♂Maurice de Berkeley

Maurice de Berkeley^W (died 3 June 1368) was an English knight and the fourth Lord Berkeley, of Berkeley Castle^W in Gloucestershire, who fought in the English wars in France. He was the nineteenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his son James Berkeley (died 1405).

Early life and marriage

Maurice is said to have been born about 1330, the son and heir of Thomas de Berkeley, Lord Berkeley, and Margaret de Mortimer. He was probably married as a boy, in 1340, to Elizabeth le Despenser, born in or before 1327, a daughter of Sir Hugh le Despenser the younger^W and Eleanor de Clare^W. The couple had four sons, Thomas, James, John and Maurice, and three daughters, Katherine, Agnes and Elizabeth.

Poitiers

In 1355 Maurice was a commander in Gascony, and the next year he was with the English army at the Battle of Poitiers^W, fought on 19 September 1356. Richardson’s Magna Carta Ancestry records that he distinguished himself there and that he was severely wounded and taken prisoner. His freedom was bought with a ransom of £1,080.

Later life and death

Maurice was summoned to Parliament from 14 August 1362 until February 1368. 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. Elizabeth married again, to Sir Maurice Wythe, of Portbury in Somerset, before 29 May 1372.

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

Maurice’s birth about 1330, his parents, his marriage, his children, his service in Gascony and at Poitiers, his ransom, his summonses to Parliament, the papal indults of 1365, his death “testate” at Berkeley Castle, his burial and his widow’s second marriage are from Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry (2005), BERKELEY 6–7, pp. 72–73, a printed genealogy of the medieval nobility. Richardson cites John Smyth’s Berkeley manuscripts, the Complete Peerage, the close rolls, the papal registers and the inquisitions post mortem. Thomas’s career is from the same page.

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 his wife “Isabell da. to Hugh Lo. Spencer.”

His parents

Richardson makes Maurice the eldest son of Thomas de Berkeley, third Lord Berkeley, by his first wife, Margaret de Mortimer, a daughter of Roger de Mortimer, first Earl of March. They are not entered in this family’s tree.

Dates

His last summons to Parliament is dated 24 February 1367/8, a year that ran across the old New Year of 25 March. Thomas’s birth is double-dated the same way.