1349 the southern Warenne estates were granted to the Countess Joan, with remainder to the Earl of Arundel. As long as Joan lived, Arundel did not assume the Warenne titles. However, after 1361, Arundel entered into possession of the estates, and henceforth styled himself Earl of Surrey or Warenne, as well as Earl of Arundel. Thus the house of Warenne became merged in the house of Fitzalan.
Warenne left numerous illegitimate children. His children by Matilda de Nerford, named John and Thomas, who were living in 1316, had apparently died before him. He had a Welsh son named Ravlyn, who in 1334 joined in the attack of the Hope garrison on Ralph Butler. The sons mentioned in the will are: (1) Sir William de Warenne, the largest legatee, to whom his father had in January 1340 granted 122 acres of waste from the manor of Hatfield, Yorkshire, at a rent of 10l. a year (Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1338–40, p. 411). (2) Edward de Warenne, the same probably as the Sir Edward de Warren who, by his marriage with Cicely de Eton, heiress of the barons of Stockport, established himself at Poynton and Stockport, Cheshire, and was the ancestor of the later Warrens of Poynton, barons of Stockport. It was in honour of the last male representative of this house, Sir George Warren (d. 1801), that John Watson, rector of Stockport, wrote his elaborate ‘History of the Earls of Warren or Surrey,’ in which he vainly sought to prove the legitimate descent of his benefactor from Reginald de Warren, the son of Earl William (d. 1138) [q. v.] of the elder Norman house, and to urge that the earldom ought to be revived in his favour. The early arms of this family suggest that Matilda de Nerford was Edward's mother. (3) Another William de Warenne, prior of Horton, Kent, to whom his father bequeathed his French bible. There were also three daughters: (4) Joan de Basing; (5) Catharine; and (6) Isabella, a canoness of Sempringham.
[Ann. Londoni, Chron. of Monk of Malmesbury and Canon of Bridlington in Chronicles of Edward I and II, Trokelowe, Flores Hist. vol. iii., Murimuth, Walsingham, Chron. Angliæ, 1328–88 (all the above in Rolls Ser.); Chron. de Lanercost (Maitland Club); Chron. Walter de Hemingburgh (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Cont. Trivet, ed. Hall; Calendars of Close and Patent Rolls; Parl. Writs, vols. i. ii.; Rymer's Fœdera; Statutes of the Realm, vol. i.; Testamenta Eboracensia, vol. i. (Surtees Soc.); Watson's Memoirs of the Earls of Warren or Surrey, 1782, ii. 1–74; Ormerod's Cheshire, iii. 680–7, 794–796, ed. Helsby; Earwaker's East Cheshire; Hunter's South Yorkshire, i. 108–10; Dugdale's Baronage, i. 80–2; Dugdale's Monasticon, vol. vi.; Sussex Archæological Collections, vols. ii. iii. vi. xxxiv.; G. E. C[okayne]'s Complete Peerage, vii. 328–9, cf. also vii. 286 and iv. 236; Doyle's Official Baronage, iii. 472–3; Nicolas's Hist. Peerage, pp. 463, 465, ed. Courthope.]
WARENNE or WARREN, WILLIAM, first Earl of Surrey (d. 1088), appears to have been the son of Rodulf or Ralph, called ‘filius episcopi,’ by his second wife, Emma, Rodulf himself being the son of Hugh (d. 1020), bishop of Coutances, by a sister of Gunnor, wife of Richard I (d. 996), duke of the Normans (C. Waters, Gundrada de Warenne, p. 11; Archæological Journal, iii. 7; Cont. of Will. of Jumièges, viii. 37, makes his mother a niece of Gunnor). His name was derived from his fortress situated on the left bank of the Varenne, and called after that river, though later called Bellencombre (Seine-Inférieure), where there are some ruins of a castle of the eleventh century. He was a knight at the battle of Mortemer in 1054; and when, after the battle, Roger de Mortemer, his kinsman (he is incorrectly called his brother, ib.; Stapleton says that he was uncle), offended Duke William, the duke gave the castle of Mortemer to William Warenne (Orderic, p. 658).
He was one of the lords consulted by the duke with reference to his complaints against Harold (d. 1066) [q. v.], and was present at the battle of Hastings (Will. of Poitiers, p. 135). When the Conqueror returned to Normandy in March 1067 he appointed William, with other lords, to assist the two viceroys in England. Grants of land were given him by the king; in Sussex he held Lewes, where he erected a castle, and about a sixth part of the county. He is said to have built another castle at Reigate in Surrey, and a third at Castle Acre in Norfolk. In 1069 he received Conisborough in the West Riding, with its appendages, and he became wealthy, for in 1086 he held lands in twelve counties (Ellis, Introduction to Domesday, i. 213; Watson). He fought against the rebels in the Isle of Ely in 1071, and is represented as having a special grudge against Hereward, who is said to have slain his brother Frederic (Liber de Hyda, p. 295; Gesta Herewardi, pp. 46, 54, 61; Liber Eliensis, c. 105; Frederic occurs as a landholder in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, see Domesday, ff. 196, ii, 465 b, 170 b, 172 b, but was dead in 1086). During the absence of the king in 1075 Warenne was joint chief justiciar with Richard de Clare (d. 1090?) [q. v.], and took
