William de Beauchamp, 9th Earl of Warwick

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William de Beauchamp, 9th Earl of Warwick (also William IV de Beauchamp ) (* around 1238; † June 5 or 9, 1298 ) was an English magnate .

origin

William came from the originally Anglo-Norman Beauchamp family . He was the eldest of eight children of William (III) de Beauchamp and his wife Isabel Mauduit . His father was Lord of Elmley in Worcestershire , his mother was a sister of William Mauduit , who in 1263 inherited the title of Earl of Warwick .

Youth and Marriage

William's father had made an agreement with Peter de Montfort that they would marry off their eldest daughters and sons. King Henry III had promised in August 1248 to recognize this agreement and not to interfere with the marriages. Nevertheless, the planned marriages did not take place, probably because Peter de Montfort was a staunch opponent of the king during the barons' rebellion from 1258 onwards. William's father, on the other hand, remained a supporter of the king, and presumably young William also supported the king. Allegedly he took part in the Battle of Evesham in 1265 , which became the decisive victory of the royal party in the Second Barons' War . Between late 1261 and before January 1268 he had married Matilda († 1301), the widow of Baron Gerard de Furnival from Yorkshire and daughter of John Fitz Geoffrey and Isabel Bigod. Since his bride had two married brothers, William had little hope of entering into a rich inheritance through them. In fact, however, her brothers died childless, so that Matilda finally inherited a quarter of her father's possessions in 1297. During his father's lifetime, however, William remained a little knight to whom his father had only given property in Sheriffs Lench , Worcestershire, from which he was earning just £ 9 a year. Later he received the estate of Letcombe Basset in Berkshire from his father in exchange for Sheriff's Lench . Before 1265 he acquired goods in Beoley and Yardley , partly from a vassal in debt .

Heir to the Earldom of Warwick

Since his mother had already died, Beauchamp inherited after the death of his uncle William Mauduit, 8th Earl of Warwick in early 1268, the title of Earl of Warwick and the associated possessions, including extensive lands in Warwickshire . On February 9, 1268 he paid homage to the king. Around this time, between January 7th and April 21st, 1268, his father also died, so that he inherited his property, especially in Worcestershire. For these goods he paid homage to the king on April 27, 1269. In addition, he inherited the inheritance of the Chamberlain of the Exchequer from his uncle, the inheritance of the Sheriff of Worcestershire and the inheritance of the steward on the occasion of the royal coronations from his father .

With these inheritances, Beauchamp had quickly risen from poor knight to powerful magnate, whose possessions were concentrated in the western Midlands . Probably because of his support for the king in the war of the barons, he was in his favor. Henry III. allow him to continue to pay his father's debt to the Crown in small annual installments of £ 10. Although parts of his debts were canceled several times, he remained indebted to the crown until his death. On the other hand, his legacy was severely curtailed, as Ela Longespée , the widow of Thomas de Beaumont, 6th Earl of Warwick , was entitled to a third of her husband's property as a Wittum until her death in 1298 , as was Angaret, the second wife and widow on his paternal grandfather's side, he still had the right to a Wittum and did not die until around 1280. For this he had to grant Alice, his uncle's widow, a Wittum in 1268. By negotiating with Ela Longespée, he was able to get her to return land to him before her death, but Beauchamp was in financial difficulties until his death.

In the service of the king

In the next few years Warwick was often active in the service of the crown, especially in Wales and in the Welsh Marches . On October 16, 1270 he became a member of a commission to investigate the abuses of the Earl of Gloucester , which he should have committed against Prince Llywelyn of Wales . On April 14, 1274, the king authorized him to investigate abuses by Prince Llywelyn, and on April 24, 1274, he was supposed to reach an armistice between Prince Llywelyn and Humphrey VI. de Bohun convey. On November 12, 1276, he was a member of the council, while Prince Llywelyn was declared a defiant rebel of war. Also at the Parliament at Michaelis 1278, during which the Scottish King Alexander III. paid homage to the English King Edward I , Warwick took part.

