. The feud, which had seen Lancaster capture de Warenne’s castles at Sandal and Conisbrough, would culminate in  Lancaster hunting down John and imprisoning him at Pontefract Castle. De Warenne was forced to come to terms with Lancaster in 1319, which meant giving up most of his Yorkshire estates, including Sandal. King Edward II stated that Lancaster could hold the estates during de Warenne’s  lifetime, but they would revert to John’s heirs on his death. De Warenne also acknowledged that he owed Lancaster a debt of £50000 (over£43 million today), although none was ever collected.