Reginald de Warenne

Reginald de Warenne (sometimes Rainald de Warenne; the second earl of Surrey, and Isabel de Vermandois. Ada's husband was the only son of King David I of Scotland, and she was the mother of two kings of Scotland – Malcolm IV and William I. From their mother's first marriage, to Robert de Beaumont, Reginald was a half-brother of the twins Robert de Beaumont the Earl of Leicester, and Waleran de Beaumont, the Count of Meulan and Earl of Worcester. There was another Reginald de Warenne alive during Reginald's lifetime who may have been an illegitimate half-brother.

Early career Reginald first appears in the historical record in early 1138, signing some of his father William's charters as a witness. Reginald also had his own lands, granted from his brother's estates in Norfolk and Sussex. On William's death the earldom and estates passed to William's daughter Isabel. At the instigation of King Stephen of England she married the King's second son, William, Count of Boulogne, who thus became Earl of Surrey. Reginald continued in his role as an administrator under the new Earl, eventually becoming his main advisor, and also began to serve the King, signing several royal charters as a witness. laid out the rights that William, by then the only surviving son of King Stephen, would receive for not contesting the passage of the crown of England to Henry of Anjou after Stephen's death. Stephen died in 1154, and Henry succeeded him as Henry II; Reginald continued to serve as a royal official, witnessing several of the new King's charters. In 1164 he was present at the Council of Clarendon, Reginald was also in the party which accompanied the King's daughter, Matilda, to Germany for her marriage to Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony. between 1168 and 1170, along with Richard of Ilchester, Guy the Dean of Waltham Holy Cross, and William Basset. (Writing in 1942, Edward Warren argued that in 1168 Henry II summoned Reginald as a serjeant-at-law, but later researchers have not agreed with Warren's conclusions.) According to Warren, the others summoned by Henry were: 1174: John de Cumin, William fitzRalph, William fitzStephen 1176: William Basset, Roger fitzReinfrid 1177: Hugh de Cressy 1179: Hugh de Gaerst, Ranulf de Glanvill, Hugh Murdac 1182: William de Auberville, Osbert fitzHervey 1184: Ralph fitzStephen.

In 1170 Reginald was involved in attempts to keep Thomas Becket, who had been in exile, from returning to England. Working with Reginald were Gervase de Cornhill, the Sheriff of Kent; Ranulf de Broc; and three senior ecclesiastics that Becket had excommunicated: Roger de Pont L'Évêque, the Archbishop of York; Gilbert Foliot, the Bishop of London; and Josceline de Bohon, the Bishop of Salisbury. Reginald was involved in a subsequent attempt to resolve the differences between the King and Becket later in the month, which again came to nothing.

In 1173 Reginald worked for the King, along with Richard fitzNigel and Nicholas de Sigillo, to assess a land tax on parts of the royal estate. They assessed the tax in Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Oxfordshire, Kent and Sussex. During the Revolt of 1173–1174 Reginald served the King as castellan of Hastings Castle.

Death and legacy

Reginald married Alice, the daughter and heiress of William de Wormegay, Baron of Wormegay in Norfolk, who died in 1166. Reginald was fined just over 466 pounds by the King for the right to inherit his father-in-law's lands and become Lord of Wormegay, or Baron Wormegay. (The sources do not define the exact basis for the king imposing this fine.)

Reginald gave up his public duties in 1176. then to William de Courcy;

The historian Edmund King has called Reginald "the fixer in that formidable family". Reginald gave lands and gifts to several monasteries. Among these were the Warenne family foundations of Lewes and Castle Acre Priory, with further gifts to Carrow, Clerkenwell Priory, and Binham Priory.