The Keep, from the Inner Court.
This nobleman married a daughter of the Earl of Salisbury, but died without issue. His sister and heiress, Margery, who was married to John de Mareschal, brother to the Earl of Pembroke, succeeded to the estates, and her husband became seventh earl. This honour he did not enjoy long, but died without issue “within about half a year of his brother-in-law the late earl.” The widow then, by special arrangement of Henry III., married John de Placetis, or Plessitis, a Norman by birth, and a great favourite of the king. By the Countess of Warwick he had no issue, and therefore at her death the estates passed to her cousin, William Mauduit, Baron of Hanslape, who died without issue. The title and estates then at his death passed to his sister, Isabel Mauduit, wife of William de Beauchamp, heir of Walter de Beauchamp, Baron of Elmley, who thus through her became heir to the title, which however,—she having entered a nunnery,—was not claimed, but passed, in the person of their son William, into the powerful family of Beauchamp. By Isabel Mauduit William de Beauchamp the elder had four sons—William, who succeeded him; John, whose grandson was created Baron Beauchamp; Walter, ancestor of Fulke Greville, Lord Broke; and Thomas, who died unmarried. William de Beauchamp, who bore the title of Earl of Warwick during his father’s lifetime, married Maud, one of the co-heiresses of Richard Fitzjohn, by whom he had issue with others, Guy de Beauchamp, who succeeded him as Earl of Warwick. This Guy, so called, no doubt, after the “renowned Guy,” attended the king into Scotland, and for his valour at the battle of Falkirk, had granted to him all the lands of Geoffrey de Mowbray in that kingdom, with the exception of Okeford, and all the lands of John de Strivelin, with the castle of Amesfield, and the lands of Drungery. He was one of the noblemen who seized Piers Gaveston,—against whom he held a mortal hatred for having called him “the black hound of Arden,”—whom he conveyed to Warwick Castle, from whence he was removed to Blacklow Hill, near Warwick, and beheaded. This Guy married Alice, sister and heiress to Robert de Toni, Baron of Flamstead, and widow of Thomas de Leybourne, and by her had issue two sons and five daughters. He died (it was suspected by poison) in 1315, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Thomas de Beauchamp, who married Catherine Mortimer, daughter of the Earl of March, by whom he had issue seven sons and ten daughters. The sons were—Sir Guy, “a stout soldier,” who died in his father’s lifetime, leaving three daughters, all nuns, at Shouldham; Thomas, his successor; Reynbourne, so called in memory of the son of the “renowned Guy;” William, who became Lord Abergavenny; Roger, John, and Jerome.
Thomas Beauchamp, the eldest son, who succeeded to the honours, was knighted in the lifetime of his father. He, like his predecessor, made many additions to the castle, the principal of which was the building of Guy’s Tower. Having passed a troublous life, being at one time confined and condemned in the Tower of London, he died in 1401, leaving by his wife Margaret, daughter of Lord Ferrars of Groby, two daughters, nuns, and one son, Richard Beauchamp, who succeeded him. This Richard, Earl of Warwick, is said to “have surpassed even the great valour and reputation of his ancestors;” and, indeed, his career seems altogether to have been one of the most brilliant and successful on record; and besides having a special herald of his own, “Warwick Herald,” he was styled the “Father of Courtesye.” “He founded the Chantry of Guy’s Cliff, where before this foundation were Guy’s Chappel and Cottage.” In this he placed the statue of Guy (still seen, though much defaced), made several pious donations, and died at Roan in the 17th of Henry VI. There is extant a very remarkable and curious MS. Life of this renowned warrior; it is preserved in the British Museum (Julius, E. IV.). In it the illuminations are very spirited, and are highly valuable as examples of armour, &c., of the time, no less than as genuine representations of various valiant deeds in which he was engaged.
Three of these we give. Our first shows the figures of the Earl of Warwick and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, from a picture of the fight with Philip, Duke of Burgundy, before Calais. The next represents “how a mighty duke challenged Erle Richard (Beauchamp) for his lady sake, and in justyng slewe the Duke, and then the Empresse toke the Erle’s staff and bear from a knight’s shouldre, and for great love and favour she sett it on her shouldre. Then Erle Richard made one of perle and precious stones, and offered her that, and she gladly and lovynglee reseaved it.” The engraving shows the Earl vanquishing the Duke—his lance has run through his body—and the heralds proclaiming his victory. Behind are the Emperor Sigismund and his Empress, the latter of whom is taking, as recounted, the Earl’s badge of the bear and ragged staff from the shoulders of the knight to place upon her own. On the Earl’s helmet will be seen his crest of the bear and ragged staff.