THE BERKELEYS.—(IN THE FEUDAL TIME.)
rE Berkeleys are, perhaps, the very best representatives of the popular idea of the "barons bold." They are, according to the most probable account, the descendants of a Danish pirate, or- sea-king, whichever he was, who turned tradesman in Bristol, and for generations they have been able barons, men proud and pug- nacious to the last degree, guilty occasionally of most forms of evil except skulking, fighting kings, fighting barons, extending their territories by every means, and holding their own by main force, but with something of high chivalry and clearsightedness too. As nobles go, they must be accepted as belonging to the blue blood of England, for they are certainly,—and by certainty we imply proof quite outside what peerage-makers accept as evidence, —the descendants of Robert Fitz-Harding, who, in the reign of Stephen, made himself a baron by the strong hand, and they may be entitled to trace a still more ancient lineage. Their history is as old as that of England, and they are of the few remaining Houses which resisted John and extortedMagna Charta. WhoFitz -Harding was is not quite so certain, but it is fairly established that he was the son of one Harding, who died in 1115, filled the office of Prepositor, 1. e., Pmepositus of Bristol, and is sometimes called " Consul " and " Patricius." The name " Prepositor " seems to have been given for a considerable time to the chief magistrate or bailiff of many English towns. He was the representative of the King or other lord of the town, and, according to Madox, superintended the estates and levied the revenues. He is usually placed in the reign of William the Conqueror, but others place hitn in the reign of Edward the Con- fessor. In either case there is a chronological difficulty, which Seyer, who has examined the whole subject very minutely and skilfully in his "History of Bristol," can only explain by supposing that the grandfather as well as the father of Robert Fitz-Harding bore the name of Harding, and that they were in succession Preposi- tors of Bristol. There are several accounts of the origin of Harding of Bristol. According to one, very commonly found in chronicle- writers, and in genealogists of the Berkeleys, he was a younger son of one of the Kings of Denmark. Sweyn Estrith, the nephew of Canute, is usually selected for this purpose, but Seyer has com- pletely exploded this idea, as well as the whole theory of the Royal paternity of Harding. The next theory is that he is the same with Harding, the son of Elnoth " Stallarius,” the "Stallard," or Master of the Horse to Edward the Confessor and Harold, a Saxon, who was killed in opposing an invasion of the West by Harold's sons, two or three years after the battle of Hastings. This is a much more tenable hypothesis than the former, but seems, on the whole, improbable. The family still possess many deeds of purchases of lands, &c., by Robert Fitz-Harding, in none of which does he trace his pedigree back farther than Harding,— which he would probably have done had he been the grandson or descendant of so distinguished a landed proprietor as Elnoth the Stallard appears from Domesday to have been. And from the same deeds it seems that Robert Fitz-Harding himself purchased all his estates, which points to money, and not land, as the founda- tion of Ilarding's position. On the whole, the probability seems to be that the general tradition that Harding was of Danish origin is correct, and that he sprang from some sea-rever, —possibly "sea-king,"—who, combining, as many of them did, the parts of pirate and merchant, settled ultimately in the latter capacity in Bristol, and who (or a descendant) by his wealth rose to the position in which we find Harding in the Conqueror's reign. Harding, who died in 1115, was succeeded by his son Robert Fitz-Harding, who by some (but not old) authori- ties is said to have also served the office of Prepositor of Bristol. He lived first in Broad Street, and afterwards re- removed to a great stone house which he built on the Frome. This rests on the authority of an old Latin deed in the charturlary of St. Augustine, Bristol, which runs as follows :—" Robert, son of Harding, to all his liegemen and trusty and friends, greeting. Know ye that I have given and granted to my [son] Maurice the land which I had in Brist, of the barony of Ric. Foliot, which Bosse held, and the land which I had of the barony of Ricer. de Saint Quintin in Great Street [High Street,—there is still " Small " Street], and the land which I bad of the barony of Gilbert de Umfravill, to him and his heirs to have and to hold heredi- tarily, as they were granted to me by the lords of those lands, saving the service of the lords of the same lands. And also the land which I had in ' Bradestrete,' in which I first dwelt, and the whole establishment which I there bad, and also the great stone house which I built upon Frome, I have given to the same Mau- rice, my son, provided that Eva, my wife, shall hold that land during her life, and after her death it revert freely and peaceably to Maurice my son and his heirs [the MS. unintelligible], together with the land in which I had a bakehouse by the wall as you go towards St. James [? the town wall near Bridewell], and with the other possessions which I have given to him, as well in the town of Brist' as without."
