- John de Beauchamp, 1st Baron Beauchamp (fourth creation)
Sir John de Beauchamp, 1st Baron Beauchamp of Kidderminster, (died
1388 ), was an administrator and landowner. He came fromHolt, Worcestershire , and belonged to a cadet branch of the great family of Beauchamp, whose head was theEarl of Warwick . He was the son of another John (born1319 ), whom he succeeded in the 1360s. A favourite of the ailing KingEdward III , in the years 1370 to 1375 he received several grants of offices, including the constableship ofBridgnorth Castle . He was elected forWorcestershire to Edward III's last parliament (January1377 ) and Richard II's first (October 1377).Richard II regarded him warmly, and acted as godfather to his son. Retained in the household, Beauchamp soon received substantial further patronage, and by
1384 he had been made Receiver of the Chamber and Keeper of the King's Jewels. He took the order of knighthood on Richard II's entry into Scotland in1385 . That December he was granted for life the office ofJusticiar of North Wales , to which was added in August1386 a charter of liberties within his recently purchased estate atKidderminster . Even though the Commons demanded in October that a new Steward of the Household be appointed only in parliament, Richard II refused to comply, and in January1387 he promoted Beauchamp to the stewardship. Even more provocative was Sir John's creation on 10 October following as ‘Lord of Beauchamp and Baron of Kidderminster’, a new dignity to be maintained from the estates of Deerhurst Priory. This was the first creation of a peerage byletters patent .Beauchamp's rapid rise from esquire to baron could not be borne by the
Lords Appellant , who included his kinsman, Thomas Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick. The latter probably saw the rise of his cousin as a threat to his dominance of the midlands. [Saul 179] Arrested and imprisoned along with three other household knights, Lord Beauchamp [Although the Lords Appellant disregarded his peerage and addressed him simply as a knight (Ross 564).] was impeached in theMerciless Parliament in1388 and condemned by the lords for treason. He was beheaded onTower Hill and buried inWorcester Cathedral . Fortunately for his heir,John Beauchamp, 2nd Baron Beauchamp of Kidderminster , then aged eleven, he had entailed certain of his manors, so these were exempt from forfeiture. [Ross 563-564]Notes
References
*
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
*cite book | author=anon. | editor=Page, W. | year=1913 | title=Victoria County History : A History of the County of Worcester, Vol. III | pages=403-4 | chapter=Holt | chapterurl=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43144
*cite journal | first=C. D. | last=Ross | title=Forfeiture for Treason in the Reign of Richard II | journal=English Historical Review | volume=71 | pages=560–575 | year=1956 | doi=10.1093/ehr/LXXI.281.560
*
*cite book | first=Nigel | last=Saul | title=Richard II | isbn-0300078757 | year=1987[{Category:1388 deaths]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.