Guy de Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick

Guy de Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick (c. 1272 – 12 August

1315) was an English magnate, and one of the principal opponents of Guy de Beauchamp
King Edward II and his favourite, Piers Gaveston. Guy was the son of Earl of Warwick
William de Beauchamp, the first Beauchamp earl of Warwick, and
succeeded his father in 1298. He distinguished himself at the Battle of
Falkirk and subsequently, as a capable servant of the crown under
King Edward I. After the succession of Edward II in 1307, however,
he soon fell out with the new king and the king's favourite, Piers
Gaveston. Warwick was one of the main architects behind the
Ordinances of 1311, that limited the powers of the king and banished
Gaveston into exile.

When Gaveston returned to England in 1312—contrary to the rulings

of the Ordinances—he was taken into custody by Aymer de Valence,
2nd Earl of Pembroke. Warwick abducted Gaveston and, together
with Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, had him executed. The act
garnered sympathy and support for the king, but Warwick and
Lancaster nevertheless managed to negotiate a royal pardon for their
actions. After the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Bannockburn in
1314, King Edward's authority was once more weakened, and the
rebellious barons took over control of government. For Warwick the
triumph was brief; he died the next year.

Guy de Beauchamp is today remembered primarily for his part in the

killing of Gaveston, but by his contemporaries he was considered a
man of exceptionally good judgement and learning. He owned what
was for his time a large collection of books, and his advice was often Guy de Beauchamp standing over
sought by many of the other earls. Next to Lancaster, he was the the decapitated body of Piers
wealthiest peer in the nation, and after his death his lands and title Gaveston. From the 15th-century
were inherited by his son, Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Rous Rolls.[1]
Warwick.
Born c. 1272
Died 12 August 1315

Contents Buried Bordesley Abbey,

Worcestershire
Family background
Spouse Isabel de Clare ?
Service to Edward I Alice de Toeni
Conflict with Edward II Issue See details
Gaveston's death Elizabeth de Beauchamp
Death and historical assessment Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl
of Warwick
References
John de Beauchamp, 1st Baron
Beauchamp

Family background Father William de Beauchamp,

Guy de Beauchamp was the first son and heir of William de 9th Earl of Warwick
Beauchamp, 9th Earl of Warwick, (c. 1238 – 1298). His mother was Mother Maud FitzJohn
Maud FitzJohn, daughter of John fitz Geoffrey, who was Justiciar of
Ireland and a member of the council of fifteen that imposed the
Provisions of Oxford on King Henry III.[3] William was the nephew of
William Maudit, 8th Earl of Warwick, and when his uncle died without
issue in 1268, he became the first Beauchamp earl of Warwick.[4] In
1271 or 1272 his first son was born, and in reference to the new family
title, William named his son after the legendary hero Guy of Warwick.[1]
William de Beauchamp was a capable military commander, who played
an important part in the Welsh and Scottish wars of King Edward I.[4]

A marriage between Guy and Isabel de Clare, daughter of Gilbert de

Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, was contemplated, or possibly even took
place and then annulled.[5][a] It was not until early 1309 that Guy married
Alice de Toeni, a wealthy Hertfordshire heiress.[6] By this time Guy had Arms of Beauchamp: Gules, a
already succeeded as Earl of Warwick, after his father's death in 1298.[7] fesse between six cross
crosslets or
By his wife, Alice, Guy had two sons, Thomas, his heir and successor,
and John de Beauchamp, Lord Beauchamp KG (1315 – 2 December
1360); he carried the royal standard at the Battle of Crecy, and two
daughters,

Maud de Beauchamp (died 1366), married before Easter term

1332 Geoffrey de Say, 2nd Lord Say, by whom she had issue.
The Barons Saye and Sele are their descendants.
Seal of Guy de Beauchamp, 10th
Elizabeth de Beauchamp (c. 1316 – 1359), married before Earl of Warwick, as appended to
Easter term 1332 Thomas Astley, 3rd Lord Astley, by whom the Barons' Letter, 1301. The
she had two sons, William Astley, 4th Lord Astley and Sir arms shown are those of
Thomas Astley, ancestor of the Astleys of Patshull and of Newburgh, the family of his
Everley. predecessors the Beaumont
Earls of Warwick. The
By an unknown mistress (or mistresses), Earl Guy also had three Beauchamps frequently quartered
daughters: their own arms with those of
Newburgh, on occasion placing
Isabel de Beauchamp; married John de Clinton. the latter in the 1st & 4th
Emma de Beauchamp; married Roland de Oddingseles. quarters, positions of greatest
Lucia de Beauchamp (also known as Lucy); married Robert honour
de Napton, Knt.[8] The son of Sir Adam Napton[9] Lucia and
Sir Robert had a son Adam Napton;[10] he married Margaret
Helier[11]

