“AYMER DE VALENCE was the third son of William de Valence, who was created Earl of Pembroke by his uterine brother King Henry the Third. He was born about 1280, and succeeded his father in his honours on the 13th June 1296, both of his elder brothers having previously died without issue. The earliest notice of him which is recorded, is, that on the 26th January, 25th Edward I., 1297, he was summoned to Parliament as a baron, though, according to modern opinions on the subject, he was fully entitled to the earldom of Pembroke, nor was the title ever attributed to him in public records, until the 6th November, 1st Edward II. 1307; and the first writ to Parliament addressed to him as “Earl of Pembroke,” was tested on the 18th of the following January. Upon this remarkable circumstance, some observations have been recently made; but it is wholly impossible to explain the cause of the anomaly in a satisfactory manner. Although never styled “Earl of Pembroke” until the accession of Edward II., it is manifest, that from the death of his father, he ranked above all barons excepting Henry of Lancaster, who being of the blood royal, is uniformly mentioned next to Earls; hence it appears, that notwithstanding his claim was not positively acknowledged, he was considered to be entitled to a higher degree of precedency than belonged to the baronial dignity. In the 25th Edward I., he was in the expedition into Flanders, and, in the same year, was appointed a commissioner to ratify an agreement between the King and Florence, Count of Holland, relative to some auxiliaries from the Count in that war; and was likewise one of the ambassadors sent by Edward to treat for a truce between England and France. In the 26th and 27th Edward I., he was in the Scottish wars, and in June 1300, in the 28th Edward I., was present at the siege of Carlaverock, when he must have been about twenty-one years of age; but the poet pays him no other compliment than what a pun upon his name suggested. “Le Valence Aymars li Vaillans.”