one of the chief of those Barons that then sat therein; but not long after this, being taken at Kenilworth, in that notable surprise made by the forces of Prince Edward, a little before the battle of Evesham, his lands were seized, and given to William de Valence, half brother to the King, and Earl of Pembrook, who had married his sister Joan; whereupon Dionisia, his mother, who was daughter and heir of Nicholas de Anesty, undertook to bring him, before the feast of St. Hillary, in the 51st year of that King, to stand to the judgment of the King's Court, in pursuance of the decree called Dictum de Kenilworth; but being not able to perform it within that time, by reason of his sickness, she promised to bring him upon that very day, when he had such fair respect shewn him for his sister's sake, that William de Valence, her husband, freely restored him his lands again; after which, in 1277, he had a full pardon for his rebellion, and all the liberties granted by King Henry II. to his ancestors, confirmed at large, with this additional one, that he might keep dogs to hunt the hare, fox, and wild cat in his forests. In 1289, he went with the Earl of Cornwall (then governour of the realm in the King's absence) into Wales against Res Ap Griffith, at that time in the castle of Drosselau; (who had made great depredations in those parts;) and as he, with divers others, endeavoured to demolish that castle, by undermining it, he was with them overwhelmed and killed with the fall thereof; at whose death, Dionisia, his mother, had custody of his daughter and heiress, named also
Dionisia; and immediately after Hugh de Vere, a younger son to Robert Earl of Oxford, who was then the King's servant, obtained license, and married her in 1296; and in consideration of his great services in the French wars, had livery of her inheritance; Dionisia, her grandmother, being then living, who being a devout woman, founded Waterbeche nunnery in Cambridgeshire, in 1293; she died in 1303, and her lands descended to
Hugh de Vere, who had no issue by his wife Dionisia, so that her inheritance reverted to William de Valence, who had married Joan, sister to the last William de Munchensi, who, after the death of the said Hugh, had view of frankpledge, assize of bread and ale, and a tumbrel, or cucking-stool, allowed to this manor. And thus much of the ancient family of the Munchensis.
William de Valence Earl of Pembrook died seized, in right of Joan his wife, aunt to the last Dionisia, and sister to William de Munchensi, leaving
Audomar, or Aymer, de Valence Earl of Pembrook, his heir; who, in 1321, held it by one fee of the barony of Munchensi, and the manor or tenement called Hey-wood, of Robert Fitz-Walter, by the fourth part of a fee. He died in 1323, leaving no male issue, so that his sisters inherited, and this manor was allotted to
Isabell, who married John Hastings Lord Abergavenny, by whom he had
John de Hastyngs, who succeeded him, and Elizabeth, a