Service to Edward I
Edward I knighted Guy de Beauchamp at Easter 1296.[12] Warwick's career of public service started with the
Falkirk campaign in 1298.[1] Here he distinguished himself, and received a reward of Scottish lands worth
1000 marks a year.[13] At this point his father was already dead, but it was not until 5 September that Guy did
homage to the king for his lands, and became Earl of Warwick[12] and hereditary High Sheriff of
Worcestershire for life. He continued in the king's service in Scotland and elsewhere. In 1299 he was present at
the king's wedding to Margaret of France at Canterbury, and in 1300 he took part in the Siege of Caerlaverock
Castle.[5] The next year he was a signatory to a letter to the Pope, rejecting Rome's authority over the Scottish
question, and also participated in negotiations with the French over the release of
the Scottish King John Balliol.[5][14] He was present at the Siege of Stirling in
1304, serving under Edward, the Prince of Wales.[12] In March 1307 he made
preparations to accompany Prince Edward to France, but this journey never took
place.[5]

Early in 1307, Edward I made his last grant to Warwick, when he gave him John
Balliol's forfeited lordship of Barnard Castle in County Durham.[5] On 7 July that
year, near Burgh by Sands in Cumberland, Warwick was present when King
Edward died.[15] Together with Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, and Henry de Lacy, Armorial of Newburgh
Earl of Lincoln, he carried the ceremonial swords at the coronation of King Earls of Warwick,
Edward II on 25 February 1308.[12] adopted c. 1200 at start
of age of heraldry:

Conflict with Edward II Checky azure and or a

chevron ermine[2]

Before his death, the old king had exiled Prince Edward's favourite Piers
Gaveston, and Warwick was among those charged with preventing Gaveston's return.[16] The new king,
however, not only recalled his favourite, but soon also gave him the title of earl of Cornwall. Warwick was the
only one of the leading earls who did not seal the charter, and from the start took on an antagonistic attitude to
Edward II.[13] Gaveston was a relative upstart in the English aristocracy, and made himself unpopular among
the established nobility by his arrogance and his undue influence on the king.[17] He gave mocking nicknames
to the leading men of the realm, and called Warwick the "Black Dog of Arden".[b]

Gaveston was once more forced into exile, but Edward recalled him
in less than a year. The king had spent the intervening time gathering
support, and at the time, the only one to resist the return of Gaveston
was Warwick.[18] With time, however, opposition to the king grew.
Another source of contention was Edward abandoning his father's
Scottish campaigns, a policy that opened the Border region up to
devastating raids from the Scots.[19] This affected Warwick greatly,
with his extensive landed interest in the north.[20] Tensions grew to
the point where the king in 1310 had to ban Warwick and others from
arriving at parliament in arms.[5] They still did, and at the parliament
of March 1310, the king was forced to accept the appointment of a
commission to draft a set of ordinances towards reform the royal
Warwick was in constant opposition government.[21]
to King Edward II. Great seal of
Edward II The leaders of these so-called Lords Ordainers were Robert
Winchelsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, on the side of the clergy, and
Warwick, Lincoln and Lancaster among the earls.[21][22] Henry de
Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, was the most experienced of the earls, and took on a modifying role in the group.[23]
Thomas of Lancaster, who was Lincoln's son-in-law and heir, was the king's cousin and the wealthiest
nobleman in the realm, but at this point he took a less active part in the reform movement.[24] Warwick is
described by some sources as the leader of the Ordainers; he was certainly the most aggressive.[5] The set of
Ordinances they drafted put heavy restrictions on the king's financial freedom, and his right to appoint his own
ministers. It also—once more—ordered Gaveston to be exiled, to return only at the risk of
excommunication.[25]

Gaveston's death
Gaveston's third and final exile was of even shorter duration, and after two months, he was reunited with King
Edward II in England.[26] Archbishop Winchelsey responded by excommunicating Gaveston, as the
Ordinances had stipulated.[27] Lancaster, who had by this time succeeded his father-in-law Lincoln, had taken
over leadership of the baronial opposition.[28] While the King departed for York, a number of the barons set
out in pursuit of Gaveston. Gaveston ensconced himself at Scarborough Castle, and on 19 May 1312, agreed
on a surrender to Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, as long as his security would be guaranteed.[29]

