SIR WILLIAM DE BEAUCHAMP
That Sir William de Beauchamp was a friend to Chaucer has been recognized for some time. In May 1888 Mr. W. D. Selby called attention to this connection with Chaucer in a short article in The Athenaeum. In this article Mr. Selby gave a few facts about him, gathered professedly from Dugdale, but omitted all mention of the curious connection Sir William de Beauchamp had with the property of the Earl of Pembroke, for his custodianship of which Chaucer was one of the sureties.
William de Beauchamp was a younger son of Thomas, Earl of Warwick. [Footnote: Cf. Dugdale's Baronage I, 238 ff, Dugdale Antiquities of Warwickshire II, 1029 ff.] In 40 Edward III he attended John of Gaunt in his expedition into Spain. In 44 Edward III he served as a Knight in France, in the retinue of John of Gaunt, and again in 47 Edward III. In 47 Edward III de Beauchamp signed an indenture to serve John of Gaunt in peace and in war during his life in consideration of one hundred marks yearly and wages for six horses and four boys. [Footnote: Register of John, duke of Lancaster, vol. 13. Misc. Books-Rec. Off.] He had been connected with John of Gaunt's household even earlier, in 1340 and 1346. [Footnote: Same book.] In 1 Richard II he served with Edmund de Langley, Earl of Cambridge, in Spain with 200 men-at-arms and 200 archers, and in the King's navy at sea under John of Gaunt. In 13 Richard II he served again in France.
In 1377 he was granted for life the custody of Feckanham forest and park at a farm of L37, 14s. 4-1/2d. From the beginning of his reign, Richard II granted many pardons at the supplication of William de Beauchamp. In 1379 he was chamberlain of the King's household; in 1380 he was granted an annuity of 200m. [Footnote: Not L200 as Mr. Selby says. See Pat. Roll 1380, pp. 561, 600.] He was regularly on commissions of the peace in Warwick, in company with his brother, the Earl of Warwick. In 1379 he and Lewis de Clifford aided Robert de Ferrers in acquiring the manor of Wemme in fee. [Footnote: Cal. Pat. Roll, p, 332.] In 1383 he was appointed on a commission to treat with Flanders. In 1384 he was appointed Captain of Calais—a position he held until 1392.
To return now to one matter in which Chaucer is closely connected with William de Beauchamp. In 1378 the King granted William de Beauchamp the custody of the Castle and estates of Pembroke, in his hands by reason of the minority of the Earl of Pembroke. The father of the last Earl of Pembroke, John de Hastings, had, by license from the crown, settled all his possessions, in the event of failure of his own issue, except the Castle and town of Pembroke, upon his cousin William de Beauchamp (his mother's sister's son) [Footnote: Surrey Arch. Coll. XVH, 29, 30.] These lands were in the hands of the King in 1378 because John de Hastings had died and his son was still a minor; naturally he appointed the next heir custodian of them. But William de Beauchamp's management of the estates was certainly not satisfactory and, if the suretyship of Chaucer was anything but a form, the poet stood a good chance of losing by it. The first notice we find of Beauchamp's unsatisfactory management is in 1386, when a commission was appointed to enquire touching the waste in the possessions of John de Hastyngs by William de Beauchamp, to whom the King had committed the custody of the land. In the same year we find record of an indenture made between Margaret Mareschall, countess of Norfolk, guardian of John de Hastyngs, and the said John, on the one side, and William de Beauchamp on the other, whereby the latter agreed to surrender his custody of the estates, and the former in return to free him of liability for the "waste." [Footnote: Cal. Pat. Roll, p. 257.] In 1389 the King appointed a commission to enquire touching the waste in the lands of the alien priory of Kirkeby Monachorum, county Warwick, in the time of William de Beauchamp, Knight, farmer thereof. [Footnote: idem, p. 350. i idem, p. 208.]
In 1390 we find a "Revocation for reasons declared before the King and council in the present parliament, with the assent of the nobles, magnates, etc., of recent letters granting during pleasure to William de Beauchamp the custody of the lands, tenements, etc. of John de Hastyngs." [Footnote: Whether these were part of the Pembroke holdings or not, I do not know.] In the same year the custody was regranted to John Golafre, Knight of the King's chamber, at a farm of L600 (Beauchamp had paid L500). [Footnote: Gal. Pat. Roll, p. 180.] In 1390, however, the young Earl of Pembroke was killed in a tournament, and according to the provisions made by his father, the estates devolved upon William de Beauchamp. Other heirs contested his rights to them, but he won. A curious story told about his claim, is as follows: "Beauchamp invited his learned counsel to his house in Paternoster Row in the city of London; amongst whom were Robert Charlton (then a judge), William Pinchbek, William Brenchesley, and John Catesby (all learned lawyers); and after dinner, coming out of his chapel in an angry mood, threw to each of them a piece of gold and said: 'Sirs, I desire you forthwith to tell me, whether I have any right and title to Hasting's lordships and lands!' Whereupon Pinchbek stood up (the rest being silent, fearing that he suspected them) and said: 'No man here, nor in England, dare say that you have any right in them, except Hastings [Footnote: Evidently Edward Hastings, a contesting heir.] quit his claim therein; and should he do it 'being now under age, it would be of no validity.'" (Dugdale).
In 1387 [Footnote: According to Beltz, p. 229]when Richard II was preparing for his assault upon the Gloucester faction with which William de Beauchamp was evidently, as his brother the Earl of Warwick was certainly, connected, he tried to remove Beauchamp from the office of Captain of Calais, by messenger. Beauchamp refused to leave the office, "saying that he received that charge and trust publicly from the King, in the presence of his nobles, and therefore would not quit it in a private manner" (Dugdale). When his successor arrived, Beauchamp arrested him, and took him to England. There Beauchamp himself was arrested but was soon released. In 1393 he was summoned to Parliament as Baron Bergavenny (a title received in connection with the Pembroke estates). From 1390-96 I find reference to grants of land made by him to religious bodies. He seems to have been rather in disfavour in these closing years of Richard II's reign, but under Henry IV he received new grants, of the manor of Feckenham, rent-free, and of the custody of the Castle and county of Pembroke. He died 12 Henry IV and was buried in Black Friars, Hereford.
He married Joan, second sister and coheir of Thomas Fitz Alen, Earl of
Arundel. He was a Knight of the Garter. Dugdale prints (in his
Warwickshire) the wills of William de Beauchamp and his wife, remarkable
medieval documents.