Looking at the life of Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick, I discovered some details about his first wife, Elizabeth Berkeley. She was an interesting figure - fully aware of her power, tenacious in outlook and partner of the earl for around twenty-five years.
Richard Beauchamp was a nobleman during the reign of Henry V, accompanying the king to France on his campaigns and, later, overseeing the imprisonment and death of Joan of Arc. Joan was a teenager - aged around nineteen - who said that she heard messages from God and the angels, wore mens' clothing and appeared in battle. She was soon seen as a popular mascot of the French army, which threatened the authority and power the English were trying to enforce there. Beauchamp, acting for Henry VI, the son of Henry V, had her executed while trying to enforce France's agreement with Henry V that the English king would rule over France too. The Beauchamps had risen in early medieval England through service to the crown and a series of lucrative marriage contracts, to become senior advisors and commanders.
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Elizabeth Berkeley (Beauchamp), from the Beauchamp Pageant (c1483-1494) Wikimedia Commons |
But before Joan of Arc resisted the English forces in France, Richard settled in England with his wife, Elizabeth Berkeley. Elizabeth is depicted in the fifteenth-century manuscript The Pageants of Richard Beauchamp wearing a coronet, gown and mantle, standing behind a shield with her family's arms on it. Her long hair falls behind her shoulders. The facial features of all the figures in the work are very similar and so it was likely not drawn to represent an accurate likeness. The daughter of Thomas Lord Berkeley and his wife Margaret de Lisle, Elizabeth was born in around 1386. At the age of around seven, she was contracted to marry Richard in a dynastically-motivated match, the ceremony having taken place by 1397 when Richard was twelve and Elizabeth fifteen.
Together the young couple were present at the close of the reign of Richard II, with Richard Beauchamp's father a key figure in the removal of the king from power and placing the Lancastrian Henry IV on the throne in his place. They lived through the early years of Henry IV's reign, his conflicts with Wales and the rise of Prince Henry who would become Henry V in 1413. They already had children born to the marriage, and were busy raising their young family. Margaret, the eldest, was born in 1404, when Elizabeth was around twenty-two years of age. Other daughters followed - Eleanor in 1408 and their youngest, Elizabeth, in 1417. The couple became earl and countess of Warwick in 1403, probably while Elizabeth was pregnant with Margaret.
The year their youngest daughter was born was also a sad one for the Beauchamps. Elizabeth's father Thomas Berkeley died in 1417, and a cousin of hers contested her share of the Berkeley inheritance. Elizabeth then embarked on a long and stressful property dispute. Richard not only supported his wife in the matter from an emotional basis but would also have been motivated to secure the considerable Berkeley estates under the Beauchamp name. The case was to outlive both partners. David Brindley, in the book Richard Beauchamp, Medieval England's Greatest Knight, states that it was the longest running legal case in English history, not reaching a conclusion until 1609.
Brindley also discusses aspects of the couple's personal lives during their marriage, preserved in household accounts of 1420-1422. They held dinners with important figures of the era, at times feeding as many as 94. Eating oysters, herrings, haddock, breads, wine and ale, they feasted their guests lavishly, adding mutton and beef to the menu on meat days. Being wined and dined by the famous Warwicks in their large and beautiful homes would have increased trust and encouraged beneficial relationships, and may be evidence of deliberate networking by the couple. Richard Neville, Richard's son in law, would later be praised for his generosity at dinners, where, after the meal, he allowed those present to take away as much meat as would fit onto the blade of a dagger.
Richard Beauchamp's effigy at Warwick |
When they weren't wrestling for the Berkeley estates, Elizabeth and Richard fulfilled the roles expected of them as royal servants in Henry V's England. Elizabeth would have managed their estates and made household decisions while Richard served in the army and as a senior government aide in France. All three of their daughters would play crucial roles in the Wars of the Roses, as Henry VI and his queen Margaret of Anjou fought to retain control of the throne from a threat from the Yorkists. Margaret Beauchamp, the couple's eldest daughter, was especially formidable in nature and embarked on a physical and legal war with the Berkeleys after her mother's death. She was known to have imprisoned members of the family, holding them against their will and attempting to coerce them into signing contracts in her favour, under duress. There was even talk that she and her husband John Talbot had one of the Berkeley women murdered while holding her captive. While Margaret's actions, if the court papers of the time are to be believed, were extreme, Elizabeth seems to have shown a similar kind of tenacity. She travelled throughout the country with her daughters, staked her claim to her inheritance and did not give up on her legal fight, even though it must have caused her much worry and lasted her lifetime. Margaret would have been around eighteen years old on her mother's death, and seeing her resistance in this matter may have inspired her to react similarly with regard to the Berkeley estates later on. Similarly, Eleanor, the couple's second daughter, successfully sued the Duke of York, also involving the king in the dispute, following the death of her husband, Edmund Beaufort Duke of Somerset, in the Battle of St Albans in 1455. It is certainly possible then that the young women learned from their unyielding and litigious mother, which shaped their own personalities as adults.
Richard and Elizabeth's marriage seems to have been a generally happy one, and there is no evidence of public or personal differences between them. They spent time together with their family when schedules allowed, hosted dinners together and navigated a difficult married life when Richard was away on business or overseas fighting. They also show evidence of supporting one another's actions and rights. Fiona Swabey, in Medieval Gentlewomen: Life in a Gentry Household in the Later Middle Ages, also points out evidence that Elizabeth embarked on a sudden journey in 1420-1421, probably to intercede personally in an attack on her lands involved in the legal dispute. This, along with what else we know about the countess, shows bravery and a proactive approach to resolving problems, much like her husband demonstrated on royal service.
Elizabeth died in December 1422, in the same month as her husband was busy with Council affairs concerning the rule of the new infant king, Henry VI. Her three daughters survived her, and Richard instructed a tomb to be built for her. However in pursuit of a male heir, Richard shortly afterwards contracted another lucrative match after her death, to Isabel Despencer, the widow of his cousin Richard Beauchamp of Worcester. It was through this marriage that two further children were born, Henry (who inherited his father's earldom but died at the age of twenty-one in 1425) and Anne, who would marry Richard Neville, 'The Kingmaker' who wielded considerable power during the Wars of the Roses. Anne inherited the Warwick title on her brother's death. As she was not allowed to attend Parliament, her husband held the title of Earl of Warwick in her right. Richard Beauchamp died in 1439 while on service to Henry VI in Rouen, France and was buried at St Mary's Church, Warwick, in a chapel that he caused to be built in his will. His effigy, hands in prayer and gazing up at the ceiling, survives today.
Liked this? You might also like: Katherine Mortimer and Thomas Beauchamp, Medieval Power Couple, The Women of Warwick Castle and Warwick Castle During the Wars of the Roses.
Enjoyed this? You can find out more about the Beauchamps and other women of the period in my book, Forgotten Women of the Wars of the Roses, published by Pen and Sword Books. Order your copy here.
Sources and Further Reading:
David Brindley, Richard Beauchamp: Medieval England's Greatest Knight, Tempus Publishing, 2001.
Jo Romero, Forgotten Women of the Wars of the Roses, Pen and Sword Books, 2024
Fiona Swabey, Medieval Gentlewomen: Life in a Gentry Household in the Later Middle Ages, Routledge, New York, 1999.
Wikipedia, Elizabeth Berkeley