Until 1247 the river From ran through Baldwin's Street, so that Fitz-Harding's great stone house was in a place which was afterwards a part of Baldwin Street. Maurice's widow bequeathed this stone house to the Abbey of St. Augustine. It probably, as Mr. Seyer conjectures, looked in front on the marsh which extended to the hill of Billeswick, now the College green, from which place the house was not 503 paces distant, the back looking on Baldwin Street, or, as it then was, a branch of the river Frome. According to Leland, Harding and Fitz-Harding had a "fair house" also in the country, afterwards "Sneed Park " and "Sea Mills," the spot on which stood the ancient Roman town Abona. Robert Fitz-Harding married Eva, whom some accounts call the daughter of Sir Estmond and the Lady Godiva, with the fabulous addition that one of these ladies was the sister of William the Conqueror. By Eva he had five sons and two daughters. The miserable civil wars between Stephen and Matilda kept the county of Gloucester in a continual state of turmoil and anarchy. The West of England generally stood for Matildi, as the East did, on the whole, for Stephen, and Bristol and London were the respective capitals of the two parties. The former city was held by Earl Robert of Gloucester, Matilda's half-brother, who was the castellan thereof, and the citizens warmly adhered to the Angevin party. Robert Fitz-Harding especially is said to have granted largely out of his hoards of money towards the support of that cause. In 1142 Prince henry, then a boy of nine years old, came to Bristol, where he is said to have stayed four years, and, according to the tradition, there received his education, at the house of one Matthews, a schoolmaster in Baldwin's Street, or rather on the bank of the Frome. There is also a tradition that he thus formed the acquaintance of Robert Fitz-Harding, which, considering the part taken by the latter in his service, is most probable. In the year 1140 Fitz-Harding began to build the Abbey of St. Augustine. His wealth was already very great. Besides money, he had many large estates in lands. He possessed in Gloucestershire the manors of Mon and Horfield, of Ahnondsbury, Uley, Nibley, Siston, ThornbutT, where he built the body of the church and the tower, and dwelt at Roll's Place, Beverstone, Elberton, King's Weston, which was ancient demesne of the Crown, and which, together with Beverstone, he settled on Robert, his second son, the manor of Bray, in Devonshire, purchased by him of William de Braiose ; the manor and advowson of Portbury, in Somerset, purchased of Richard de If oreville ; the manor and advowson of Were, in the same county, purchased of Julian de Borton, and various other estates, besides what he had in Bristol and its immediate neigh- bourhood, viz., the manor of Byleswike, purchased from the Earl of Gloucester, whereon he built his new abbey ; the manor of Lega [Abbott's Leigh], near Bristol, a member of the manor of Bed. minster ; the manor of Bechnioster itself, which he purchased from the Earl of Gloucester ; and "divers lands, tenements, and rents in Bristowe and Radeclyve." A still more important grant was soon afterwards made to him. One of the principal adhe- rents of Stephen in Gloucestershire was Roger de Berkeley, Baron of the manor of that name, onerof the greatest manors in England, having at the time of Domesday Book attached to it several subordinate manors, such as Camne, Dursley, Cowley, Uley, Nymphsfield, Wootton, Kingscot, Ouzleworth, Almondsbury, &c. There was also at Berchelai or Berkeley a market, 17 vassals or homagers dwelling in it, who paid their tax in the rent, which rent or farm paid by Roger de Berchelai or Berkeley (the holder at the time of the survey) to the Crown was 170!., which for the purchase of commodities would now be worth between 2,001/. and 3,000/. Roger, the descendant of this Roger de Berkeley, was seized by Walter of Hereford, a retainer of the Earl of Glouces- ter, some time between 1144 and 1117, and after being subjected to cruel indignities and tortures before his own residence in order to compel him to give up his estates, was carried prisoner to Bris- tol. The Empress Matilda and her son Henry