Earl of Surrey

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Arms of the Warrens of Surrey

The Earldom of Surrey was first created in 1088 for William de Warenne. Perhaps because he held little property in Surrey, the earldom came to be more commonly called of Warenne. The name Warenne comes from the name of their property in Normandy where the family's ancestral castle, Bellencombre, was located.

It was held by William de Warenne's son and grandson, both also named William, and then by the husbands of Isabella, daughter of the third William de Warenne. The first of these was William of Blois, son of King Stephen, and the second was Hamelin, half-brother of Henry II. The latter took the de Warenne surname, and a son, grandson, and great-great-grandson of Hamelin and Isabella subsequently held the earldom.

With the failure of the second de Warenne male line in 1347, the earldom passed to Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel, who was a nephew of the last de Warenne earl, although he did not assume the title until after the death of the previous earl's widow in 1351. It was also held by his son, who forfeited it upon his execution in 1397.

John Holland, who was a grandson of the first Fitzalan earl of Surrey, was then created Duke of Surrey. He held the title for 2 years until he was stripped of it by Henry IV, who restored the earldom to the Fitzalans. The restored earl died in 1415 without male heirs, whereupon the earldom of Surrey became either extinct or abeyant (authorities disagree on this), while the earldom of Arundel passed to cousins who were not descended from the de Warennes.

The earldom of Surrey was subsequently revived for the Thomas Howard, who later became Duke of Norfolk, and it has been held by this family ever since, with some breaks during which their titles were forfeited but later restored. This earldom does not have the "de Warenne" associations of the earlier earldom. The 4th earl of this creation also inherited the earldom of Arundel, thus re-uniting the two earldoms.