of 1215, and received grants of land for his services to the king. He was raised to the bench by Henry III 6 July 1234, and appointed a justice itinerant in August 1234 and April 1238. He last appears as a judge in 1241-2, and died shortly before 1 Feb. 1251-2, when his son did homage for his lands.
[Dugdale's Baronage, i. 253; Foss's Judges of England, 1848, ii. 230.]
BEAUCHAMP, THOMAS de, Earl of Warwick (d. 1401), statesman, was son
of Thomas de Beauchamp, earl of Warwick,
who had distinguished himself at Crecy,
Poitiers, and elsewhere, and was one of the
founders of the order of the Garter. He
succeeded his father 13 Nov. 1369, being
then twenty-four years old. He accompanied
John of Gaunt in the fruitless French campaign of 1373, and took part shortly after in
the descent on Britanny (T. Wals. i. 318).
In the 'Good Parliament' of 1376, and in
those of February and of October 1377, he
was one of the committee of magnates deputed
by the lords to act in concert with the commons for reform, and he was placed on the
commission of iniquiry in that of 1379. The
parliament now insisted on a governor for
the king, and Warwick was appointed,
'communi sententiâ,' to the post (ib. 427),
and was placed on the commission of retrenchment in the parliament of January
1380 (Fœdera, iv. 75). On the rising of the
villeins in 1381 he was despatched, with
Thomas Percy, against those of St. Edmund's (T. Wals. ii. 28). He accompanied
Richard in his Scotch campaign (1385), at
the head of 600 archers and 280 men-at-arms, the largest contingent in the field
(MS. ut infra); but on the king commencing
his struggle for independence, joined the opposition which was forming under Gloucester
and Derby. Of a retiring and somewhat indolent disposition, and unsuited to his great
station among the nobles, he withdrew for
the time to Warwick, and indulged his tastes
in quietude, till the decision of the judges
in Richard's favour (25 Aug. 1387) compelled him to come forth from his seclusion
and join Gloucester and Arundel in their advance on London (T. Wals. ii. 164). From
Waltham Cross (14 Nov. 1387) they issued
a manifesto against the king's advisers, and
formally 'appealed' them of treason, 27 December. A parliament was summoned in
February (1388), and the ministers accused
by 'the lords appellant 'were tried and condemned. The lords appellant retained power
till 3 May 1389, when Richard, by a coup-d'état, removed them from his council; and
the earl, again withdrawing to Warwick,
occupied himself in adding to his castle and
building the nave of St. Mary's Church.
Richard, ever eager for vengeance on the
opposition, contrived, in 1396, that Warwick
and Nottingham should quarrel over the
lands of Gower; and the former, who lost
his case, may have been goaded into joining
the alleged, but most obscure, conspiracy at
Arundel in July 1397 (Chronique, 5-6), revealed by Nottingham to Richard. Invited
by the king, with Gloucester and Arundel, to
a banquet July, he alone came, and was arrested (ib. 9, T. Wals. ii. 222), and committed
to the Tower (his quarters giving name to 'the
Beauchamp Tower'). Tried in parliament,
on 28 Sept., his courage failed him, and
pleading guilty ('confessa toute la traison'),
he threw himself on the king's mercy
(Chronique, 10, T. Wals. 226, Trok. 219-20).
He was sentenced to forfeiture and to imprisonment for life in the Isle of Man, where
he was harshly treated by the governor,
William le Scrope (Trok. 252). But on
12 July 1398 he was recommitted to the
Tower, whence he was liberated, on Henry's
triumph, in August 1399. Hastening to
meet the king and Henry, he returned with
them to town, and attended Henry's first
parliament (October 1399), in which he attempted to deny his confession of 1397, but
was silenced by Henry (Trok. 307-8). He
was also one of those who challenged Arundel (ib. 310), and he is said, with other magnates (1 Jan. 1400), to have urged Henry to
put Richard to death (Chronique, 78). On
6 Jan. 1400 he set out with the king from
London against the rebel lords (ib. 82), but
after their capture disappeared fromm public
life, and died 8 July 1401 (T. Wals. ii.
247, Trok. 337). He was succeeded by
his son, Richard de Beauchamp, 1382-1439
[q. v.].
[Chronique de la Traison (Eng. Hist. Soc.); Thomas of Walsingham and Trokelowe (Rolls series); a Latin MS. 6049, Bibl. du Roy. f. 30; Dugdale's Baronage, i. 236; The Rows Roll of the Earls of Warwick, 1845; Stuble's Constitutional History, chaps, xvi. xviii.]
BEAUCHAMP, WALTER de (d. 1236),
judge, was son and heir of William de
Beauchamp, lord of Elmley, Worcester, and
hereditary castellan of Worcester and sheriff
of the county. A minor at his father's
death, he did not obtain his shrievalty till
February 1216 (Pat. 17 John, m. 17). Declaring for Louis of France on his arrival
(May 1216), he was excommunicated by the
legate at Whitsuntide, and his lands seized
by the Marchers (Claus, 18 John, m. 5). But