the last day of May, 1331, he alleges one of the motives of his grant to be "for his own soul and that of the Countess Joanna de Baar, his consort." Among the seals of the witnesses are expressly recorded those of "the lady Joanna .de Barr, Countesse de Warenne, William her chaplain, and of Richard Russell, who, by the direction of the lord the earl, wrote this charter, and saw all the above-placed seals affixed."6 In 1337, she is mentioned in a grant along with John de Warren, Earl of Surrey, as "Joan his wife." After his death she was considered as his widow, and in the inq. p. m. he is stated to be seized of the manor of Bokeland in her right. In the same year, but after his death (1347), under the description of "Domina Joan de Barr, Comitissa Surrey," she presented a clerk to one of the Warren churches in the diocese of Salisbury. She held courts at her manor of Wakefield under the style of Countess of Warren' in 1350, and the name of Joan de Bar is inserted in the rolls of that manor for the same year, the style before this period being "The Court at Wakefield," and after this period "The Court of the Countess of Warren." 8 In 1355, Elizabeth de Clare leaves to dame Johanne de Bars, Countesse de Garenne, an image of gold of John the Baptist in the desert." The Yorkshire estates of the late earl were settled upon her as dower, but on her death were to revert to the king, and by deed dated June 30, 1359, Edward III. agreed to pay her £120 annually in lieu of these estates. 10 Joan de Barr died abroad on Aug. 29, 1361, and was not buried in England. On Aug. 6, 1347, only thirty-seven days after the earl's death, a royal patent was signed at Reading, by which all the northern possessions of the deceased were settled on Edmund de Langley, the fifth son of the king, but as he was a minor, and Joan de Barr had possession for life of the Yorkshire estates, he did not actually receive the profits of them until he attained his majority in 1362, previously to which time the king had made arrangements with Joan de Barr as stated above. In this year also Edmund was created Earl of Cambridge. Hardly had the last Earl Warren settled his matrimonial 6 MS. Chartulary. Vespasian XV. F. f. 36. Sussex Archæol. Col., Vol. VI. 7 South Yorkshire, I. 108. 8 Leatham, Lecture on Wakefield, 1842. 9 Nichols, Royal Wills, p. 37. dispute, when he was embroiled in another suit, and this time against Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, grandson of Henry the Third, who had married Alesia de Laci, the heiress of the proud owners of Pontefract. The lady was staying at her husband's seat at Cawford in Dorsetshire, when she was carried off by violence, but probably as a consenting party, on the Monday before Ascension day, 1317, to Earl Warren's castle of Reigate in Surrey. This occasioned a divorce between Thomas of Lancaster and his countess, and the earl, in a spirit of revenge, laid siege to the castle of Sandal, and after taking it, set the building on fire, the traces of which can still be found in the existing ruins; but of this earlier castle we know nothing, either as to its size or architecture. The castle cannot have been completely destroyed, as has so frequently been stated, because the following year Earl Warren, in virtue of a licence from the king, granted, for the natural life of the said earl, the manor of Wakefield with the castle of Sandal to Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, as a reparation for the wrong done to him. Lancaster only enjoyed it about three years, for, having taken up arms and acting as leader of the barons against the king, he was taken prisoner at the battle of Boroughbridge, and brought to his own castle at Pontefract, where his old enemy, John de Warren, was one of those who sat in judgment upon him, and ordered his execution, which took place, March 22, 1322. On Earl Lancaster's attainder and death his possessions came into the king's hands, and with them Sandal castle, whose custody, on March 19, Edward the Second committed to William de la Beche, because of his known hostility to the late earl," but he only acted as custodian until April 4, when he was commanded to hand over the castle and its appurtenances to Thomas de Eyvill. The accounts of de la Beche for the time when he had the custody of the castle are preserved in the Ministers' Accounts General Series, 1145 b, and are most interesting, stating the goods and chattels in the castle, the number of horses (21 cart-horses and 46 colts), cattle (2 bulls, 25 cows, 40 oxen), pigs (14), ewes and lambs (30), the amount of corn, wheat, oats, peas, wine (5 tuns), contents of the larder, vessels and utensils, harness and armour. Under the heading "wages" come, William VOL. XIII. 11 Originalia Rolls, 15 Ed. II. M de la Beche, custodian, 2s. by the day, his page 12d., "several armed men" each taking by the day 2d., the cooper 24d., his boy 1d., the janitor 2d., the forester 4d., his boy 1 d., one man keeping the harriers 2d. The value of the stock is also given, thus, corn 12d. a bushel, 72s. for 4 quarters of wheat, 68s. for 17 quarters of oats, 116s. 8d. for 2 tuns of wine, 26s. 8d. for 8 quarters of salt, 100s. for a saddle, £6 13s. 4d. for a three years old colt, 66s. 8d. for another colt, 13s. 4d. for 8 pigs, 30s. for 12 ewes and 10 lambs, 77s. for 7 oxen, 5s. for 4 goats. There was in the chapel "1 chalice, 1 missal, and 1 worn vestment found and received there beyond the indenture, because the priest and others of the town of Sandale put in their claim to the said ornaments as being the ornaments of the Mother Church of the said town of Sandale. And so they remain until it shall be discussed whether they are the ornaments of the said church or the ornaments of the chapel of the Castle.To remain until there be a discussion." The result of which discussion I know not. Two years later Richard de Mosele, who had previously received the rents for a few days, was appointed custodian,12 and the next year (1324-5) Richard de Wynferthyng and Richard de Skene were appointed senescalls. 