General Notes

William de Beauchamp inherited not only the feudal barony of Elmley from his father, but had previously derived from his mother the Earldom of Warwick (originally possessed by the Newburghs), and the barony of Hanslape (which had belonged to the Mauduits). This eminent nobleman was a distinguished captain in the Welsh and Scottish wars of King Edward I. "In the 23rd year of which reign (1294-5), being in Wales with the king," as Dugdale relates, "he performed a notable exploit; namely hearing that a great body of the Welsh were got together in a plain betwixt two woods and, to secure themselves, had fastened their pikes to the group, sloping their pikes towards their assailants, he marched thither with a choice company of cross-bowmen and archers, and in the night time encompassing them about, but betwixt every two horsemen on cross-bowman, which cross-bowman killing many of them that held the picks, the horsemen charged in suddenly and made very great slaughter. This was done near Montgomery." His lordship m. Maud, widow of Girard de Furnival, and one of the four daughters and co-heiresses of Richard FitzJohn, son of John Fitz-Geffrey, chief Justice of Ireland, by whom he had surviving issue, Guy, his successor; Isabel, m. to Peter Chaworth; Maud, m. to -- Rithco; Margaret, m. to John Sudley; Anne and Amy, nuns at Shouldham, co. Norfolk, a monastery founded by his lordship's maternal great grandfather. William de Beauchamp, 1st Earl of Warwick of that family, d. in 1298, having previous to his mother's death used the style and title of Earl of Warwick, with what legality appears very doubtful, and was s by his eldest son, Guy de Beauchamp. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 30, Beauchamp, Earls of Warwick]