1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Warwick, Richard Beauchamp, Earl of
WARWICK, RICHARD BEAUCHAMP, Earl of (1382-1439),
son of Thomas Beauchamp, was born at Salwarp in Worcestershire
on the 28th of January 1382, and suceeded his father in
1401. He had some service in the Welsh War, fought on the
king's side at the battle of Shrewsbury on the 22nd of July 1403,
and at the siege of Aberystwith in 1407. In 1408 he started on
a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, visiting on his way Paris and
Rome, and fighting victoriously in a tournament with Pandolfo
Malatesta at Verona. From Venice he took ship to Jaffa, whence
he went to Jerusalem, and set up his arms in the temple. On
his return he travelled through Lithuania, Prussia and Germany,
and reached England in 1410. Two years later he was fighting
in command at Calais. Up to this time Warwick's career had
been that of the typical knight errant. During the reign of
Henry V. his chief employment was as a trusted counsellor and
diplomatist. He was an ambassador to France in September
1413, and the chief English envoy to the coronation of Sigismund
at Aix-la-Chapelle, and to the council of Constance in the autumn
of 1414. During the campaign of Agincourt he was captain of
Calais, where in April 1416 he received Sigismund with such
courtly magnificence as to earn from him the title of the “Father
of Courtesy.” In the campaigns of 1417-18 Warwick took a
prominent part, reducing Domfront and Caudebec. Then he
joined the king before Rouen, and in October 1418 had charge
of the negotiations with the dauphin and with Burgundy. Next
year he was again the chief English spokesman in the conference
at Meulan, and afterwards was Henry's representative in arrangeing
the treaty of Troyes. At the sieges of Melun in 1420, and of
Mantes in 1421-22 he held high command. Warwick's sage
experience made it natural that Henry V. should on his death-bed
appoint him to be his son's governor. For some years to come
he was engaged chiefly as a member of the council in England.
In 1428 he received formal charge of the little king's education.
He took Henry to France in 1430, and whilst at Rouen had the
superintendence of the trial of Joan of Arc. In 1431 he defeated
Pothon de Xaintrailles at Savignies. Next year he returned to
England. The king's minority came nominally to an end in
1437. Warwick was then not unnaturally chosen to succeed
Richard of York in the government of Normandy. He accepted
loyally a service “full far from the ease of my years,” and went
down to Portsmouth in August, but was long detained by bad
weather, “seven times shipped or ever he might pass the, sea,”
and only reached Honfleur on the 8th of November. In Normandy
he ruled with vigour for eighteen months, and died at his
post on the 30th of April 1439. His body was brought home
and buried at Warwick. His tomb in St Mary's church is one of
the most splendid specimens of English art in the 15th Century.
Warwick married (1) Elizabeth Berkeley, (2) Isabella Despenser.
By his second wife he left an only son Henry, afterwards duke of
Warwick, who died in 1445, and a daughter Anne, who as her
brother's sister of the whole blood brought the title and chief
share of the estates to her husband Richard Neville, the
kingmaker. By his first wife he had three daughters, of whom the
eldest, Margaret, married John Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury.
Bibliography.—John Rous (d. 1491) wrote a life of Warwick, illustrated with over fifty drawings, now at the British Museum (Cotton MS. Julius E. iv.). They have been reproduced in Strutt's Manners and Customs; new edition by Mr Emery Walker, with notes by Lord Dillon and Mr W. St John Hope. More authoritative material must be sought in strictly contemporary chronicles, and especially in the Vita Henrici Quinti ascribed to Elmham, Monstrelet; Chronicles of London (ed. C. L. Kingsford) and J. Stevenson, Letters, &c. illustrative of the English Wars in France (“Rolls” series). For modern accounts consult J. H. Wylie, Henry IV.; C. L. Kingsford, Henry V.; and Sir James Ramsay, Lancaster and York. (C. L. K.)