William Berkeley, 1st Marquess of Berkeley

William Berkeley, 1st Marquess of Berkeley (* 1426 , † 14. February 1492 ) was an English nobleman and politician at the time of the Wars of the Roses .

Origin and family

He came from a very old English noble family who played an important role in English history in the Middle Ages. He was the eldest son of James Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley, and his daughter Isabel de Mowbray , daughter of Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk , the senior Peer of England. William Berkeley was born in 1426 in the family's ancestral seat, Berkeley Castle . In accordance with his high birth and the family ties, he was a member of Cardinal Beaufort's retinue , a close relative of the royal family, as early as 1438 and received the knighthood, although not yet of legal age. He petitioned the Crown in a dispute with the Countess of Shrewsbury and other heirs of his late great-uncle Thomas Berkeley to obtain recognition of his inheritance claims on his property. This petition was pending when the Countess died in 1468. Their grandson, Thomas Talbot, 2nd Viscount Lisle , challenged William Berkeley to prove his claims with gun in hand. William Berkeley accepted the challenge. On March 20, 1470 there was a battle near Nibbley Green in which Viscount Lisle was slain.

He served the kings of the House of York . On the occasion of the marriage of the Duke of York, a younger son of the king, to the heiress of the Mowbray family, he renounced his share of her family fortune as a co-heir when she died shortly after January 16, 1477 without an heir, in favor of King Edward IV. and his male heir. In exchange, he was canceled from his debt of £ 34,000. This agreement was ratified by Parliament. Then the king raised him to Viscount Berkeley on April 21, 1481. As a close confidant of the king, he was in the Privy Council (on March 5, 1482 Privy Council appointed). After Richard III took office. who had usurped the crown after the murder of Edward IV's sons ( Edward V and Richard of York) in the Tower, Lord Howard (later Duke of Norfolk) and Berkeley claimed the Mowbray inheritance. Both lords were by Richard III. endowed with higher titles: Berkeley was made Earl of Nottingham , while Howard was made Duke of Norfolk and Earl Marshal of England. After the death of Richard III. In the Battle of Bosworth Berkeley entered the service of the new King Henry VII. On the occasion of the coronation of the wife of Henry VII, he appointed the now Earl of Nottingham Lord High Steward and finally on January 18, 1489 also Marquess of Berkeley.

The 2nd Baron Berkeley was married to Elisabeth de la Warr in his first marriage from around 1441, to Joan Strangways in his second marriage from November 1468 and to Anne Fiennes in his third marriage. Since all marriages remained childless, with his death on February 14, 1492 all his titles lapsed except that of Baron Berkeley.

literature

• Rosemary Horrox: Berkeley, William, marquess of Berkeley (1426-1492) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford 2004 doi: 10.1093 / ref: odnb / 50216 (not consulted).

Remarks

1. ↑ Leigh Rayment's Peerage, Berkeley article
2. ↑ ^{a b c} The Complete Peerage, Volume II, pp. 132-135.
3. ^ Bristol and Gloucester Archives, Volume III, p. 305.
4. ↑ The Complete Peerage, Volume V, Appendix H.

predecessor	Office	successor
James Berkeley	Baron Berkeley 1463-1492	Maurice Berkeley
New title created	Viscount Berkeley 1481-1492	Title expired
New title created	Earl of Nottingham 1483-1492	Title expired
New title created	Marquess of Berkeley 1489-1492	Title expired
John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk	Earl Marshal of England 1486-1497	Henry Tudor, Duke of York