Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 1.djvu/79

right did not accrue till 11 June 1446, even on the most favourable interpretation to the Nevill family of the entail of 1395/6,^[1] unless, indeed, that entail is, from some unknown cause, to be considered as invalid, against her right as heir at law to her grandfather, the maker of the entail. She d. 18 June 1448,^[2] aged 32, and was bur. at the Carmelites, Coventry.^[3]

1. On 11 June 1446 the male line of the Beauchamp family, who [under the entail 20 Feb. 1395/6, of William (Beauchamp), 1st Lord Bergavenny] were entitled to the castle and lands of Abergavenny, became extinct by the death, s.p.m., of Henry (Beauchamp), Duke and Earl of Warwick. A grave question however remains as to what title the Earls of Warwick had therein. The words of the entail are, "Thomas, Earl of Warwick, and his heirs male for ever." Under the construction that such estate constituted one in fee, the castle, &c, is stated to have been held in fee, in the Inq. post mortem of Richard, Earl of Warwick (who d. 1439), and of Henry, Duke of Warwick, his s. and h. It is to be noted that Coke says "where lands are given to a man and his heirs male he hath a fee simple, because it is not limited, by the gift, of what body the issue male shall be." Anyhow, the castle, &c., was for a long time afterwards withheld from this branch of the Nevill family by Anne, da. and h. of this Duke Henry, and Anne, sister of the said Duke, who m. Richard (Nevill), Earl of Warwick and Salisbury [on whose seal, of date 1 Feb. 4 Edw. IV (1464/5) is Sigillum : ricardi : neuill : comitis : warrewici : domini : de : bergeuenny : See Visit. of co. Huntingdon, 1613, Camden Soc, p. 74.]. Besides these, it was asserted in Fane's case that George, Duke of Clarence, and Richard, Duke of Gloucester, his [i.e. the Earl of Warwick and Salisbury's] sons-in-law, were successively seized of the castle and lordship as in right of their wives; that Henry VII granted the castle &c., to Jasper, Duke of Bedford; and that after the death of Jasper s.p., the property was restored by Henry VIII to George Nevill, Lord of Bergavenny, upon a petition of right. (Collins, Baronies by Writ, p. 79.) "The fact seems to have been as thus stated, and therefore the Nevill family, during the seisin of the several persons before named, could not have been sum. to Parl, in consequence of their seisin of the Castle and Lordship of Bergavenny, not having such seisin." (Lords' Reports, vol. i, p. 443.) Sir Edward Nevill, however, asserted his wife's right as heir at law (notwithstanding the entail) and "Undeuly entred upon us in the place and Castel of Bergevenny, whereof the heir is our warde." See commands for his expulsion therefrom issued to the Duke of York by Henry VI on 15 Oct. [qy. 1447?] printed in Bentley's Excerpta Historica (1831), p. 6.
2. On the petition of Edward Nevill, lord of Bergevenny:—showing that he and Elizabeth late his wife as in her right were seized in their demesne as of fee of the castle, lordship, and manor, of Bergevenny, until by Richard, late Earl of Warwick, contrary to law and equity they were disseized, on which they forthwith claimed the premises, and, on Richard's death, Henry, late Duke of Warwick, entered therein, on which they entered and were seized thereof, and had issue George: and afterwards Henry disseized them, and had issue Anne. And after Henry's death they entered and were seized thereof until they were expelled under colour of an inquisition, by which it was found that Henry d. seized of the premises, that the sd. Anne was his da. and h. and under age, and that the premises were held of the King and Crown. And Anne d. when the premises were in the King's hands:—the King gave him licence, 14 July 1449, to enter and possess the sd. castle, lordship, and manor. (Patent Roll, 27 Hen. VI, pars ii, m. 7). If Edward Nevill ever actually obtained seizin under this grant, he must have been again disseized, by Anne, Countess of Warwick, sister of Henry abovenamed. (ex inform. G. W. Watson). V.G.
3. P. Enderbie (Cambria Triumphans, 1661, bk. iii, between pp. 278 and 285)