“The next circumstance recorded of the Earl, is one in which that proud and sturdy spirit for which he was celebrated, was displayed in a manner so consonant to the feelings of the present day, that this nobleman has always been a favourite character in English biography; and the pencil was on one occasion employed to perpetuate his independent conduct. After the enactment of the statute of _quo warranto_, the Earl of Warren was, under its provisions, questioned by what title he held his lands; to which inquiry, first unsheathing an old sword, he is said to have replied, ‘Behold, my Lords, here is my warranty. My ancestors coming into this land with William the Bastard, did obtain their lands by the sword; and with the sword I am resolved to defend them against whomsoever that shall endeavour to dispossess me. For that King did not himself conquer the land and subdue it, but our progenitors were sharers and assistants therein.’ “In the 23d Edward I., the Castle of Bamburgh was intrusted to his custody; and, in the 24th Edward I., he commanded the forces sent to reduce Dunbar Castle, which, after a siege of three days, surrendered to him; and having met the Scotch army which came to its relief, he defeated them on Friday the 27th April, and pursued them several miles from the field of battle, when the enemy sustained a loss of 10,000 men. Soon after this event, the Earl was appointed Regent of Scotland; and in the following year was constituted general of all the English forces north of the Trent. But his previous good fortune now deserted him; and his army sustained a signal overthrow at the battle of Stirling, in September 1297. “His misfortune did not, however, lessen him in Edward’s esteem, for he was immediately afterwards reappointed to the command of the English forces; and, in the 28th Edward I., was made Governor of Hope Castle, in the county of Derby. In that year, also, he commanded the second squadron at the siege of Carlaverock, at which time he must have been about sixty-five years of age. “In the 29th Edward I., the Earl was appointed, jointly with the Earl of Warwick and others, to treat with the agents of the King of France, relative to a peace between England and Scotland; and in the same year he was a party to the letter from the barons to Pope Boniface VIII., in which he is only styled “Comes Warenne,” though on his seal he is also properly called Earl of Surrey.[151] On the 5th calends of October, 32 Edward I., i. e. 27th September 1304, being then, according to Peter de Langtoft,[152] employed in Scotland, he died. “The moneth of September yolden was Strivelyn, Edward may remembre the travaille and the pyn. With many grete encumbre of in hard stoure, At Brustwick opon Humbre there he mad sojoure. Sir Jon of Warenne that ilk tyme gan deie, His body was redy then in grave for to leie, After the enterment the King tok his way, To the south,” &c.