The king's writ
In 1286 the king left England to spend three years in Gascony, reorganising the administration of his beloved duchy. His long absence triggered serious unrest in Wales and the Marches.
To Edward I, the Marchers were subjects like any other, subject to his will. He made this plain in the Statute of Westminster in 1275:
“In the Marches of Wales, or in any other place where the king's writ does not run, the king who is sovereign lord will do right...to all such as will complain.”
The Marchers saw themselves quite differently. They had their own semi-official legal code, separate to the laws of England and Wales, and resented any intrusion by the crown. Except, of course, when the king was handing out gifts.
The major beneficiaries of Edward's conquest of Wales were John de Warenne, Henry de Lacy and Reynold Grey: these three were granted the lordships of Bromfield and Yale, Denbigh and Dyffryn Clwyd respectively. Warrene and Lacy were already great earls in England, while Grey was justiciar of Chester. The new Marcher lordships made them very powerful indeed.
As soon as Edward was gone, they turned on each other. In December 1286 Warrene's heir, William, was killed in a tournament. There were rumours of foul play, and in the aftermath Grey seized Bromfield and Yale, which Warrene had granted to his late son.
Grey claimed to have acted on behalf of the king, who was conveniently absent. Warrene responded that William had held the lordship direct of his father, which meant the king had no right to it. The argument rumbled on until the regency council forced Grey to surrender Bromfield and Yale in a meeting held in London at Candlemas (February) 1287.
That was not the end of it. Grey withdrew to his new lands in Wales, where he raised an army to press his 'rights'. In August Warrene wrote a panicked letter to his friend, the Earl of Warwick, warning him that Grey had invaded Bromfield and Yale with 'great numbers of horse and foot'. Warenne pleaded with Warwick to join him at Stafford on the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin (8 September). United, they could march against Grey and challenge him to battle.
Full-scale civil war looked on the cards, but this was not the reign of Henry VI. The council stepped in again and banged a few noble heads together: there was no war, and Warenne seems to have recovered his lands via negotiation. But it had been a near thing, and this was just the start.
