In the tenth of Edward II. he was engaged in the Scottish wars; but before the end of that year, being taken prisoner by Sieur Moilly, a Burgundian, and being sent to the Emperor, he was constrained to give twenty thousand pounds of silver for his ransom, by reason, as Moilly alleged, that himself having served the King of England, had not been paid his wages. Upon this occasion King Edward wrote letters to divers foreign princes, soliciting his deliverance, which was effected; for we find him immediately thereafter appointed governor of Rockingham Castle, and heading the King’s army in Scotland. But at last, after many important and honourable services to the State, performed with great ability, he was constituted Warden of all the Forests south of Trent; and being still Warden of Scotland, had license to travel beyond sea. Upon the taking of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, at Boro’bridge, he was one of those who passed sentence of death upon him at Pontefract. “After which it was not long that he lived; for, attending Queen Isabella into France in 1323, he was there murdered in the month of June, by reason,” as the chronicle supposes, “of his having had a hand in the death of the Earl of Lancaster.” He left vast demesnes in England, in nine or ten counties, but no issue by any of his three wives.--[Chronicles.] His eldest sister, Elizabeth, one of his heirs, “wedded unto John, Lord <g>Hastings</g>, brought this dignity into a new family; for Laurence Hastings, his grandson, Lord of Weishford and Abergavenny, was made Earle of ‘<g>Penbrock</g>,’[376] by virtue of King Edward the Third, his <g>brieffe</g>, the copy whereof I thinke good to set doune here, that we may see what was the right by heires generall in these honorary titles. It runs thus:--<g>Rex</g> omnibus ad quos ... Salutem, etc. The which being interpreted, is--