13 In 1327, after the death of Edward the Second, Henry Plantagenet, being found heir to his brother Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, an act was passed reversing his attainder, and he paid homage to Edward the Third for the restitution of his lands, but the castle of Sandal, to which John de Warren laid claim, was by consent of both parties to remain in the king's hands; but on March 2, 1328, the Earl of Lancaster released his rights in the castle to John de Warren. 14 On re-acquiring possession of Sandal castle, Earl Warren at once commenced to repair the great damage done by the Earl of Lancaster in 1317, and the greater part of the castle that we see in the Elizabethan picture can with certainty be attributed to this date (1328). The only fragment of worked stone now remaining above ground is in a window of what was once a lodging room, and this is Decorated in character, but during the excavations 12 Originalia Rolls, 17 Ed. II. 13 Originalia Rolls, 18 Ed. II. 14 Cal. Anc. Deeds, A. 351. different mouldings were found, all of them pointing to this period. Built into the revetment wall of the west tower are a large quantity of burnt stones and others that have been exposed to a great heat; the west tower of the shell keep has likewise several burnt stones worked up in it, and the mortar of both these buildings has much charred wood in small pieces mixed with it; showing that at the time of their erection many burnt stones and much burnt woodwork was lying about at the castle, pointing to the mischief wrought by the flames with which Earl Lancaster revenged his injured feelings when Alesia de Laci left her liege lord for the affections of Earl Warren. In the east window of what is now known as the Pilkington chapel in the north transept of Sandal church, is an old This chapel shield of Earl Warren, checky, or and azure. used formerly to belong to the owners of Sandal castle, and was transferred with the castle to the Neviles when they purchased the estate from Sir Thomas Beaumont of Whitley in 1662. In the Inquisition post mortem taken at Wakefield in 1347 on John, Earl Warren's estates, it is stated "that there is at Sandal a certain Castle, with a fosse, &c., and there is a garden without the said Castle, with a Grange, the herbage and fruit whereof is worth yearly 6s. 8d., and there are in demesne sixty-three acres of land, whereof every acre is worth yearly 4d., and the rest of the lands which were of the demesnes there, are in the hands of tenants for a certain rent therefore annually rendered, which same rent is included with the rent of other tenants in Sandal.. And there are four acres of meadow in demesne, whereof every acre is worth yearly 18d., and the rest of the meadows which were there are in the hands of Tenants for a certain rent therefore annually rendered, which same rent is included within the rents of the Tenants in Sandal. And there is a certain several pasture, and it is worth 3s. And there is a certain small Park, with wild beasts, and it is worth nothing yearly, beyond the sustentation of the wild beasts. And there is a certain pool, and it is worth nothing yearly as a fishery, because it is for the Lord's table." 15 We are able from our excavations, and from a study of four surveys of the castle made in the years 1529, 1545, 1564 and 1566, with the aid of the curious drawing made in Elizabeth's reign and kept in the Duchy of Lancaster office, an engraving of which was made by the Society of Antiquaries, and published by them in Vetusta Monumenta, 1753, to form a very fair idea of what Sandal castle was in its palmy days. The castle covered an area of nearly six acres, and occupied the whole of the mound and the semilunar platform at its eastern base. In plan it was somewhat fan-shaped, the eastern half being as nearly as possible a semicircle, from the ends of which it tapered off to the keep at its western point. Advantage was taken of the English burh to build a strong castle on its site, with a deep surrounding ditch, so as to protect the walls and render it difficult or impossible to undermine them. The castle consisted of a large outer ward or courtyard and the keep, which occupied the summit of the mound, and commanded the entire castle. Along the outer edge of the base-court ran a great battlemented curtain-wall, varying from 7 to 10 feet thick, which enclosed the whole outer ward, and, crossing the moat on either side, ascended the mound and abutted upon the keep, which also formed a part of the enceinte, or line of the outer defence of the castle, so that about two-thirds of the circumference of the keep was outside, and one-third, including the doorway, was inside the curtain. The gatehouse faced almost due north; the whole south 15 Extracted from Taylor's Rectory Manor of Wakefield, App. II. xc |