Pembroke lodged his prisoner in Deddington in Oxfordshire. On 10 June, while Pembroke was away,
Warwick forcibly carried away Gaveston to Warwick Castle.[30] Here, in the presence of Warwick, Lancaster
and other magnates, Gaveston was sentenced to death at an improvised court. On 19 June he was taken to a
place called Blacklow Hill—on Lancaster's lands—and decapitated. According to the Annales Londonienses
chronicle, four shoemakers brought the corpse back to Warwick, but he refused to accept it, and ordered them
to take it back to where they found it.[31] Gaveston's body was eventually taken to Oxford by some
Dominican friars, and in 1315, King Edward finally had it buried at Kings Langley.[31]

The brutality and questionable legality of the earls' actions helped win political sympathy for the king.[32]
Pembroke was particularly offended, as he had been made to break his promise of safety to Gaveston, and his
chivalric honour had been damaged. From this point on Pembroke sided firmly with King Edward in the
political conflict.[33] The king himself swore vengeance on his enemies, but found himself unable to move
against them immediately, partly because they were in possession of a number of highly valuable royal jewels
taken from Gaveston.[34][35] A settlement was reached in October, whereby the rebellious barons and their
retainers received a pardon.[36] The king nevertheless emerged strengthened from the events, while Warwick
and Lancaster were largely marginalised.[37] This all changed in 1314, when the king decided to stage his first
major campaign against the Scots. Warwick and Lancaster refused to participate and the campaign ended in a
humiliating English defeat at the Battle of Bannockburn on 24 June. This led to another political reversal and
Edward was forced to reconfirm the Ordinances, and submit to the leadership of the rebellious barons.[38]

Death and historical assessment

In mid-July Warwick had to withdraw from government to his estates on
account of illness.[39] When he died on 12 August 1315, political leadership
was soon left almost entirely to Lancaster. The chronicler Thomas
Walsingham reported rumours that the king had had Warwick poisoned.[40]
He was buried at Bordesley Abbey in Worcestershire, an establishment to
which his family had been benefactors.[5] In value, his possessions were
second only to those of the earl of Lancaster among the nobility of
England.[41] His lands, though primarily centred on Warwickshire and
Worcestershire, were spread over nineteen counties as well as Scotland and
the Welsh Marches.[5] His heir was his eldest son, whom he had named
Thomas after the earl of Lancaster.[5] Thomas, born probably on 14 February The coat of arms of the
1314, did not succeed to his father's title until 1326, as Thomas de Beauchamp family
Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick.[7][42] In the meanwhile Warwick's
possessions went into the hands of the king, who donated Warwick's hunting
dogs to the earl of Pembroke.[43] A younger son, named John, also became a peer, as John de Beauchamp, 1st
Baron Beauchamp. Like his elder brother, he distinguished himself in the French wars, and was a founding
member of the Order of the Garter.[44]

Guy de Beauchamp is probably best remembered for his opposition to King Edward II, and for his part in the
death of Gaveston.[5] To contemporaries, however, he was considered a man of considerable learning and
wisdom. His library, of which he donated 42 books to Bordesley Abbey during his lifetime, was extensive. It
contained several saints' lives as well as romances about Alexander and King Arthur.[1] As mentioned,
Edward I entrusted the supervision of his son to Warwick. Likewise, when the earl of Lincoln died in 1311, he
supposedly instructed his son-in-law Thomas of Lancaster to heed the advice of Warwick, "the wisest of the
peers".[45] Chronicles also praised Warwick's wisdom; the Vita Edwardi Secundi says that "Other earls did
many things only after taking his opinion: in wisdom and council he had no peer".[1][5] Later historians have
reflected this view, in the 19th century William Stubbs called Warwick "a discriminating and highly literate
man, the wisdom of whom shone forth through the whole kingdom".[5] He was politically and economically
well connected by traditional ties of kinship and marriage.

