James Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley

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Berkeley coat of arms

James Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley (* around 1394 in Raglan Castle , † November 1463 in Berkeley Castle ) was an English nobleman .

Origin and family environment

James Berkeley came from the old Berkeley family who had owned Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire since the early 12th century . He was the son of Sir James Berkeley and his wife Elizabeth Blunt (also Bloet ), so he was a nephew of Thomas de Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley . This was one of the richest barons in England. His annual income from his inheritance exceeded £ 1,150 and in addition his wife became heiress to the Lisle family . His household, which included over 300 people, was considered a center of culture and the arts. His only child, however, was his daughter Elizabeth Berkeley , who had married Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick . This was thus the heir to an extensive estate, but Berkeley Castle and the twelve goods belonging to it had to fall to a male heir according to an agreement of 1349. As a nephew, James was the next male heir to Thomas de Berkeley. However, this division of inheritance would have fragmented the estates and endangered the local supremacy of the family in south-west England. Thomas de Berkeley could never solve this problem, he only enlarged it. On the one hand, he was looking for a way to bequeath all his possessions to his daughter, on the other hand, he raised James Berkeley at his seat at Berkeley Castle as his heir.

First dispute over the inheritance

When his uncle died on July 13, 1417, Elizabeth and her husband Warwick quickly occupied Berkeley Castle and had the possession of King Henry V provisionally confirmed. Since Warwick accompanied the king on his campaigns in France, his property was subsequently protected against trials. Berkeley was called to Parliament by the Writ of Summons on October 20, 1421 , thereby re-creating the title of Baron Berkeley , but initially it was impossible for him to enforce his claim to inheritance. Therefore, in 1420 he bribed Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester , one of the king's brothers, who administered England as imperial administrator during the king's absence, with 1,000 marks in order to win his support for his claims. The Countess of Warwick, however, asked Humphrey's brother John, Duke of Bedford, for assistance. As this did not lead to a decision, the inheritance dispute led to armed clashes and skirmishes between supporters of the two parties around Berkeley Castle. Therefore, the Regency Council, which after the death of Heinrich V for the young Heinrich VI. the government led the parties to negotiate for a solution in 1422 under threat of heavy fines. When the Countess of Warwick died on December 28, 1422, her husband was ready to an agreement that was finally reached in 1425. After this, Berkeley received Berkeley Castle with most of the goods belonging to it, with Warwick retaining a lifelong right to use seven goods. His late wife's other inheritance, most notably the Lisle inheritance, went to Warwick.

Second dispute and feud over inheritance

After the agreement of 1425, both parties kept peace. Berkeley had only a comparatively small income from his inheritance. In 1436 his income was only £ 333, which was very little for a baron of the time. So he had to go into debt. After Warwick's death in 1439, the inheritance dispute broke out again. Warwick's three daughters from his marriage to Elizabeth Berkeley, who had powerful husbands with John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury , Edmund Beaufort , the future Earl of Dorset and Duke of Somerset, and George Nevill, 1st Baron Latymer , claimed their inheritance. An agreement could not be reached until 1448, according to which the three heiresses could keep their mother's inheritance during her lifetime. Only after her death would it go to Berkeley or his heirs.

Berkeley eventually found this settlement unacceptable and began an open feud with the Earl of Shrewsbury in 1450 . In September 1451, his son John Talbot, 1st Viscount Lisle captured Berkeley Castle and took Berkeley and his sons prisoner. In order to secure his victory, he asked for the castle to be handed over for two years. Berkeley's wife was captured by the Countess of Shrewsbury and held captive in Gloucester so that she could not turn to the king. She died in captivity in 1452. In July 1453, however, Shrewsbury and his son Viscount Lisle fell at the Battle of Castillon in France. His son and heir son, John Talbot, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury , was more forgiving of Berkeley. Berkeley married Shrewsbury's sister Joan in 1457, and eventually, shortly before his death in late November, he was reconciled with his great-niece Margaret Beauchamp, old Countess Shrewsbury. He was buried in the family chapel of Berkeley Parish Church, where his grave and memorial are preserved. However, the dispute over the succession was not finally over with his death. On March 20, 1470 there was an armed conflict between his son William Berkeley and Thomas Talbot, 2nd Viscount Lisle and her followers at Nibley Green , in which the Viscount Isle was fatally injured.

Berkeley's lifelong struggle for his inheritance probably meant that he neither took part in the campaigns in the final phase of the Hundred Years' War or in the battles of the Wars of the Roses . He rarely took part in parliaments and only occasionally took on local offices. Although he was in 1426 by the young King Henry VI. Knighted, but because of his minor political importance, he received little government support from his powerful opponents Warwick and Shrewsbury. The family historian James Smyth referred to him in his Chronicle of the Berkeley Family in 1883 as James the Just (James the Just).

Marriages and offspring

James Berkeley was possibly married four times. His first two women died young, their first names are not known. Berkeley was initially betrothed to a daughter of Sir John St John's in 1410, but that marriage may never have been concluded. After the death of his bride, he finally married in 1414 a daughter of Sir Humphrey Stafford (around 1379–1442) from Hooke in Dorset , who also died young. In 1423 or 1424 he married the widowed Lady Isabel († 1452), a daughter of Thomas Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk . He had several children with her, including:

After July 25, 1457, he finally married Joan Talbot, a daughter of John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury and his first wife Maud de Nevill, who survived him. She married Edmund Hungerford for the second time before 1474 .

His heir became his eldest son, William Berkeley , who rose to be Marquess of Berkeley. A descendant of his fourth son, Thomas Berkeley, inherited Berkeley Castle in 1942 after the death of the 8th Earl of Berkeley .

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predecessor Office successor
New title created Baron Berkeley
1421-1463 		William Berkeley
personal data
SURNAME Berkeley, James, 1st Baron Berkeley
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English nobleman
DATE OF BIRTH around 1394
PLACE OF BIRTH Raglan Castle
DATE OF DEATH November 1463
Place of death Berkeley Castle