Richard Beauchamp, 2nd Baron Beauchamp of

Powick Powick is a village and civil parish in the Malvern Hills district of Worcestershire, England, located two miles south of the city of Worcester and four miles north of Great Malvern. The parish includes the village of Callow End and the hamlets ...

( 1435 – 19 January 1502/3) was an English peer.

Family origins

He was the son of

John Beauchamp, 1st Baron Beauchamp (fifth creation) John Beauchamp, 1st Baron Beauchamp of Powick, KG (died April 1475), was an English nobleman and administrator. He was the son and eventual heir of Sir William Beauchamp of Powick in Worcestershire ( – ), Constable of Gloucester Castle, by hi ...

, 1st Lord of Powick (d. 1475) and Margaret de Ferrers, possibly daughter of

Edmund de Ferrers, 6th Baron Ferrers of Chartley Edmund de Ferrers, 6th Baron Ferrers of Chartley (1386–1435) was the son of Robert de Ferrers, 5th Baron Ferrers of Chartley and Margaret Le Despenser, a daughter of Edward le Despencer, 1st Baron le Despencer. He inherited the title of Baron F ...

Career

As Sir Richard Beauchamp, of

Kemerton Kemerton is a village and civil parish in Worcestershire in England. It lies at the extreme south of the county in the local government district of Wychavon. Until boundary changes in 1931, it formed part of neighbouring Gloucestershire, and it ...

and Boddington, he threw aside his father's Lancastrian ties to hold the gates of

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

closed against Queen Margaret on the morning of Friday, 3 May 1471, so denying her army use of the Severn Bridge and an escape route into Wales. As she moved north he harried the Lancastrian rear and captured some weapons on the road to Tewkesbury. He fought at the

battle of Tewkesbury The Battle of Tewkesbury, which took place on 4 May 1471, was one of the decisive battles of the Wars of the Roses in England. King Edward IV and his forces loyal to the House of York completely defeated those of the rival House of Lancaster ...

and was knighted. Soon after, his adulterous wife, Elizabeth, was accused of conspiring his death, with her relation and Beauchamp's litigious neighbour, Thomas Burdet. John Stacey and Thomas Blake were also involved and all three were later accused of imagining the King's death. Burdet and Stacey were hanged at Tyburn. Blake was pardoned.

Family

On 27 January 1447 in his private chapel at Beauchamp's Court,

Alcester Alcester () is a market town and civil parish of Roman origin at the junction of the River Alne and River Arrow in the Stratford-on-Avon District in Warwickshire, England, approximately west of Stratford-upon-Avon, and 7 miles south of Redditc ...

, Warwickshire he married Elizabeth, daughter of Humphrey Stafford of Grafton by special licence. Their children were: * Sir John, died young * Elizabeth (d.1503), married,

Robert Willoughby, 2nd Baron Willoughby de Broke Robert Willoughby, 2nd Baron Willoughby de Broke and ''de jure'' 10th Baron Latimer, (1472 – 10 November 1521) was an English nobleman and soldier. Robert Willoughby was born about 1470–1472 (aged 30 in 1502, 36 in 1506), the son of Sir ...

(d. 1521), * Anne, married, Richard Lygon, of Madresfield, Worcs * Margaret, married, William Rede of Gloucester (father of Richard Rede/Reade). Beauchamp died on 19 January 1502/1503, at BroomhillDouglas Richardson: Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd Edition 2011 when the Barony expired. His three surviving daughters, Elizabeth, Margaret and Anne, became his co-heirs.

References

Barons in the Peerage of England Knights of the Garter 15th-century English people 1430s births 1500s deaths 16th-century English nobility

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Frankish language, Old Frankish and is a Compound (linguistics), compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' an ...

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