after this granted to Robert Fitz-Harding in discharge of his disbursements iii their service, first one hundred pounds land out of Beeteley manor, with the manor of Bilton, and the liberty of building or strengthening a castle at Berkeley, and he became, according to the original grant of Henry, his men, that is, a baron of the realm. Afterwards the whole lordship or honour of Berkeley was taken from Roger de Berkeley and given to Robert Fitz-Harding, with the exception of the dependent manor of Dursley, which Roger was allowed to re- tain, and from this time he subsided into Baron of Dursley. But either Roger himself, after his release, or a son of the same name, seems to have led the new citizen Baron of Berkeley so unquiet a life, that it is even s lid that Fitz.Harding petitioned Henry on that account to take back the barony. How- ever this may be, it is certaiu that after Henry and Ste- phen came to an agreement, an arrangement was entered into respecting the disputed barony, and a contract made "be- tween Sir Robert Fitz-Harding, Lord and Baron of Berkeley, and Sir Roger of Berkeley, Lord and Baron of Dursley, in the house of Robert Fitz-Harding at Bristowe, and in the presence of King Stephen, and of Henry Duke of Normandy, and Earl of Anjou, and by his assent, and in the presence of many others, both clerks and laymen." By this contract it was agreed that Maurice, eldest son and heir of Robert Fitz-Harding, should marry Alice, daughter of Roger de Berkeley, receiving with her the town of Slimebrigge, and that Robert, son and heir of Roger de Berkeley, should marry Helena, daughter of Robert Fitz-Harding. And it was mutually agreed that Alice should have 20/. a year in land of the fee of Berkeley for her dower, and Helena was to have the manor of Siston assigned to her in dower. Whereupon all right in the barony of Berkeley was voluntarily released by the Lord Dursley. It is doubtful whether the Castle of Berkeley was first built by Robert Fitz-Harding or only repaired and restored by him,—pro- bably the latter. The agreement and marriage contract between the rival families must have been concluded at the very end of 1153 or the very beginning of 1154. In 1168 Robert Fitz.11arding en-
tertained at Bristol Dermot MacMurrogh, King of Leinster, with sixty in his company, when he came over to solicit succours from Henry IL He died in 1170, his wife Eva, who survived him till
1173, founding a religious house called the Magdalena, "by Bristol," afterwards the King David Inn on St. Michael's Hill.
• Their second surviving son, Robert, became Baron of Were, in Somerset. His possessions, swollen by successive marriages, &c., passed through successive heiresses into various families, and ultimately in Henry VIII.'s reign vested in the Percevals, afterwards Earls of Egmont.
Maurice, eldest surviving son and successor of Robert Fitz-Hard- ing as second Baron of Berkeley (by tenure) of that family, assumed the name of "De Berkeley," probably on his marriage with Alice de Berkeley. He removed from Bristol to Berkeley Castle, which he fortified, and paid, in 1189, 1,000 marks fine to the King for confirmation of his title to Berkeley and Berkeley " Hernease " (or lordship). By his wife Alice be had six sons. He was succeeded as third Baron (by tenure) by his eldest son Robert, who
in 1191 paid the King 1,0001. for livery of his inheritance. Again in 1199 he paid 60 marks for a confirmation thereof, and for a charter of fairs in his manor of Berkeley. He was constable of the
castle of Bristol. He joined the Barons against King John, but made his peace with the King in 15th John. Two years afterwards he was again in arms with the Barons, and was one of those who invited Prince Lewis of France into England and swore allegiance to him. He was excommunicated by the Pope, and his castle and lands seized, and the profits thereof appropriated to the
maintenance of the castle of Bristol. The next year, however, he obtained a safe-conduct to come to the King, who was at Berkeley
Castle, made his submission, and obtained a grant of his manor of Came, in Dorsetshire, for the support of his wife. On the accession of Henry III. Robertde Betkeley for a fine of 966/. 13s. 4d.
