Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 2.djvu/144

 128 BERKELEY 1297, was at the bloody battle and defeat of the Scots at Falkirk 22 July 1298, the siege of Carlaverock in July 1300, and was taken prisoner at the battle of Bannockburn, 24 June 13 14, paying a large sum for his ransom. He was likewise on the Commission to examine the claims to the Crown of Scotland, June 1292; was on an Embassy to France, Jan. 1296, and to Pope Clement V, in July I307.(^) He m., in 1267, Joan, da. of William (de Ferrers), Earl of Derby, by his 2nd wife, Margaret, da. and coh. of Roger (de Quinci), Earl of Winchester. She ^. 19 Mar. 1309/10, and was /?ur. at St. Augustine's, Bristol. He c/. 23 July 132 1, at Berkeley, aged about 76. I. 1308. I and 2. Maurice (de Berkeley), Lord de Berkeley, s. and h., who " may bee called Maurice the Magnanimous" II. 1321. said to have been ^. Apr. 128 1. (*") [Qy. 1 27 1.?] Hedistin- guished himself in the Scottish wars, 1295-13 18, and was at the siege of Carlaverock in July I300.() He was sum. to Pari, v.p., from 16 Aug. (1308) 2 Edw. II to 15 May (132 1) 14 Edw. II, by writs directed Mauricio de Berkeleye, whereby he may be held to have become LORD BERKELEY,() though there is no actual record of his having sat in Parl.(^) He held several important posts, v.p., being Warden of Glou- cester, 13 12; Capt. of Berwick, 13 15; one of the Commissioners to Scotland, 13 16; Chief Justiciar of South Wales, 13 16, and Seneschal of (^) He was one of the Barons who, in 1 30 1, signed the celebrated letter to the Pope. C") 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 1 1 and of King Josiah at 14, and adds that his own "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 on his being found to be 40 years old in 1 32 1 in two inquisitions on his father's death, "and " says Smyth " he best knew his own age that sett it down." It is however now recognised that the age of men in middle life being a matter of little practical importance, is seldom given with any degree of accuracy in the inquisi- tions. His birth (as the eldest son of his parents) would more probably be in 1 27 1 than in 1281, 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 ke ses peres vivoit." i^) See note " c " on previous page. if) 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 141 7 on the h. gen., Elizabeth, Countess of Warwick. It follows therefore, that (allow^ing, for argument's sake, that the earlier Barony followed the destination of the Castle of Berkeley) the reasoning (used in the case 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 her right to a Barony of Berkeley {i.e. to the one cr. 1308) is indisputable. G.E.C. The above argument is quite sound if peerage law as to what happened in 141 7 is held to be decisive as to what did then in fact happen. Nevertheless, the present Editor, writing from an historical and not a legal standpoint, is profoundly sceptical as to either the writ of 1295 or that of 1308 having cr. any Barony at all. V.G.