Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 1.djvu/37

ABERGAVENNY. 15 XL 1411. 2. Richard Beauchamp, wlio, unless the Peerage be considered as erne incident to the tenure of the Castle (which he never possessed), must be considered as Lord Bergavex.vy, or Beauchamp op Bergavenny, a. and h., was 14 years old and upwards in June 1411. He does not appear among the fourteen Barons in the Pari, of 16 Nov. 1417, nor among the thirteen Barons in that of 16 Oct. 1419, (a) but (in his 23rd or 24th year), viz. in 1420, was- cr. EARL OF WORCESTER. He m., on the day of the Seven Sleepers, 27 My 1411, Isabel, sister and eventually (1414) sole h. of Richard Le Despenckh, being da. of Thomas [the attainted], Ear& of Gloucester (Lord Le Despencek), by Constance, da. of Edmund (Pwntagenkt), Doke of York. He d., s.p.m., 1422 (being mortally wounded at Meaux in France) and was Our. at Tewkesbury. His widow, (who was J. (posthumous) 26 July 1400, at Cardiff, and who, but for the attainder, would have either [sic] of the numerous examples alluded to. Iu order, however, to obtain as much information as possible on the subject, it was necessary to inquire in what manner the Barons in question were described in the Rolls of Parliament previous to tbe reign of Henry VI., and the result of the examination is certainly in favour of William Beauchamp's being considered a.s Baron Bergavenny, though it does not positively establish the fact, whilst it confirms the opinion that his predecessors in the Lordship of Bergavenny never bore that name as the title of their dignity. The earliest instance when Bergavenny occurs as a title iu the Rolls of Pari, is iu the 21st Rich. IX 1397, live years after William Beauchamp was sum. to Pari, as 'Willielmo Beauehamp (de Bergavenny),' when he was described as ' V n > Beauchamp, S r de Bergavenny.' In the 1st Hen. IV. the names of ' Dns. de Roos, de Willoghby, de Bcrr/avmny,' occur j and in the following year we find among the Barons then present, ' le S r de Berga- venny.' In the 2nd Hen. IV. he is mentioned as 'William Sire de Bergavenny,' and in a similar manner on subsequent occasions. It must, however, be observed, on the other hand, that on the last and most solemn occasion when his name occurs in the Rolls of Pari., viz. among the Peers present at the settlement of the Crown in the 8th Hen. IV he is in both places styled ' Will'mi Beauchamp de Bergavenny ; ' and at the same time Henry Lord Scrop of Masham is mentioned as ' Henrici le Scrop de Mitslinm,' whilst other Barons are styled ' Reginaldi Domini de Grey de Ruthyn, William Domini de Ferrers, Thom.'c Domini de Furnyvel,' &c. Richard Beauchamp, his 8. and h., was never sum. to Pari, as a Baron, as he was or. Earl of Worcester four years after he became of age ; and though he is sometimes styled ' Lord of Bergavenny,' and his mother, both in the Rolls of Pari, and in her will, is called ' Lady of Bergavenny,' no conclusion is to be drawn therefrom, for this expression was more frequently applied to designate important manors and lordships than Parliamentary Baronies. On Ed Ward Nevill's being sum. in the 29th Hen. VI as ' Domino de Bergavenny,' such certainly became the title of his Barony : but it is to be considered that this occurred in the reign of Hen. VI, a period, as is remarked elsewhere, fruitful in anomalies on subjects connected with the Peerage, and when even, as is stated in a subsequent page, some instances occur of the addition of ' Domino de,' &c, being used, without such designation being the title of the dignity possessed by the Baron to whose name it was appended. Vide the observations on this subject under Chavleton, Dudley, and Grey of Powis." — " Nicolas," p. 9, note. (") This is one of the arguments urged as to the right of the Writ of Summons being incident to the tenure of the feudal Barony which was then in possession of (his mother) the widow of the lato Baron. The able and very learned author of the "Authorities, &c. (1862)," in the Berkeley claim (in his zeal for establishing the existence of territorial Peerages), actually asserts (p. 1SS, and elsewhere) as a fact that this Richard " was a commoner until created an Earl," arguing, from the mere circumstance of his being styled "Richard Beauchamp of Bergavenny, Knight" in the same instrument in which his mother is spoken of as " Lady Bergavenny, " that the Peerage (which, it should be remarked, was undoubtedly possessed by her late husband) was vested (suo jure) in her (and not in the s. and h.) by her tenure of the Castle. At that time, however, and long afterwards, Peers were frequently (if, indeed, cot generally) described as above ; and in the Warrant to the Eschajtor for the Inq. post movtem of this very Lady she is merely styled " Johanna, qua; fuit uxor Willi de Bello Campo, militia," though, in the inquisition itself, her husband is alluded to t» " nuper Dominus de Bergevenny." — (Berkeley ease, Appendix 2, p. 59.)