62 BEAUMONT VI. 1413- I and 6. John (Beaumont), Lord Beaumont, s. and VmrOTTMTrY h., aged four years at the death of his father. He was of Folkingham Castle, co. Lincoln. He was sum. to Pari. 1. 1440. as a Baron (^) 25 Feb. (143 1/2) 10 Hen. VI,(^) to 26Sep.(i439)i8Hen.VI. K.B. 19 May 1426. P.C, 1434. Having greatly distinguished himself both in war and at court, he was, by letters pat. dat. at Canterbury, 27 July I436,('^) cr. Count of Boulogne in France, and shortly afterwards, on 12 Feb. 1439/40, was cr. VISCOUNT BEAUMONT, being the first person advanced to the dignity of Viscount in England. () Within a year of this creation the King, 18 Jan. 1 440/ 1, bestowed on him and the heirs male of his body '■^ the feudal Viscountcy of Beaumont in France^ which on the death of the Duke of Bed- ford, in 1435, had reverted to the Crown. (') K.G. 1441. Constable of England, 1445-50; Great Chamberlain, 8 July 1450. He ;«., between 24 July 1425 and 3 July 1436, Elizabeth, da. and sole h. of Sir William Phelip, K.G., recognised as Lord Bardolf, by Joan, 2nd da. and coh. of Thomas (Bardolf), Lord Bardolf. She d. before 30 Oct. 1441. He m.^ 2ndly, after 1442, Katharine, widow of Sir ThoMas Strangways, and before that of John (de Mowbray), Duke of Norfolk., and da. of Ralph (Nevill), Earl of Westmorland, by his 2nd wife, Joan de Beaufort, da. of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. He d. 10 July 1460, being slain under the Lancastrian banner, at the battle of Northampton. (*) His widow ;«., 4thly, shortly after 1464, Sir John Widville, who was beheaded (with his father, Earl Rivers) at Kenilworth, 12 Aug. 1469. VISCOUNTCY. n. BARONY BY WRIT. 2 and 7. William (Beaumont), Viscount Beaumont, Lord Bardolf and Lord Beau- 1460 MONT, 2nd, but istsurv.s.andh.,(8)i^. atEden- to ham, CO. Lincoln, and bap. there 23 Apr. 1438. 1 507. He inherited the vast estates of his mother's family, and, soon after the death of his mat- VII. j ernal grandmother, Joan, Baroness Bardolf (12 Mar, 1446/7), was known, v.p.^ 1448/9, (*) There is proof in the Rolls of Pari, of his sitting. () This date of 1432 was the one allowed to have been proved on the termina- tion of the abeyance of this Barony in 1840. (•=) French Roll, 14 Hen. VI, m. I, no. I. if) By this patent of creation he had precedence over all Barons, and by a subsequent patent, 1444/5, ^ above all Viscounts then created or to be created, and above the heirs and sons of all Earls, with seat and honour immediately after the Earls." The words in italics shew the inherent power of the Crown as to precedency, i.e., a power of granting preeminence to a junior creation of the same degree of Peerage. See vol. i. Appendix C. (^) See Courthope, p. xlvii, (') With him fell, in that fight, Humphrey Stafford, ist Duke of Buckingham, father of his son's wife, and Thomas Percy, Lord Egremont. (8) His elder br., Henry Beaumont, was living 10 Aug. 1441.
