I65176: ALAN fitzFlaald Dapifer of Dol (ABT 1040

Notes

"Baron of Salwarpe co. Worcester, of Hanslope co. Buckingham, of Flamstead, co. Hertford, and of Warwick, co. Warwick. (of Magna Carta Surety descent and descendant of Charlemagne)."

"When Earl Guy died in 1315, which contemporary rumours claimed was from poison administered on the orders of Edward II, Alice was bequeathed a portion of his plate, a crystal cup, and half of his bedding, plus ‘all the vestments and books pertaining to his chapel’, while Thomas, his eldest son, was left a coat of mail, helmet and suit of harness, and John, the younger son, received his second coat of mail. His daughter Maud received a crystal cup, and Elizabeth, another daughter, received the marriage of the Astley heir. However, there was a very serious problem. Thomas, the eldest son, was between one and two years old at the death of his father, meaning that, as was the practice in these circumstances, the estates of the earldom would be taken into the possession of the crown. The abuse of lands taken into the hands of the crown was common at this period, and a lengthy period of minority could have produced long term repercussions for the inheritance, with lands being exploited and neglected by those charged with their maintenance. The dying earl was certainly aware of the dangers which a prolonged minority could bring, and was successful in wringing a very valuable concession from Edward II, that, on the event of the earl's death, the executors of his will should have full custody of his lands ‘until the full age of his heirs’. It was fully in keeping with Edward II's character, that the crown's assurance was soon disregarded, and the Warwick lands were taken into the crown's hands within two years of Guy's death, and remained out of the control of the executors until Thomas came of age.

Possession of the Warwick estates from this point, until 1329, was determined by the whims of royal patronage. The Despensers were the prime beneficiaries in Edward II's reign, with the elder Despenser gaining wardship of all Guy's lands except for a few which had already been granted, for which he agreed to pay 1,000 marks a year, an arrangement soon commuted in Despenser's favour, allowing Despenser the custody of the Warwick estates in consideration of £6,770 which the king owed him. The issue of custody of the Warwick lands was brought up in 1321 in the articles against the Despensers. The agreement that the Warwick earldoms should be handled by Guy's executors is said to have been repealed ‘without reason’ except to deliver to the elder Despenser ‘the wardship of those lands for his own profit, so defeating by [the Despensers'] evil counsel what the king had granted in his parliaments by good counsel with the assent of the peers of the land’. The only long term effect which the events of 1321-22 had on the Warwick lands was to remove Elmley Castle from the hands of the elder Despenser and take it back into the hands of the crown, with the rest of the estates remaining in the Despensers' possession until Isabella and Mortimer's invasion in 1327. Afterwards, the lands passed to Roger Mortimer, who was able to capitalise on his predominance at the royal court by taking custody of Thomas' wardship.

It was at this time that the marriage of Thomas to Katherine Mortimer seems to have finally taken place. The marriage itself was worth 1,600 marks, and had originally been granted to Roger Mortimer as far back as 20 July 1318. There were problems with this arrangement, for the king had arranged a dispensation from the pope, granted 19 April 1319, on account of the two being related ‘in the third and fourth degrees of consanguinity’. The purpose of the union was to put an end to the ‘great discord’ that existed between Earl Guy and Mortimer over the manor of Elvel, in the marches of Wales, although it should be noted that the Mortimers gained more from the arrangement than the Beauchamps, for Katherine did not bring with her any marriage portion. This arrangement seems to have been permanently shelved by Edward, following the troubles of 1321-22, which resulted in Mortimer's dramatic fall from royal favour and imprisonment, and arrangements were made for Thomas to marry one of the daughters of the earl of Arundel, either in 1324 or 1325. Arundel was executed along with the Despensers in the reprisals which followed Isabella and Mortimer's invasion, and with Mortimer back in royal favour, the original plans for the marriage between Katherine and Thomas were back in place, and they were almost certainly married between 1328 and 1330."

Given that his family's crusading tradition was amongst ‘the longest and the most consistent’ of all the higher nobility, it is hardly surprising that the most martial of our three earls should have chosen to further enhance his family's crusading credentials. In 1365, Thomas took advantage of the lull in hostilities between England and France by embarking on a three year expedition to join the crusades of the Teutonic knights in Lithuania, bringing with him an army of no less than ‘300 horse for his attendants and train; which consisted of knights, esquires, archers, friends and servants’, supposedly returning with a son of the Lithuanian king, who was christened in London with the name Thomas, with the earl acting as godfather. By the time of his death in 1369, Beauchamp had undoubtedly earned a reputation as the most feared soldier in the English army, and it was in this year that he oversaw the devastation of Caux whilst serving as a member of John of Gaunt's expedition. Beauchamp was clearly seen by chroniclers and opponents alike as the most formidable of Edward II's commanders: ‘a man who possessed a military élan of a kind which can never be attributed to John of Gaunt’ who, on arriving at Tourneham, on the French coast, to find a stand-off between the English and French armies, mocked Lancaster and Hereford by asking how long they intended on doing nothing, and boasted ‘that if the French remained as they were for two days, he would have them dead or alive’. Walsingham goes further in his account, claiming that the French were so terrified by reports of the arrival of the earl of Warwick, that they fled even before he had time to disembark.

