Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 1.djvu/349

 BERKELEY. 327 52 Hen. Ill, and .it the Paris. (1275-79) 3, 4, 6, and 7 Edward I. He m. Isabel, («) da. of Maurice DE Chkdonia, alias C'rou.n, of co. Lincoln, by Isabel (uterine sister to Henry III, and sister of the whole blood to William [dk Valence], Earl of Pembroke) da. of Hugh LE Britn, Comte dk i.a Marche in Poictou, and Isabel o'AsGOL'LKMK, widow of King John. She d. 7 July, probably in the year 1276 or 1277, and was bur. at St. Augustine's, Bristol. He il. i April 1231, aged 63, " being his great clymactericoll yeare," and was bur. at St Augustine's afsd." IX. 1281. 6 sail. Thomas dk Berkeley, fciukl Lord of Berke- R 1 LEV 2nd but 1st. surv. s. and h.(''), who " may be called T/tomas the writ ,Ie wtta 6- :lt 1>,e, ' kek *y m5 > wns attht ' battle of Evesham when under age, and was for nearly every year for the la-st 50 years of I 1 295. bw life " employed either against the Welsh, the Scots or the French." On 21 June (1295) 2:1 Ed. I, he was sum. to Pari, as a Baron (LORD DE BERKELEY) and continued to be so sum. till 15 May (1321) II Ed. II. He wxs made Vice-Constable of England in 1297, was at the bloody battle of Falkirk 129S, the siege of Carlaveroek in 1300, and was taken prisoner at the battle of Bannock- burn in 1313 paying a large sum for his redemption. He was likewise on the Com- mission to examine the claims of the Crown of Scotland June 1292 ; was on an Embassy to France, January 1296 and to Pope Clement V. in July 1307.( c ) He m, in 1207, Joan, da. of William (de FeBBEBs) Haul ok Derdy, by his 2nd wife Margaret, da. and coheir of Roger (dk Quinci) Earl of Winchester. She d. 19 March 1309-10 and was bur. at St. Augustine's. Bristol. He (I. at Berkeley, 23 July 1321. I. 1308. 1 and ?, ov 7. Mavjuice (be Berkeley), Lord de BBRKBLEY, s. and h, who a may bee called Maurice the Magnanimous," II. 1321. said to have been 6. April 12S1.(< 1 ) [Qy. 1271 ?] distinguished himself in the Scotch wars, 1285-1318, and was at the siege of Carlaveroek in 1300.C) He was sum. to Pari v.p. as a Baron (LORD DE BERKELEY) from 16 Aug. (130S) 2 Ed. II. to 15 May (1321) 14 Ed. II. tho' there is uo actual record of his having sat. in Parl.(f) He held several important posts, v.p., being Warden of Glou- (") The old idea (held by Vincent, Sandford, &e.) that she was an illegit. da. of Richard. Earl of Cornwall (yr. br. of Henry III) or of his s. and h. Edmund, also Bar] of Cornwall, is refuted in Smyth's " Berkeley s,"' Vol. i, p. 14-1. ('') Maurice his elder br. was killed in a tournament at Kenihvorth v.p. in 1279. ( c ) lie was one of the Barons who, in 1301, signed the celebrated letter to the Pope. ( J ) This makes him a father at the age of 14, for which Smyth quotes the Biblical precedents of Solomon and Ahaz, each a Father at 11 and of King Josiah at 14 and adds that his owe "small reading could parralell more than a dozen other parents which have been Fathers and Mothers at 14 years." The date of birth appears to rest nn his being found 40 years old in 1321 in two inquisitions on his Father's death "and (says Smyth) he best" knew his own age that sett it down." Notwithstanding this evidence (which is not always to be depended upon) it seems probably that there is a mistake possibly of ten years. IBs birth (as the eldest son of his parents) would be more probable in 13/1 than in 13S1 i.e. after some 4, rather than some 14, years of their marriage. (°) Where he bore his Father's arms differenced with a label, azure, " Pur se ko ses pores vivoit." ( ! ) It is evident that the Barony cr. by a writ issued (1308) to a person not in possession of the Castle of Berkeley (which Barony was entirely independent of the Barony cr. or acknowledged in 1295), must have devolved in 1417 on the heir gen., KU/.Abeth, Countess of Warwick. It follows therefore, that (allowing, for arguments sake, that the earlier Barony followed the destination of the Castle of Berkeley) the reasoning (used in the ease of the claim of the Barony as one by tenure) deduced from the alleged statement that the Countess never had the title of Berkeley attributed to her is worthless; since herright to aBarouyof Berkeley (i.e. to the one cr. 1308) is indisputable.