General Notes

Guy de Beauchamp, 2nd earl, so called in memory of his celebrated predecessor, the Saxon, Guy, Earl of Warwick. This nobleman acquired high military renown in the martial reign of Edward I, distinguishing himself at the battle of Falkirk, for which he was rewarded with extensive grants of land in Scotland, at the siege of Caerlaverock, and upon different occasions besides beyond the sea. In the reign of Edward II, he likewise played a very prominent part. In 1310 his lordship was in the commission appointed by parliament to draw up regulations for "the well governing of the kingdom and of the king's household" in consequence of the corrupt influence exercised at that period by Piers Gaveston in the affairs of the realm through the unbounded partiality of the king; and in two years afterwards, when that unhappy favorite fell into the hands of his enemies upon the surrender of Scarborough Castle, his lordship violently seized upon his person and, after a summary trial, caused him to be beheaded at Blacklow Hill, near Warwick. The earl's hostility to Gaveston is said to have been much increased by learning that the favourite had nicknamed him "the Black Dog of Ardenne." For this unwarrantable proceeding, his lordship and all the others concerned therein received within two years the royal pardon, but he is supposed to have eventually perished by poison, administered in revenge by the partisans of Gaveston. The earl m. Alice, relict of Thomas de Laybourne, dau. (by Lady Alice de Bohun) of Ralph de Toni, of Flamsted, co. Herts, and sister and heiress of Robert de Toni, by whom he had issue, Thomas, his successor; John, a very eminent person in the reign of Edward III, being captain of Calais, admiral of the fleet, standard bearer at Cressy, one of the original knights of the Garter, and summoned to parliament as a Baron, but dying s. p., the dignity expired; Maud, m. to Geoffrey, Lord Say; Emma, m. to Rowland Odingsels; Isabel, m. to John Clinton; Elizabeth, m. to Sir Thomas Astley, Knt.; Lucia, m. to Robert or Roger de Napton.

This great Earl of Warwick was, like most of the nobles of his time, a munificent benefactor to the church, having bestowed lands upon several religious houses and founded a chantry of priests at his manor of Elmley. His will bears date "at Warwick Castle* on Monday next after the feast of St. James the Apostle, an. 1315," and by it he bequests to Alice his wife a proportion of his plate, with a crystal cup, and half his bedding; as also, all the vestments and books belonging to his chapel; the other moiety of his beds, rings, and jewels, his gives to his daus. To his son Thomas, his best coat of mail, helmet, and suit of harness; to his son John, his second suit of mail, &c., appointing that all the rest of his armour, bows, and other warlike provisions should remain in Warwick Castle for his heir. Alice, widow of the earl, had very extensive estates assigned to her in dowry in the November following the death of her husband, and in the next year she paid a fine of 500 marks for license to marry William la Zouche, of Ashby, co. Leicester, to whom she was accordingly married. The earl d. at Warwick Castle on 12 August, 1315, and was s. by his eldest son, then but two years of age, Thomas de Beauchamp.

* Warwick Castle was almost rebuilt by Thomas, 4th Earl of Warwick, and Richard, his heir and successor, in the reigns of Edward III and Richard II. The much admired polygon, Guy's Tower, which is thirty-eight feet in diameter and one hundred and six feet in height, was erected, it is said, by the latter. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage Ltd, London, England, 1883, p. 30, Beauchamp, Earls of Warwick]