made his peace, and was restored to all his lands except the castle and town of Berkeley. He was a great benefactor of the Church, and died in 1219 without issue, being succeeded by his brother Thomas, who in 1223 obtained the restoration of the castle and town of Berkeley. He also was a benefactor of the Church, and died in 1243, and was succeeded as fifth Baron by his eldest son Maurice, who paid 1,000/. for his relief, and, doing homage, had livery of his inheritance. He had accompanied his father in the wars in France, and in the 41st Henry III. was in Prince Edward's expedition against the Welsh, and he served against Llewellyn in the three following years.
In the 45th Henry III. he obtained a grant of 40 marks yearly pension out of the Exchequer until the King should better provide for him. In the 46th Henry III. he obtained a charter for free warren in his lordship of Wendon, in Essex (part of the marriage- portion of Isabel his wife), with the right to hold a weekly market and yearly fair there. This Isabel was the daughter of Maurice de Creoun, a great baron of Lincolnshire. He was by his marriage connected with the Royal family, for his wife's mother, Isabel, was sister to William de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, and half-sister to King Henry. Nevertheless Maurice de Berkeley joined the Barons against the King, and all his lands were seized by the latter. In the 48th Henry III. the King, having a respect to "his beloved niece,' as he calls Berkeley's wife, assigned to her two manors for her maintenance, and in 55th Henry III. Maurice de Berkeley himself obtained a Royal pardon. He died April 4, 1281, leaving his eldest son and heir, Thomas, thirty years old. This Thomas, sixth Baron Berkeley by tenure and first by writ of summons (June 24, 1295), was almost constantly engaged in the Welsh. Scotch, and French wars. He was present at the third con- vention held at Norham in 1291 to determine the confficting claims to the succession of Scotland. Four years afterwards he was one of those sent to make a truce with the King of France, and the next year was made Constable of England. He was at the battle of Falkirk in 1298, and in the same year in consideration of his services he had a pardon of a fine of 500 marks inflicted on him for trespasses committed by him in the chase near Bristol. He had previously had licence to hunt the fox, hare, badger, and wild cat with his own dogs in the King's forests of Mendip. and chase of Kingswood. He was also subsequently to his Scotch services pardoned a " debt " of 65/. which he "owed the King." He was one of the Barons who in 1301 signed the famous letter to the Pope, and in 35th Edward I. was sent ambassador, along with the Bishop of Worcester, and accompanied by his two sons, to the Court of Rome respecting affairs in France. He had been constantly employed during Edward L's reign in expeditions to Scotland. In the next reign he was similarly employed, and was at the battle of Bannockburn, in which he was made prisoner, and paid a large fine for his release. He continued to have yearly summons to the Scotch wars, and in one of them, as Justiciary of West Wales and possessor of lands there, he is re- quired to furnish 1,000 foot soldiers. He afterwards, in the disputes between the King and the Barons, adhered to Thomas Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster, who was in arms against the favourites ; but died during the struggle, July 23, 1321.
