Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beauchamp, Walter de (fl.1415)
BEAUCHAMP, Sir WALTER de (fl. 1415), lawyer and soldier, was the younger son of John de Beauchamp, of Powyke and Alcester, the grandfather of John, first Baron Beauchamp of Powyke. At first he studied the law, but afterwards distinguished himself as a soldier under Henry IV and Henry V in the French wars. Upon his return from France after the battle of Agincourt, he was elected knight of the shire for Wiltshire, and on 16 March 1415-16 was chosen speaker of the House of Commons. This office, however, Sir Walter did not hold long, as parliament was dissolved in the same year. He was employed as counsel by his relative, Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, to argue his claim of precedency before the House of Commons. This quarrel between the Earl of Warwick and John Mowbray, earl marshal, which took up much of the time of the session of 1425, was terminated by the restoration of the forfeited dukedom of Norfolk to Mowbray. Sir Walter was married twice, first to Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Sir Peter de la Mere; and secondly to Elizabeth, daughter and coheiress of Sir John Roche, knight. By this second marriage he had three children, one of whom, William, was, in 1449, summoned to parliament as fourth Baron St. Amand, in right of his wife, the great-granddaughter of Almeric, third Baron St. Amand. Another was Richard, bishop of Salisbury [see Beauchamp, Richard de, 1430?-1481].
[Manning's Lives of the Speakers, pp. 60-2; Burke's Extinct Peerage (1883), pp. 32 and 34.]