View source for Richard Beauchamp, 1st Earl of Worcester

{{Short description|English noble}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
[[File:BeauchampArmsWithCrescentDifference.PNG|thumb|200px|Arms of Richard de Beauchamp, Earl of Worcester (died 1422): ''Gules, a fesse between six [[Cross|crosses crosslet]] or a crescent sable for difference''. These are the Beauchamp arms [[Difference (heraldry)|differenced]] by a crescent for a second son, to distinguish them from those of the senior line, the Earls of Warwick <ref>Source: As per his seal ("Beauchamp with crescent on the fesse & Despencer quarterly") affixed to Cardiff Inspeximus 20 April 1421, published as {{cite book|last=Clark|first=G.T. |year=1910|chapter=Charter no.MCXVI|title=Cartae et Alia Munimenta Quae ad Dominium de Glamorgancia Pertinent|location=Cardiff|series=Charters DCCCCLII-MCXCIV|volume=4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/cartaeetaliamuni04claruoft/page/1486 1486]–88|url=https://archive.org/details/cartaeetaliamuni04claruoft|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/cartaeetaliamuni04claruoft#page/1486/mode/2up }}</ref>]]
'''Richard de Beauchamp, Earl of Worcester''', [[Knight of the Bath|KB]] ({{circa|1394}} – {{circa|18}} March 1421/1422) was an [[England|English]] [[Peerage|peer]].
The only son of [[William de Beauchamp, 1st Baron Bergavenny]] and [[Joan de Beauchamp, Baroness Bergavenny]]. William Beauchamp was the fourth son of the Earl of Warwick, and he had purchased the [[marcher lordship]] of Bergavenny from the Hastings family shortly before it died out in the male line. Joan FitzAlan was a daughter of [[Richard FitzAlan, 11th Earl of Arundel]], who was executed by [[Richard II]] shortly before the latter's deposition. Joan was married to William in 1392 when she was 17 and he 55. There were certainly political dimensions as both families had been involved in the [[Lords Appellant]] and were also major landowners in the West Midlands and the [[Welsh Marches]].
Documentation about Richard Beauchamp's life, particularly his young life, is scarce. His father died when he was 17, but he was outlived by his mother. Due to a conveyance executed by his parents and their lawyers, a few years before his father's death, the Bergavenny entail was temporarily broken. Joan Beauchamp would enjoy by jointure and survivorship rights for life to the entirety of the lordship of Bergavenny; the lordship, castle, manor, town and all lands attached to the lordship were hers for life, rather than passing to his son in full or 2/3 during his mother's life.
During her widowhood (1411–1435), Richard's mother Joan enjoyed ownership of the lordship, castle, manor, town, appurtenances and attached lands, acquired an armed, liveried following and actively sought to expand her holdings. In legal documents, she was referred to as "Domina de Bergavenny" ("domina" being Latin feminine for "lord" or "dominus" and thus carrying a stronger connotation than "lady" in English which typically implied a style, not a title"). After his majority in 1416, Richard was never summoned to parliament as the lord of Bergavenny although his father had been, and his descendants would.
On 27 July 1411, he married [[Isabel le Despenser, Countess of Worcester|Lady Isabel le Despenser]], daughter of [[Thomas le Despenser, 1st Earl of Gloucester]], and great-granddaughter of [[Edward III]]. They had one child, [[Elizabeth de Beauchamp, Baroness Bergavenny|Lady Elizabeth de Beauchamp]], later 3rd Baroness Bergavenny, who married [[Edward Nevill, 1st Baron Bergavenny (second creation)|Sir Edward Neville]], later 1st Baron Bergavenny. He was joint [[Warden of the Welsh Marches]] in 1415, and a captain of lances and archers in Normandy in 1418. In February 1420/1, he was created [[Earl of Worcester]].<ref name="cokayne">{{cite book | last=Cokayne | first=George E. | author-link=George Cokayne |editor-last=Gibbs |editor-first=Vicary |editor-link=Vicary Gibbs (St Albans MP) | title=The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant | volume=I, Ab-Adam to Basing | publisher=St. Catherine Press | location=London | year=1910 | url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015066332571 |pages=26–27}}</ref>
Worcester was mortally wounded on 18 March 1421/2 at the [[Siege of Meaux]] and died soon after. His body was taken back to England and he was buried on 25 April 1422 at [[Tewkesbury]], [[Gloucestershire]]. His daughter inherited his estates, although she didn't inherit Bergavenny until her grandmother, whose sole heir she was, died in 1435<ref name="cokayne" />
==Ancestry==
{{ahnentafel
|collapsed=yes |align=center
|boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;
|boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;
|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;
|boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;
|boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe;
|1= 1. '''Richard de Beauchamp, Earl of Worcester'''
|2= 2. [[William de Beauchamp, 1st Baron Bergavenny]]
|3= 3. [[Joan FitzAlan]]
|4= 4. [[Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick]]
|5= 5. [[Katherine Mortimer]]
|6= 6. [[Richard FitzAlan, 11th Earl of Arundel]]
|7= 7. [[Elizabeth de Bohun]]
|8= 8. [[Guy de Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick]]
|9= 9. [[Alice de Toeni]]
|10= 10. [[Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March]]
|11= 11. [[Joan de Geneville, 2nd Baroness Geneville]]
|12= 12. [[Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel]]
|13= 13. [[Eleanor of Lancaster]]
|14= 14. [[William de Bohun, 1st Earl of Northampton]]
|15= 15. [[Elizabeth de Badlesmere]]
|16= 16. [[William de Beauchamp, 9th Earl of Warwick]]
|17= 17. [[Maud FitzJohn]]
|18= 18. [[Ralph VII de Toeni, Lord Toeni of Flamsted]]
|19= 19. Mary ??
|20= 20. [[Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Mortimer]]
|21= 21. [[Margaret de Fiennes]]
|22= 22. Sir Piers de Genevelle
|23= 23. [[Jeanne of Lusignan]]
|24= 24. [[Edmund FitzAlan, 9th Earl of Arundel]]
|25= 25. [[Alice de Warenne]]
|26= 26. [[Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster]]
|27= 27. [[Maud Chaworth]]
|28= 28. [[Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford]]
|29= 29. [[Elizabeth of Rhuddlan]]
|30= 30. [[Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Baron Badlesmere]]
|31= 31. [[Margaret de Clare, Baroness Badlesmere|Margaret de Clare]]
}}
== References ==
{{reflist}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-reg|en}}
{{s-new|creation}}
{{s-ttl| title=[[Earl of Worcester]] | years=1421–1422}}
{{s-non|reason=Extinct}}
{{succession box | title=[[Baron Bergavenny]] | before=[[William de Beauchamp, 1st Baron Bergavenny|William de Beauchamp]] | after=[[Elizabeth de Beauchamp, Lady of Abergavenny|Elizabeth Nevill]] | years=1411–1422}}
{{s-end}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Worcester, Richard de Beauchamp, Earl of}}
[[Category:1390s births]]
[[Category:1420s deaths]]
[[Category:15th-century English nobility]]
[[Category:Earls of Worcester]]
[[Category:Beauchamp family|Richard]]
[[Category:Knights of the Bath]]
[[Category:Barons Bergavenny (Peerage of England)]]
[[Category:Lords of Glamorgan]]