Warwick's death came at an inconvenient time and Thomas of Lancaster proved unequal to the task of
governing the nation, so that further years of conflict and instability followed. Nevertheless, the problems of
Edward II's reign were deep, and in the words of Michael Hicks: "one must doubt whether even Warwick
could have brought unity as one chronicler supposed".[1]

References
1. Hicks, Michael (1991). Who's Who in Late Medieval England (1272–1485) (https://archive.org/d
etails/whoswhoinlatemed0000hick). Who's Who in British History Series. 3. London:
Shepheard-Walwyn. ISBN 0-85683-092-5.
2. Source: Arms of "Thomas, Earl of Warwick" stated in several 13th-century Rolls of Arms, incl.
Collins' Roll, c. 1296
3. Carpenter, David (2004). "John fitz Geoffrey (c. 1206–1258)". Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/38271 (https://doi.org/10.109
3%2Fref%3Aodnb%2F38271).
4. Coss, Peter (2004). "Beauchamp, William (IV) de, ninth earl of Warwick (c. 1238–1298)". Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/47242
(https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fref%3Aodnb%2F47242).
5. Hamilton, J. S. (2004). "Beauchamp, Guy de, tenth earl of Warwick (c. 1272–1315)". Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1835 (h
ttps://doi.org/10.1093%2Fref%3Aodnb%2F1835).
6. Cokayne, George (1910–59). The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great
Britain and the United Kingdom. xii (New ed.). London: The St. Catherine Press. p. 774.
7. Fryde, E. B. (1961). Handbook of British Chronology (Second ed.). London: Royal Historical
Society. p. 453.
8. Americans of Royal Descent: Collection of Genealogies Showing the Lineal Descent from
Kings of Some American Families By Charles Henry Browning
9. A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 6, Knightlow Hundred.Originally published by
Victoria County History, London, 1951
10. Magna Charta Barons and Their Descendants By Charles Henry Browning
11. The antiquities of Warwickshire By Sir William Dugdale
12. Cokayne (1910–59), xii, pp. 370–2.
13. Maddicott (1970), p. 69.
14. Prestwich, Michael (1997). Edward I (updated ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 495.
ISBN 0-300-07209-0.
15. Prestwich (1997), p. 24.
16. Phillips, J.R.S. (1972). Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke 1307-1324 (https://archive.org/det
ails/aymerdevalenceea0000phil/page/557) (updated ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
p. 557 (https://archive.org/details/aymerdevalenceea0000phil/page/557). ISBN 0-19-822359-5.
17. McKisack, May (1959). The Fourteenth Century: 1307–1399. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
pp. 2–4. ISBN 0-19-821712-9.
18. Maddicott (1970), p. 90.
19. Maddicott (1970), pp. 108–9.
20. Maddicott (1970), pp. 72, 111, 325.
21. McKisack (1959), p. 10.
22. Prestwich, M.C. (2005). Plantagenet England: 1225–1360 (https://archive.org/details/plantagen
etengla00pres_0/page/182). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 182 (https://archive.org/details/
plantagenetengla00pres_0/page/182). ISBN 0-19-822844-9. OCLC 185767800 (https://www.w
orldcat.org/oclc/185767800).
23. Phillips (1972), p. 9.
24. Maddicott (1970), pp. 9, 84–7.
25. The text of the Ordinances can be found in Rothwell, H. (ed.) (1975). English Historical
Documents III, 1189–1327. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. pp. 527–539. ISBN 0-413-23310-3.
26. Hamilton, J. S. (1988). Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall, 1307-1312: Politics and Patronage in
the Reign of Edward II. Detroit; London: Wayne State University Press; Harvester-Wheatsheaf.
pp. 92–3. ISBN 0-8143-2008-2.
27. Hamilton (1988), p. 94.
28. Maddicott (1970), p. 119.
29. Hamilton (1988), p. 96.
30. Hamilton (1988), p. 97.
31. Hamilton (1988), p. 99.
32. McKisack (1959), pp. 28–9.
33. Phillips (1972), pp. 36–7.
34. Roberts, R. A. (ed.) (1929). "Edward II, the lords ordainers, and Piers Gaveston's jewels and
horses, 1312-1313". Camden Miscellany. London: Royal Historical Society. viii: 26.
35. Maddicott (1970), 130–54.
36. McKisack (1959), p. 30.
37. Maddicott (1970), p. 158–9.
38. Prestwich (2005), p. 190.
39. Phillips (1972), p. 92.
40. Maddicott (1970), p. 170.
41. Maddicott, J. R. (1970). Thomas of Lancaster, 1307–1322: A Study in the Reign of Edward II (htt
ps://archive.org/details/thomasoflancaste0000madd/page/22). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
pp. 22–23 (https://archive.org/details/thomasoflancaste0000madd/page/22). ISBN 0-19-
821837-0.
42. Cokayne (1910–59), xii, pp. 372–5.
43. Phillips (1972), p. 94.
44. Cokayne (1910–59), ii, pp. 50–1.
45. Maddicott (1970), p. 115.

Peerage of England
Succeeded by
Preceded by Earl of Warwick
Thomas de
William de Beauchamp 1298–1315
Beauchamp

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