Maurice and his son Maurice had violent disputes with the bur- gesses of Bristol, originally on disputed rights over Redcliff. This
was a subordinate manor dependent on the manor of Bedminster, of which latter manor Robert Earl of Gloucester granted to the Knights Templars that part which was afterwards the parish of Temple, and which then became a separate manor, called Temple-fee ; the remainder, still called Redcliff, partly within the bounds of the viii and partly without, he sold to Robert Fitz-Harding. Both Fitz-Harding and his son Maurice granted charters to their "Men of Redcliff," giving them similar privileges to those enjoyed by the citizens of Bristol, and the manor seems to have been considered as under their lordship, until in 1239 the city of Bristol obtained a grant from the Abbot of St. Augustine's of the adjoining marsh, now the site of Queen's Square, and the course of the Frome having been diverted into a new channel, and a stone bridge built over the Avon, a partial incorporation of Bristol and Redcliff took place about the year 1247. "The burgesses of Redcliff became burgesses of Bristol, and were tallaged with them, and the place was con- sidered to be within the rule of Bristol and a suburb of it ; the mayor and burgesses of Bristol held court also in Redcliff Street, and had a prison there ; and they prevented, or endeavoured to prevent, any market being holden on that side of the river, and used all the means in their power to abolish the remaining dis- tinctions between the inhabitants of the two sides." Still the lords of Berkeley maintained a co-ordinate jurisdiction in Redcliff, held court, civil and criminal, in Redcliff Street, and had a prison and a pillory there, and the King's Justices recognized their feudal jurisdiction. The burgesses of Bristol, however, denied the right, and there were great disputes and counter-petitions respecting the exercise of the same by the Berkeleys, until in 1303 and 1304 a kind of civil war ensued between the two sides of the river, in which each party harassed the other with armed forces, and sometimes crossed the river and invaded each other's posses- sions. Thomas lord Berkeley and his son Maurice were at the com- mencement of this warfare with the King in Scotland, but they returned in 1304. Redcliff had been granted by I.ord Thomas to Maurice on his marriage, and the latter—being then 24 years of age—addressed a petition to the King, setting forth his alleged wrongs from the city of Bristol while he was under the King's protection in the wars of Scotland, and particularly that "Thomas de la'Grove, of Bristol, and 23 others, and many other malefactors and disturbers of the King's peace, called together by the ringing of the common bell of Bristol, in hostile manner came to his manor of Bedminster, assaulted, and entered into, and the doors and gates of the house brake, and his goods to the value of 500 marks did take and carry away, and violently rescued one Robert of Cornwall, attached by his, Maurice's, bailies for the death of Joseph of Winchelsea," &c., &c. But this was followed by counter-petitions from the burgess-s of 'Bristol, setting forth a long list of offences against them, on the part of the Berkeleys and their retainers ; that they had with great multitudes of horse and foot enforced the burgesses to do suit to their Court of Red- cliff Street, and had beaten those that refused, and drawing them out of their houses, cast them into a pit, and had so cast and trodden under their feet such wives and maidens as came to help their hus- bands and mistresses, that many of them were wounded and died, with many other deeds( of violence to individuals ; and that the Berkeley retainers had entered upon certain ships being in their water of St. Katherine's Pill, within the bounds of the town, ex- pecting a fair wind, and cut their ropes, anchors, and sails, under colour of distresses, as though the dominion of that water belonled to them, and not to the mayor and burgesses of Bristol, nor to the King. Adam, the cheesemonger, also h. burgess of Bristol, made his separate plaint against Maurice de Berkeley, William Parker, clerk, and others, for assaulting him in his house in Bristol, wounding and dragging him out of it, and casting him into a pit, and in a petition of William Randolph, late mayor of Bristol, the said Adam, the cheeseman, is said to have had his legs broken in such frightful manner that the marro.v came out of his shin-bones ; and in the same year (1305) the mayor and burgesses of Bristol petitioned Parliament, setting forth their grievances against the Berkeleys, and how William Randolph was by their procurement beaten and shamefully wounded at Dundrey fair, &c. The King's answer in Parliament was the appointment of two good men of sound understanding, along with the Constable of Bristol Castle; to examine into the disputes, and on their judgment the manor of Bedminster, with Redoliff Street and the hundred, were seized into the King's hands, and were not restored until the