♀Elizabeth le Despenser

Elizabeth le Despenser^W (died 13 July 1389) was an English noblewoman, a daughter of Sir Hugh le Despenser the younger^W who married Maurice de Berkeley, Lord Berkeley. She was the nineteenth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through her son James Berkeley (died 1405).

Early life and marriage

Elizabeth was the daughter of Sir Hugh le Despenser the younger, second Lord le Despenser, and Eleanor de Clare^W, whose mother, Joan of Acre, was a daughter of King Edward I. Her father was executed at Hereford on 24 November 1326, and Elizabeth was born in or before 1327; her mother died on 30 June 1337. She was probably married in 1340 to Maurice de Berkeley, the young heir of Berkeley Castle^W in Gloucestershire. The couple had four sons, Thomas, James, John and Maurice, and three daughters, Katherine, Agnes and Elizabeth.

Lady Berkeley

Maurice was severely wounded and taken prisoner at the Battle of Poitiers^W on 19 September 1356, and his freedom was bought with a ransom of £1,080. In 1365 he and his wife were granted papal indults^W, each for six years, to keep a portable altar and to have Mass celebrated before daybreak. He made a will and died at Berkeley Castle on 3 June 1368, and he was buried with his mother at St. Augustine’s, in Bristol.

Widowhood

Before 29 May 1372 Elizabeth married again. Her second husband, Sir Maurice Wythe, of Portbury in Somerset, sat as knight of the shire^W for Somerset and Gloucestershire; his will was proved on 6 August 1383. Elizabeth outlived him by six years. She died on 13 July 1389 and was buried at St. Botolph’s, in London.

The family

Their eldest son, Thomas^W, was born at Berkeley Castle on 5 January 1352/3 and was married in November 1367, at about fourteen, to Margaret Lisle, the heiress of Lord Lisle. He succeeded his father as Lord Berkeley, served in the wars in France, Spain, Brittany and Scotland, entertained King Richard II at Berkeley Castle in 1386, and was one of the regents of the kingdom in April 1416. He died on 13 July 1417 leaving one daughter. Their daughter Katherine became a nun at Wherwell.

Notes

Sources

Elizabeth’s parents, her birth in or before 1327, her marriage, her children, the papal indults of 1365, her second marriage, Sir Maurice Wythe’s will and office, and her death and burial are from Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry (2005), BERKELEY 7, pp. 72–73; her father’s execution and her mother’s death and descent from Edward I are from the same book, DESPENSER 6, pp. 276–277. It is a printed genealogy of the medieval nobility, citing John Smyth’s Berkeley manuscripts, the Complete Peerage, the close rolls, the papal registers and the inquisitions post mortem. Thomas’s career is from BERKELEY 7, p. 73.

The marriage

Richardson gives the marriage as “presumably in 1340,” when Maurice was about ten; he does not give a day or a place. A herald’s visitation of Shropshire of 1623, which Richardson quotes, calls her “Isabell da. to Hugh Lo. Spencer.”

Dates

Thomas’s birth is double-dated 1352/3, a year that ran across the old New Year of 25 March.