| Nationality | Berkeley, Elizabeth, countess of Warwick (c. 1386–1422), magnate, was the daughter of Thomas, fifth Baron Berkeley (1353–1417), and Margaret (1360–c.1392), daughter and heir of Warin de Lisle. In September 1392 an agreement was drawn up with Thomas Beauchamp, earl of Warwick (d. 1401), for her to marry the earl's son and heir Richard Beauchamp (d. 1439). The marriage took place before 5 October 1397, and Elizabeth became countess of Warwick when her husband was granted livery of the earldom in 1403. As the only child of Thomas Berkeley and Margaret de Lisle, Elizabeth was a considerable heiress. From her mother she inherited the Lisle and Tyes baronies with their principal estates concentrated in Wiltshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and the south-west; her mother died c.1392, and these lands were held by her father by the tenure of courtesy of England until his own death in 1417, when Elizabeth succeeded to them. During her lifetime most of Elizabeth's lands kept their own identity under her own receiver, and receipts were paid to the keeper of her household.
Elizabeth was also heir-general to the Berkeley estates, but the castle, manor, and hundred of Berkeley and certain other manors had been entailed to the male line by her great-grandfather in 1349. She and her husband were not willing to accept this entail at her father's death on 13 July 1417, and this refusal initiated one of the longest lawsuits in England which was not concluded until 1609. The heir male was Elizabeth's cousin, James Berkeley. At the time of Thomas's death James was in Dorset, while Elizabeth and her husband were either at Berkeley or at Wotton under Edge, well placed to seize the entailed manors and also Thomas's records. Difficulties arose over carrying out Thomas's inquisition post mortem, and it was only on 1 December 1417 that the entailed lands were adjudged to James. His tenure of the lands was however by no means secure. Elizabeth was holding Berkeley Castle in 1420–21; James however succeeded in taking possession of Wotton by July 1421. At that time Elizabeth and James appeared before the king's council (the earl was in France), and Elizabeth presented her complaint against James. Earlier mediation involving Joan Beauchamp, Lady Bergavenny, had taken place, but no settlement was reached by the council. James by then had secured the backing of Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, which put him in a stronger position. In fact it was only after Elizabeth's death that the earl and James reached a settlement, in 1425, which established peace between them until the earl's death in 1439.
A considerable amount is known about Elizabeth's daily life as a result of the survival of her household accounts for 1420–21. The autumn and winter were spent at Berkeley, but at the end of March Elizabeth and her daughters travelled to Walthamstow in Essex to join her husband, and they spent two months there before the earl's return to France. Apart from a rapid journey to Wotton, presumably on business, she remained in London until her appearance before the council in July after which she travelled west to Salwarpe near Worcester. The accounts give details of the structure and organization of the household, the exercise of hospitality, costs and consumption of food, and standards of living.
Elizabeth died on 28 December 1422, and was buried at Kingswood Abbey. Her husband provided in his will for a marble tomb to be built over her grave. The inscription described her as the daughter and heir of Thomas, Lord Berkeley and Lisle. She and the earl had three daughters: Margaret was born in 1404 and married John Talbot, afterwards earl of Shrewsbury, in 1425; Eleanor was born in 1408, and married Thomas, Lord Ros, some time after 17 December 1423, and, after his death in 1430, Edmund Beaufort, later duke of Somerset, before 7 March 1438; and Elizabeth was born c.1417 and married George Neville, Lord Latimer, before February 1437.
Elizabeth's daughters renewed their claim to the entailed Berkeley estates after their father's death in 1439, and the 1440s witnessed litigation and violence. Margaret, countess of Shrewsbury, was especially energetic in pressing the claim, and it was as a result of her action that Lady Berkeley was committed to prison at Gloucester in 1452 where she died soon afterwards. After the death of James, Lord Berkeley, eleven years later, Margaret carried on the dispute with William, Lord Berkeley. After her own death in 1467 her grandson Thomas, Lord Lisle, challenged Lord Berkeley to a military solution, but was killed at the ensuing battle of Nibley Green in 1470. |