Earl Thomas died of plague whilst on this expedition, in November 1369. In his will, dated two months previously, he requested that he be buried in the collegiate church of Warwick, the first Beauchamp earl to request this, and bequeathed that his executors build a new choir in the same church which in Dugdale's time still boasted pictures of Thomas' daughters ‘curiously drawn and set up in the windows’. He requested that every church in each of his manors be given ‘his best beast to be found there, in satisfaction of tithes forgotten and not paid’, a distinct sign that he did not trust his own officers, the reeves or bailiffs, who should have paid the tithes. A further demand that his executors ‘should make full satisfaction to every man, whom he had in any sort wronged’ shows that he might well have turned a blind eye to the abuse of power by those who acted in his name. He also asked that his executors cause masses to be sung for his soul and distribute alms for its health, ‘especially at Bordesley, Worcester and Warwick’. The list of Beauchamp's goods which he bequeathed gives some idea of the opulence which he enjoyed: amongst them ‘twenty-four dishes and as many more saucers of silver’, golden rings, ornate crosses and religious relics were all to be distributed. The bequests also give an idea of the supreme social circle in which he existed: his son William inherited a casket of gold with a relic of St George which Thomas of Lancaster had given him at his christening; John Buckingham, bishop of Lincoln, gained a cross of gold, which the Lady Segrave had given him, and reputedly had ‘sometime been the good King Edward's; and his daughter Philippa de Stafford received "an ouche called the eagle" which had been given him by Edward the Black Prince alongside "a set of beads of gold, with buckles" which the queen had given him’.

Thomas, like so many other members of the higher nobility from the mid-fourteenth century attempted to determine how his estates would be handled after his death. He did this on a number of occasions, in order to make provisions for all of his children. In April 1344, he jointly enfeoffed the bulk of his lands to himself, with successive remainders to his son and heir Guy and then his other sons. He set aside lands in South Taunton and Carnanton, and the Cornish manors of Blisland and Helston, to be given after his death directly to his son Thomas, with remainder to Reinbrun. Reinbrun in turn was to receive the Rutland manors of Barrowden and Greetham along with Wrangdyke hundred in the same county. He furthermore settled a group of Worcestershire manors on himself and his wife, thereby providing Katherine with a jointure. As the Beauchamp family circumstances changed, this arrangement was revised; Guy's death in 1360 left Thomas as the main heir, but there were two younger sons who were clearly reaching the age of majority, and these had to be accommodated. Already in 1356, William and Roger were mentioned in the re-enfeoffment of Gower, which was made into a jointure between him and his wife in tail male. The position of Roger, being the youngest of five sons, at this time must have appeared rather tenuous, and so it was probably for this reason that his uncle, John Beauchamp, specified him as his heir to a purchase of a £40 rent in 1360. Meanwhile, from 1358 to 1361, his brother William was at Oxford being groomed for the church; as such he became the first peer known to have a university education. He was already in possession of a canonry at Sarum when the death of two of his elder brothers reduced the potential future pressure on the Warwick estates, and it was safe for him to follow the family's martial traditions and become a knight. In his father's will, provisions were made for Beauchamp's executors to provide William with lands worth 400 marks per annum, a bequest which McFarlane estimates as a capital loss of more than £5,000 from the earldom. Clearly his father's generosity was only possible because, by 1369, William was his only surviving younger son.
From: http://users.powernet.co.uk/barfield/chap1.htm ^[S1531]

[86302]
born in Warwick Castle, Warwickshire, England

My Southern Family

ALAN fitzFlaald Dapifer of Dol

ABT 1040 - AFT 1097

ID Number: I65176

Notes

Sources

THOMAS de BEAUCHAMP 3rd Earl of Warwick

14 Feb 1312 - 13 Nov 1369

ID Number: I17197

Notes

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Gloria Dawn BLANKENSHIP

GARCIA GOMEZ CARRILLO

ABT 1250 - ABT 1312

ID Number: I11506

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Susan Pendleton LEE

ABT 1860 - ____

ID Number: I50202

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Sally MORGAN

1897 - ____

ID Number: I36651

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Herman Olen MULLINAX

26 Nov 1890 - 29 Nov 1937

ID Number: I4212

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Mardele R. OSBORNE

Thomas Dillard PENDLETON

1819 - 1867

ID Number: I61855

Notes

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Ann RHEA

ABT 1755 - AFT 1837

ID Number: I57939

Notes

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JOAN de ST. OWEN

____ - ____

ID Number: I52572

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