Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 2.djvu/147

 BERKELEY 131 Lord Lisle, made proof of his age on 5 Jan. 1373/4. He was sum. to Pari, from 16 July (138 1) 5 Ric. II (^) to 3 Sep. (141 5) 5 Hen. V. From 1378 to 1385 he served in the wars in France, Spain, Brittany, and Scotland, and in 1386 entertained the King at Berkeley Castle, for the deposition of whom, however, he was, 30 Sep. 1399, one of the Commissioners. P.C. to Richard II and Henry IV. Admiral of the South and West 1403; Joint Warden of the Welsh Marches 1404, and one of the Regents of the Kingdom, Apr. 1416. He m., Nov. 1367, in his 15th year, at Wingrave, Bucks, Margaret, only da. and eventually sole h. of Warin (de Lisle), Lord Lisle, by Margaret, da. and coh. of Sir William Pipard. She was then aged but 7, and they remained 4 years apart. At her father's death, 28 June 1382, she inherited considerable estates, and, in her right, her husband appears to have styled himself Lord Lisle. ('') Sherf'. 2oMar. 1391/2, and was bur. at Wotton-under-Edge, co. Gloucester. He d. S-p-m.^i^) 13 July 1417, in his 65th year, and was bur. at Wotton afsd. M.I. Will dat. 2 Feb. 1415. Inq.p. m. 1417-8. (') "There are writs in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th [Ric. II] directed to yWoKr/cf de Berkeley, which were no doubt intended for Thomas, he having come of age about the 49th Edw. III." {Courthope). C^) Their da., Elizabeth, Countess of Warwick, is styled on her monument at Kingswood "filia et hares Thomas, nuper D'ni de Berkeley et de Lisle; quod quidem dominium de Lisle idem Thomas tenet [tenuit ?] per legem Anglije, post mortem Margaretse, nuper uxoris sua; matris predictae Elizabethae." ("=) " Elizabeth, his sole d.and h., aged 30 in 141 6, w. Richard (Beauchamp), 1 2th Earl of Warwick, by whom she had three daughters and coheirs, v;z. Margaret, wife of John (Talbot), Earl of Shrewsbury; Eleanor, who m. (i) Thomas, Lord Ros, (2) Edmund, Duke of Somerset, and (3) Walter Rokesley, Esq.; and Elizabeth, wife of George (Neville), Lord Latimer. According to the usual descent of Baronies in fee the dignity cr. by the Writ of Summons of (1295) Edw. I, and that of (1308) 2 Edw. II, should have devolved on the said Elizabeth, da. and h. of Thomas, Lord Berkeley, and not upon his [collateral] h. inale; but whether this anomaly arose from an idea then prevailing, that the tenure of the Castle of Berkeley conferred the Barony, or [whether] the h. male had the greater political influence, cannot now perhaps be ascertained: the inference which may be drawn from the relative situa- tions of the husband of the said Elizabeth, who was one of the most powerful noble- men of the time, and that of James Berkeley who sue. to the Barony, is, that the tenure of Berkeley Castle was then considered to confer the dignity of Baron on its possessor, and consequently that the said James was allowed that dignity ai his right, rather than by the favour of the Crown. There were, however, other instances, as in Burghersh and De la War, of the h. male of a Baron by Writ being sum. instead of the h. general, and if modern decisions may be applied to the subject, the Baronies of Berkeley, created by the Writs of Summons of the 23 Edw. I and 2 Edw. II, are now in abeyance between the descendants and representatives of the three daughters and coheirs of Elizabeth, Countess of Warwick, above mentioned, whose names will be found in a Note to the account of the Barony of Lisle; and the Barony possessed by the Earls Berkeley [1658-1882] is that cr. by the Writ of Summons to James de Berkeley [142 1] 9 Hen. V." {Nicolas, slightly emended in Courthope).