The titled nobility of England and Ireland consisted of one rank until 1337, namely that of earl. Edward I (1272–1307) led a restrictive policy on the creation of new earldoms, and at the end of his reign the number of earls was at eleven. The final years of the thirteenth century had seen a dramatic fall-off in the upper level of the nobility, as six earls had died from 1295 to 1298. The earldoms of Hereford and Essex, Hertford and Gloucester, Lancaster, Oxford and Warwick had been filled by 1300, while that of Pembroke had to wait until 1307. Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, whose father William died in 1296, did not succeed until his mother's death in 1307, since the earldom descended through the female line of the family. Another great generational change occurred in the years 1