daughter, married to Roger Lord Grey of Ruthin; John was succeeded by his son,
Laurence, who was five years old at his father's death, and by the King's license was in the custody of Julian his mother, who within a year after her first husband's death, married to Thomas le Blount, after whose death she married a third time to William de Clinton Earl of Huntingdon; this Earl, in 1351, is said to hold the manors of Winfarthing and Heywood, as guardian to the said Laurence, who, as soon as he came of age, was declared Earl of Pembrook, and the year following, being the 14th of Edward III. he attended the King in that great adventure against the French at sea, where he worthily shared in the glory of that victory obtained against them near Sluys in Flanders: but this was not the only brave action of this Earl, for he behaved himself valiantly all his life, as we find in Dugdale's Baronage, (p. 576,) where his brave achievements, and those of his family, are amply treated of. He died in 1347, leaving
John Hastyngs Earl of Pembrook, his son and heir, who married Anne, daughter of Sir Walter Manney, Knt. Being very active in the French wars, in 1371, he was made Lieutenant of Acquitain, at the special request of the inhabitants of that province, and was then about 25 years old; but unlucky it was for him that he had that honour, for upon his coming to the port of Rochell, which was then beleaguered by the French, no sooner was he got into the haven, but the Spanish fleet fell upon him, before he could put his men in order to fight, so that he was taken prisoner, his ships burnt, and all the English killed or taken, with no less than 20,000 marks, sent over by the King to maintain the war. After he had undergone four years imprisonment, with most inhumane usage, for a sum of money he was to have been enlarged, upon which he came to Paris, where falling sick, he hasted to Calais, but died on his journey, April 16, 1374, seized of these manors, which, among others, were assigned to
Anne, his widow, for her dower: she died in 1383, John de Hastyngs, their son, being then about eleven years old. This John, at the coronation of Richard II. (being then not five years old,) claimed to carry the great golden spurs, and shewing sufficient evidence of his right to do that service, Edmund Earl of March (whose daughter Phillipa he married) was allowed to perform it for him, by reason of his minority. He had no issue; for in the 13th Richard II. being then but seventeen years old, the King keeping his Christmass at Woodstock, and holding a tournament there, this young earl ventured to tilt with Sir John St. John, by an unlucky slip of whose lance he was run into the bottom of his belly, upon which his bowels burst out, and he soon died, to the great grief of many, being a person of so noble a disposition, that for bounty, manhood, and courtesy, he exceeded all of his age, and most of his degree. His untimely death was, at that time, thought a judgment upon his family, in regard that Aymer de Valence Earl of Pembrook, his ancestor, was one of those that passed sentence of death upon Thomas Earl of Lancaster at Pontfract; for it was observed, that after that judgment so given, none of the succeeding Earls of Pembrook ever saw his father. At his death,
Reginald Lord Grey of Ruthyn was by some inquisitions found to be his cousin, and heir of the whole blood, as descended lineally from Elizabeth, sister to John de Hastyngs, father of John, grandfather of this Earl; and by other inquisitions, Hugh de Hastyngs, son of Hugh, son of Hugh, son of the same John de Hastyngs, by Isabell, the daughter of Hugh Le Dispencer, his second wife, was found his heir male, but of the half blood, for which reason he did not inherit, though there was a great struggle for it, as there was for the arms of the Hastyngses, between Edward Hastyngs, great grandfather to this Hugh, and Reginald Lord Grey of Ruthyn; it lasted little less than twenty years, in the Court, before the Constable and Marshal of England; and in the end, the said Edward, though he was heir male, was not only condemned in 970l. 17s. 10d. costs, (Grey swearing that he had spent 1000 marks more,) but he was imprisoned sixteen years for disobeying that sentence, which was reputed a very hard and unjust one, and so Hastyngs thought it, for with extreme anguish of mind he died, leaving God's curse, and his own, upon his descendants, if they did not attempt the vindication of
