William Beauchamp, 1st Baron Bergavenny

William de Beauchamp, 1st Baron Bergavenny, KG (c. 1343 – 8 May 1411) was an English peer.

William de Beauchamp
Baron Bergavenny
Sir William Beauchamp, 1st Baron Bergavenny, KG
Born	c. 1343
Died	8 May 1411 (aged 67–68)
Noble family	Beauchamp
Spouse(s)	Lady Joan FitzAlan (m. 1392–1411; his death)
Issue	Richard de Beauchamp, 1st Earl of Worcester Joan Butler, Countess of Ormond
Father	Thomas Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick
Mother	Katherine Mortimer

Beauchamp was the fourth son of Thomas Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick, and Katherine Mortimer. He served under Sir John Chandos during the Hundred Years' War, and was created a Knight of the Garter in 1376.

Sir William Beauchamp served on the royal council of king Richard II as sub-chamberlain or acting chief chamberlain of the household from 1378 to 1380 (in place of the formal chamberlain, Robert de Vere (9th Earl of Oxford), who held it by hereditary right, but was still considered a minor). Beauchamp served as Captain of Calais in 1383.

Upon the death of his first cousin once removed, John Hastings, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, on 30 December 1389, William inherited the lordship of Abergavenny, including Abergavenny Castle. He was summoned to Parliament on 23 July 1392 as "Willilmo Beauchamp de Bergavenny", by which he is held to have become Baron Bergavenny, a barony by writ. In 1399, he was appointed Justiciar of South Wales and Governor of Pembroke. He entailed the castle and Honour of Abergavenny on the issue male of his body, with remainder to his brother Thomas Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick and his heirs male; his wife enjoyed it in dower until her death in 1435. Bergavenny died in 1411 and was buried at Black Friars, Hereford.

Marriage and offspring

Bergavenny married Lady Joan FitzAlan, daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 11th Earl of Arundel, and Elizabeth de Bohun, and they had the following children:

• Richard de Beauchamp, 1st Earl of Worcester, 2nd Baron Bergavenny (bef. 1397 – 1422), married Isabel le Despenser, daughter of Thomas Despenser, 1st Earl of Gloucester and Constance of York, by whom he had one daughter Elizabeth de Beauchamp, Baroness Bergavenny.
• Joan de Beauchamp (1396 – 3 August 1430), married 28 August 1413 James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond, son of James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond and Anne Welles, by whom she had five children, including Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond.

Ancestry

Ancestors of William Beauchamp, 1st Baron Bergavenny

16. William Beauchamp, 9th Earl of Warwick 8. William de Beauchamp, 9th Earl of Warwick 17. Isabella Maudit 4. Guy de Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick 18. John FitzGeoffrey, Lord of Shere 9. Maud FitzJohn 19. Isabel Bigod 2. Thomas Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick 20. Roger V de Toeni 10. Ralph VII de Toeni, Lord Toeni of Flamsted 21. Alice de Bohun 5. Alice de Toeni 22. 11. Mary 23. 1. William de Beauchamp, 1st Baron Bergavenny 24. Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Mortimer 12. Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Mortimer 25. Maud de Braose, Baroness Mortimer 6. Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March 26. Sir William de Fienes 13. Margaret de Fiennes 27. Blanche de Brienne 3. Katherine Mortimer 28. Geoffrey de Geneville, 1st Baron Geneville 14. Sir Piers de Genevelle 29. Maud de Lacy, Baroness Geneville 7. Joan de Geneville, 2nd Baroness Geneville 30. Hugh XII of Lusignan 15. Jeanne of Lusignan 31. Jeanne de Fougères

References

• Carpenter, Christine. "Beauchamp, William (V), first Baron Bergavenny (c.1343–1411)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/50236. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Cokayne, George E. (1910). Gibbs, Vicary (ed.). The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant. Vol. I, Ab-Adam to Basing. London: St. Catherine Press.