In addition, Warwick served the king as a military man, and it was mostly under his honor to receive pay from the king. He only accepted funds to pay the additional troops he had deployed. Warwick served the king both in the Wars of the Conquest of Wales and at the beginning of the Scottish War of Independence . In November 1276 he became the commander of Chester and Lancashire in preparation for the first campaign into Wales . In this capacity he was supposed to protect the Welsh Marches from attacks from Wales and prepare the advance of the royal army, which rallied at Worcester by July 1, 1277. He probably also took part in the campaign from 1282 to 1283 for the conquest of Wales . During the rebellion of the Welsh Lord Rhys ap Maredudd , he was one of the commanders of the English army, which after a heavy siege in September 1287 captured Dryslwyn Castle . When a new Welsh uprising broke out in 1294 , Warwick was commanding one of the three English armies that put down the uprising. He gathered his troops in Montgomery , from where he moved to Oswestry . His scouts discovered the army of the rebel Madog ap Llywelyn , whom he was probably able to surprise and decisively defeat on March 5, 1295 in the Battle of Maes Madog . In the summer of 1295 Warwick was involved in the further suppression of the uprising in South Wales. In June the rebel leader Morgan ap Maredudd , whom Warwick had brought to the king , surrendered to him . In the war with Scotland he was one of the commanders who, under the command of the Earl of Surrey, defeated the Scots on April 27, 1296 at the Battle of Dunbar .

In the crisis of 1297 Warwick belonged initially to the aristocratic opposition, which rebelled in the face of the war with Scotland and the conflict with France at the same time . On July 7, 1297, Edward I had called up about 130 magnates to be drafted in London. Before leaving for London, numerous magnates, among them the Earls of Norfolk , Hereford and Warwick, met in Montgomery. They spoke out against the planned campaign to Flanders, as they had already fought frequently in Wales and Scotland and were also burdened by the high taxes that had been levied to finance the wars. While Norfolk and Hereford and others held on to their opposition, Warwick was then allegedly bribed by the king, so that on July 14 he swore allegiance to the heir to the throne, Edward of Caernarfon . The change from Warwick to the king's side led to the collapse of the aristocratic opposition. In Stratford there was a mediation between the king and the remaining oppositional magnates. The opposition put their complaints in writing in the Remonstrances , whereupon the king, encouraged by Warwick, came to meet the opposition magnates.

As a result, Warwick did not take part in the king's campaign in Flanders, perhaps because of illness. Instead, he was a member of the council that was to support the heir to the throne as regent during the king's absence. However, he took part in the three-month winter campaign from 1297 to 1298 to Scotland. For this campaign the king had summoned six earls with a total of 500 horsemen, for which the magnates received almost £ 7,700 from the king. Warwick provided the smallest contingent with only 30 riders. For Pentecost, March 30, 1298, the king called him to a council in York .

Acting as the Earl of Warwick

As Earl of Warwick, Warwick led a dispute with Bishop Godfrey Giffard of Worcester, particularly over the affiliation of Oswaldslow in Worcestershire. Warwick also had several disputes with the Worcester Cathedral Priory , where his family had church patronage . In contrast, Warwick was a patron of the mendicant orders , among other things he donated properties for the benefit of the Augustinian hermits in Thelsford .

Warwick showed an extraordinary interest in horses. During the campaign to Scotland from 1297 to 1298, he brought six valuable horses with him, the most expensive of which was worth 100 marks . At the beginning of June 1298 Warwick fell seriously ill in Elmley. He drew up his will, according to which he did not want to be buried in Worcester Cathedral like his father, but in the Franciscan Church. Nor did he leave any foundations in favor of the cathedral. For his funeral, he wished that two of his horses should bring his weapons and armor with them. In addition to the movable property, he bequeathed his wife the horses that lived on an estate in Sheffield .

Family and offspring

William de Beauchamp had several children with his wife, Matilda, including:

  1. ⚭ Patrick de Chaworth
  2. ⚭ Hugh le Despenser
  • Maud de Beauchamp
  • Margaret de Beauchamp ∞ John de Sudeley, 1st Baron Sudeley
  • Anne, a nun in the Gilbertine Priory in Sholdham
  • Amy, a nun in the Gilbertine Priory in Sholdham

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Caroline Burt: Edward I and the Governance of England, 1272-1307 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2013, ISBN 978-0-521-88999-5 . P. 59
  2. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California Press, Berkeley 1988. ISBN 978-0-520-06266-5 , p. 196
predecessor Office successor
William Mauduit Earl of Warwick
1268-1298 		Guy de Beauchamp
personal data
SURNAME De Beauchamp, William, 9th Earl of Warwick
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Warwick, William de Beauchamp, 9th Earl of; De Beauchamp, William IV
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English magnate
DATE OF BIRTH around 1238
DATE OF DEATH June 5, 1298 or June 9, 1298
Place of death unsure: Elmley Castle