Lady Isabeth De Warren

Isabeth of Warren was born in 1320, the only daughter to Sir Edmund and Lady Anne Wivenley. She was only 4 when her mother died in childbirth. Realising that his daughter needed a woman’s guidance to ensure a suitable marriage, he invited a distant cousin, (Alice), of his late wife into the household. Resenting this female interloper, Isabeth rebelled and caused many incidents that in turn required her father and Alice to collaborate on appropriate punishments.

Thus her rebellion only pushed the two adults together and in 1329, when Isabeth was 9, Edmund married Alice. They subsequently had 2 daughters together. At this point Isabeth realised marriage was the easiest way to distance herself from the woman who had taken her mother’s place. She worked hard to learn the necessities to become a proper lady and desirable wife.

Finally at the age of 12 in 1332, Isabeth Married Geoffrey the Eldest son of Sir Geoffrey of Warren. Eventually on his father’s death he took on his father's standing as he had already proven his worth on the battle field. In 1334 at the age of 14 Isabeth gave birth to her first child, a son whom they named Geoffrey after her husband. Sir Geoffrey took his duties serving King and Country above all else and he earned a reputation for fighting hard with excellent skill. It did mean that Isabeth, as most Ladies of the period, saw her husband on few occasions, she learned to enjoy the freedom and independence this caused and learnt some skills that were not necessarily approved of or encouraged by older males, such as writing. Isabeth and Sir Geoffrey did have a further 3 children together the youngest of which died before reaching his first birthday. The other 2 remaining children were girls. In 1344, Isabeth saw her son marry at the age of 10. He was the only child Sir Geoffrey saw marry as he died during the battle of Crécy.

The young sir Geoffrey took over as head of the household in theory although as he was still only 12, Isabeth was responsible for dealing with most things as she had done whilst her husband was still alive.

By the end of 1348 Isabeth had seen all of her children make good marriages and her son was starting to take over the reins of running the household his way. Before long Isabeth was being encouraged to either enter the church or find another husband, neither of which appealed to her. In early 1350 Sir Richard De Mytton, an old friend of the Warren family, invited Isabeth to join them as a Lady in Waiting and companion to his daughter Eleanor. It was a perfect position for Isabeth and she could see a lot of herself in the young Eleanor.

Although she had several offers of marriage over the years Isabeth remained unattached although there is some indication that she formed a relationship with one of the household’s Armourer Hamish McGregor.