Thomas de Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley

Thomas de Berkeley
5th Baron Berkeley
Monumental brass of Thomas de Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley & wife, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire
Spouse(s)	Margaret de Lisle, Baroness Berkeley
Issue Elizabeth de Berkeley, Countess of Warwick
Father	Maurice de Berkeley, 4th Baron Berkeley
Mother	Elizabeth le Despenser
Born	1352/1353 Berkeley Castle, Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England
Died	July 13, 1417 (aged 64-65)

Arms of Berkeley: Gules, a chevron between ten crosses pattée six in chief and four in base argent

Drawing of detail of mermaid livery collar of Thomas de Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley (d.1417), from his monumental brass at Wotton-under-Edge, Glos. The mermaid was the heraldic badge of the Berkeleys

Thomas de Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley the Magnificent (5 January 1352/53 – 13 July 1417) was an English peer.

Origins

He was born at Berkeley Castle, Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England, the son and heir of Maurice de Berkeley, 4th Baron Berkeley by his wife Elizabeth le Despencer.

Transfers estate to trustees

In 1417 he enfeoffed at Berkeley Castle, shortly before his death, several feoffees to hold all his lands in trust, due to the fact he had no male children as his heirs and that the course of succession then seemed unclear. The catalogue entry made by the British Museum librarian Isaac Jeaves for charter number 581 preserved in the muniments at Berkeley Castle records:

"Feoffment by Thomas, Lord Berkeley, Knt, to Walter Poole, Gilbert Denys Knts, Thomas Knolles, citizen of London, Thomas Rugge, John Grevell, Robert Greyndour and Thomas Sergeant, esquires, of all the lands, reversions, and tenants' services in Berkeley, Wotton, Gloucester, South Cerney, Cerneyeswike, Aure, Arlingham, and Horton, and in Berkeley and Bledislow Hundreds; in the City of London; in Portbury, Portishead, Weston, Bedminster, and in Bedminster and Portbury Hundreds, co. Somerset, and in Sharnecote and Chicklade, co. Wiltshire, together with the advowsons of St. Andrew's Church in Baynard's Castle, London, the advowsons of Chicklade, Portishead, and Walton, and the patronage and advowson of St. Mary's Abbey of Kingswood. Witnesses: Thomas FitzNicoll, John Pauncefoot, Knights; Robert Poyntz, Edmund Bassett, Thomas Kendale. Datum ad Berkeley, Thursday, Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (24 June) 5 Hen. V. (1417) Withseal,broken)"

The great City of London townhouse of the Berkeleys, known as "Berkeley's Inn", was at Puddle Dock by Baynard's Castle, close to the Blackfriars Monastery. Thomas FitzNicholl, one of the witnesses, was many times MP for Gloucestershire, including in 1395 when he served jointly with Gilbert Denys. Saul, N. states that such feoffees were likely to have been members of Lord Berkeley's retinue. These were very significant positions of trust granted to his feoffees as Berkeley died leaving only a daughter and the succession to the vast Berkeley lands, including the castle itself, became a matter of much dispute amongst his possible heirs resulting in a series of feuds which led in 1470 to the last private battle fought on English soil at the Battle of Nibley Green, between Lord William Berkeley and Viscount Lisle, and there followed the longest dispute in English legal history, which did not end until 1609.

Marriage

Arms of Lisle of Kingston Lisle: Gules, a lion statant guardant argent crowned or

In 1367 Thomas married Margaret de Lisle, 3rd Baroness Lisle (1360–1392), daughter of Warine de Lisle, 2nd Baron Lisle (d.1382) and Margaret Pipard. Thomas and Margaret had one child:

• Elizabeth de Berkeley (born ca.1386 – 28 December 1422), suo jure Baroness Lisle, who married Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick (1381-1459).

Gallery

• 

  Tomb of 5th Baron Berkeley & wife, on top of which is the monumental brass. Not original position. Wotton-under-Edge.

Ancestors

Family of Thomas de Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley

16. Thomas de Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley               8. Maurice de Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley                       17. Joan de Ferrers               4. Thomas de Berkeley, 3rd Baron Berkeley                             18. Eon la Zouche               9. Eve la Zouche                       19. Millicent de Cauntelo               2. Maurice de Berkeley, 4th Baron Berkeley                                   20. Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Mortimer               10. Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March                       21. Margaret de Fiennes               5. Margaret Mortimer                             22. Piers de Geneville               11. Joan de Geneville                       23. Jeanne of Lusignan               1. Thomas de Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley                                         24. Hugh le Despencer, 1st Baron le Despencer               12. Hugh le Despenser, Earl of Winchester                       25. Aliva Basset               6. Hugh le Despenser                             26. William de Beauchamp, 9th Earl of Warwick               13. Isabella de Beauchamp                       27. Maud FitzJohn               3. Elizabeth le Despenser                                   28. Richard de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford               14. Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford                       29. Maud de Lacy               7. Eleanor de Clare                             30. Edward I of England               15. Joan of Acre                       31. Eleanor of Castile

Sources

• Richardson, Douglas, Kimball G. Everingham, and David Faris. Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. Royal ancestry series. (p. 99) Baltimore, Md: Genealogical Pub. Co, 2004. Retrieved April 20, 2008
• thepeerage.com Accessed April 20, 2008

References

Peerage of England
Preceded by Maurice de Berkeley	Baron Berkeley 1368–1417	Succeeded by Title extinct