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his 23rd or 24th year), viz. in Feb. 1420/1,[1] was cr. EARL OF WORCESTER. He m., 27 July 1411, at Tewkesbury, Isabel, sister and eventually (1414) sole h. of Richard Le Despenser, apparently de jure Lord Burghersh, being da. of Thomas, [the attainted] Earl of Gloucester (Lord Le Despenser), by Constance, da. of Edmund, Duke of York. He d. s.p.m. (being mortally wounded at the siege of Meaux in France, 18 Mar. 1421/2), and was bur. 25 Apr. 1422 in Tewkesbury Abbey. At his death, his vast estates and the representation of his Barony devolved on his only da. and h. (as below), but the Earldom of Worcester apparently reverted to the Crown. His widow, (who was b. (posthumous) 26 July 1400, at Cardiff, and who was apparently suo jure Baroness Burghersh, and, but for the attainder, would have been suo jure Baroness Le Despenser) m. (by papal disp.) 26 Nov. 1423, at Hanley Castle, co. Worcester, as 2nd wife, her husband's cousin, Richard (Beauchamp) 5th Earl of Warwick, who d. 30 Apr., and was bur. 4 Oct. 1439, at Warwick. M.I. Will dat. 8 Aug. 1435. She d. 27 Dec. 1439, at the Friars Minoresses, London, and was bur. 13 Jan. 1439/40, in Tewkesbury Abbey. M.I. Will. dat. 1 Dec. 1439, pr. 4 Feb. 1439/40. Inq.p.m. at Abingdon, June 1441. | |
| III 1422. | 3. Elizabeth Beauchamp, who, unless the Peerage be considered as one incident to the tenure of the Castle, must be considered as Baroness Bergavenny, or Beauchamp de Bergavenny, only da. and. h.; b. at Hanley Castle, co. Worcester, 16 Sep. 1415. She m., when very young, before 18 Oct. 1424[2] [in 1426 her husband (as "Dominus de Bourgevenny")[3] had summons to take, with the King himself, the order of Knighthood], Edward Nevill, 11th and yst. s. of Ralph, 1st Earl of Westmorland, being 9th s. by his 2nd wife, Joan (Beaufort), Dowager Lady Ferrers de Wemme, the legitimated da. of John "of Gaunt," Duke of Lancaster. In (1435) 14 Hen. VI, she was found h. to her grandmother (who had held the lands of Abergavenny and others in dower), when she and her husband had livery of the lands of her inheritance, but not of the castle and lands of Abergavenny, to which her |
- ↑ The charter or patent for this creation does not seem to have been enrolled.
- ↑ Will of her husband's father.
- ↑ Foedera, vol. x, p. 356. His name, however, does not occur in the chroniclers' lists of those knighted, consequent on this summons, by Henry VI, at Leicester, on Whitsunday, 19 May 1426. (See Chron. of London, ed. Kingsford, 1905, pp. 95 and 130).
this Richard "was a commoner until created an Earl," arguing, from the mere circumstance of his being styled Richard Beauchamp of Bergavenny, Knight" in the same instrument in which his mother is spoken of as "Lady Bergavenny," that the Peerage (which, it should be remarked, was undoubtedly possessed by her late husband) was vested (suo jure) in her (and not in the s. and h.) by her tenure of the Castle. At that time, however, and long afterwards, Peers were frequently (if, indeed not generally) described as above; and in the writ to the escheator for the Inq. post mortem of this very Lady she is styled merely "Johanna, quæ fuit uxor Will'i de Bello Campo, militis," though, in the inquisition itself, her husband is alluded to as "nuper Dominus de Bergevenny." (Berkeley Case, Appendix 2, p. 59.)