let Edward III. Thomas and Maurice de Berkeley were also indicted before the Justices of the county of Gloucester, and fined 1,000 marks for their acts of violence ; but on the 11th of July in the year following they had this fine pardoned them on undertaking to serve at their own charges against Robert le Bruce and his accomplices, the King's enemies—according to another authority the fine was 3,000 marks. A singular change, however, now took place in the aspect of affairs between Bristol and the Berkeleys. The burgesses of Bristol appear to have been brought by their late struggle into a state of chronic turbulence, and having succeeded in mulcting the Berkeleys they began to quarrel among themselves, and in 1312 broke into two parties ; one headed by William Randolph, the former mayor and opponent of the Berkeleys, who with thirteen other leading official and ex-official citizens of Bristol had got all the power into their own bands, and were supported by a considerable party, backed by the power of the constable of the castle ; and the other party consisting of a great majority of the com- monalty and many citizens of wealth and position. The immediate cause of the outbreak which ensued seems to have been the imposing by the Fourteen of certain tolls in the market and a custom called a cockett to be levied on the shipping for the King's use. An open act df violence occurred on the 2nd February, 1312, and soon after, July 7, the King took the franchises of the city into his own hands, and on September 30 appointed as Custos or temporary dictator the constable of the castle, Bartolomew de Baddlesmere,—a baron of great power and property, especially in Kent, but a man of brutal character, at whose door the catastrophe that followed is generally laid. He was refused admission into the town and prevented from exercising any authority there by the burgesses and a newly elected mayor, and they persisted in keep- ing him out until, in May, 1313, the King ordered the Sheriff of Gloucestershire no longer to make any return of writs to the mayor and bailiffs of Bristol, and on various petitions and counter- petitions appointed Thomas de Berkeley, the old opponent of the town, and four others, to settle the privileges of the town and compose matters. They met in the Guildhall, but the party of the commonalty objected to them as consisting partly of foreigners, and refusing to abide by their judgment, left the hall and harangued the mob outside; the common town bell was rung, the Guildhall was burst open, and the opposite party assailed with fists and sticks. Nearly twenty men were killed on the spot, and others broke their legs in escaping from the windows or leads. The judges themselves escaped with great difficulty. About eighty persons were indicted for this riot before the King's Justices at Gloucester, but they refused to appear, and remained in Bristol, which rose in actual revolt. Randolph and his party were driven out and his goods and property seized, and Richard de Langeton and others of the King's officers who ventured thither were thrown into prison. The insurgents built a wall and forts between the town and castle, and discharged missiles thence against the castle, and for more than two years they withstood all the menaces and armed attempts of the Crown, being headed by one John le Taverner as mayor. The Sheriffs of Gloucester- shire, Somerset, and Wilts were ordered by the King to raise- forces to reduce Bristol, and they collected upwards of 20,000 men, commanded by the Earl of Gloucester, in the spring of 1314. But the citizens knowing the King wanted the men for his war in Scotland, resisted so stoutly that the Earl was com- pelled to withdraw without effecting his purpose, and reinforce the King for his Bannockburn campaign. At last, after a vain attempt by Aylmer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, to persuade the citi- zens to submit, a new attempt was made to enforce the Royal • authority, Maurice de Berkeley was employed to cut off all com- munications by sea, and many other barons and knights and the constable of the castle carried on the siege by land. The citizens resisted for some little time, but their walls and houses being shattered by the engines, they at last surrendered at discretion, and the ringleaders were either imprisoned there or sent to the Tower of London. This was in the summer or autumn of 1316, and the King took the town into his own bands and kept it for some months, appointing Maurice de Berkeley as Custos of the town and castle. He is said by his family chroniclers to have exercised this dicta- torial power over his old enemies with great moderation, but the subsequent feeling of the burgesses towards him throws some doubt on this. Thus ended what was called The Great Insurrection.
The Berkeleys came out of it at the top, as they usually did out of most quarrels, being strong-handed people, and persevering, with an eye to perceive where ultimate power lay.
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