“The successes which attended this nobleman against Robert Bruce, are described by a contemporary chronicler; and it is said that Valence, after a severe contest, pursued Bruce, and presuming that he would take refuge in Kildrummie castle, he gained possession of that place, but finding only Nigel de Bruce, brother of Robert, there, he caused him and all who were with him, to be immediately hung. This action has given rise to some pertinent remarks by the able biographer of the Earl in the beautiful work before noticed,[96] who has satisfactorily shown that Nigel was not put to death by him, but that at least the forms of law were practised on the occasion. On the deathbed of Edward I., Pembroke, with some other personages, received the King’s dying injunctions to afford his son their counsel and support, and not to permit Piers de Gaveston to return into England. His strict adherence to this command, naturally excited the favourite’s displeasure; and he is said, in derision of his tall stature and pallid complexion, to have termed him “Joseph the Jew.” In the first year of the young monarch’s reign, Valence was, as has been before observed, allowed and summoned to Parliament by his proper title of Earl of Pembroke; and at the coronation of that monarch, he carried the King’s left boot, but the spur belonging to it was borne by the Earl of Cornwall. In the same year, after performing homage upon the death of his mother for her lands, he was joined with Otho de Grandison in an embassy to the Pope; and in the 3d Edward II., was found heir to his sister Agnes, or more probably Anne. It has been considered, from the circumstance of the Earl being a witness to the instrument by which the King recalled Gaveston, and bestowed the possessions of the Earl of Cornwall upon him, that he approved of, or at least consented to, those acts; but this idea rests upon far too uncertain evidence to be relied upon; and if he ever changed his opinion it was of short duration, for in the 3d Edward II., he joined the Earl of Lancaster against Gaveston, and when he was banished the realm in 1311, the Earl of Pembroke was one of the persons deputed to petition the King that he should be rendered incapable of ever holding any office.