Isabel Berkeley

Biography

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Mede

Philip Mede married Isabel, the daughter of Philip Ricard, of Bristol, merchant. Their children included:

Isabel Mede (d.1516/17), who in 1465[7] married secondly Maurice Berkeley, de jure 3rd Baron Berkeley (1435-1506), of Thornbury in Gloucestershire, the younger brother and heir apparent of William de Berkeley, 1st Marquess of Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley of Berkeley Castle. The latter considered that his brother had married beneath his social status and, regardless of the assistance received from Philip Mede at the Battle of Nibley Green, disinherited him. Maurice Berkeley never bore the title Baron Berkeley, although he is deemed by later historians to have been his brother's valid heir and de jure 3rd Baron Berkeley. John Smith of Nibley (d.1641), steward of the Berkeley estates, the biographer of the family and author of "Lives of the Berkeleys" wrote as follows concerning the disinheritance:[8]

"How little cause the Marquis Berkeley had to complain of the obscure parentage of the lady Isable, which he vainly called base, and of the unworthiness of his brother's match with so mean blood as he reproached it, making that a motive to his own vast expenses, and of the disinheritance of this Lord his brother, lest any of her base blood should inherit after him, may to his further reproof be returned upon his memory, to be but a feigned and unbrotherly quarrel picked on purpose to give colour to his own exorbitances. Like vain were his exceptions to his said brother and heir, for defending the virtue of his wife and worthiness of her parentage. She was a virtuous lady, and evermore content with better or harder fortunes."[9]

Maurice later managed to recover over 50 manors and other lands which had been alienated illegally by his brother.[10]

By her deceased first husband she was the mother of three children who had all died young.

She was the heir of her brother Richard Mede and thus was heir to his lands in Somerset, and the lease of Medes Place for 21 years, with other lands and tenements in the Gloucestershire, in Bedminster, Felonde, Ashton, Wraxale, and Middle Tykenham.[1]

Isabel died in 1516/17 aged 70, [SIC: 29 May 1514] at Coventry, having survived her second husband for 19 years. Her body was carried with great pomp[1] to the City of London and was buried by his side in the Austin Friars.[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Berkeley,_3rd_Baron_Berkeley

In 1465 Maurice married Isabel Mede (1444 - 29 May 1514), the daughter of Philip Mede (c.1415-1475) of Wraxall Place in the parish of Wraxall in Somerset, MP, an Alderman of Bristol and thrice Mayor of Bristol, in 1458-9, 1461-2 and 1468-9. Philip Mede was a merchant, and although a very wealthy man, was therefore considered to be below the social rank of gentry, which caused Maurice's brother to disinherit him for supposedly bringing the noble family of Berkeley into disrepute.[12] In fact Philip Mede had provided valuable financing and had provided soldiers (and his nephews William Mede and Thomas Meade went up there, around 1470, perhaps to provide assistance) to fight on the side of William Berkeley, 1st Marquess of Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley in the Battle of Nibley Green, a private battle over the inheritance of the Berkeley estates with his cousin Thomas Talbot, 2nd Viscount Lisle.

By his wife he had four children:

1. Sir Maurice Berkeley, de jure 4th Baron Berkeley (1467 - 12 September 1523), eldest son and heir, who was made a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of King Henry VIII in 1509. In 1484 he married Catherine Berkeley, a daughter of Sir William de Berkeley of Stoke Gifford in Gloucestershire.
2. Thomas Berkeley, de jure 5th Baron Berkeley (1472 - 22 January 1532), 2nd son, who was knighted on 9 September 1513 by Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey at the Battle of Flodden. He married firstly in 1505 to Alienor Constable (c. 1485 - d. 1540), widow of John Ingleby of Yorkshire and daughter of Marmaduke Constable by his wife Joyce Stafford. He married secondly to Cecily Arnold, a daughter and co-heiress to Sir .... Arnold of Gloucestershire, and widow of Richard Rowdon, Sheriff of Gloucestershire.
3. James Berkeley (b. after 1472 - d. 1515), who in about 1498 married Susan FitzAlan, daughter of Sir William FitzAlan, a son of William FitzAlan, 16th Earl of Arundel by his wife Joan Neville.
4. Anne Berkeley (d.1560), who married Sir William Denys (1470–1533) of Dyrham, Gloucestershire, a courtier of King Henry VIII and Sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1518 and 1526.

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References

• http://www.gurganus.org/ourfamily/browse.cfm?fid=31635 (source)
• http://thepeerage.com/p2756.htm cites

1. [S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume II, page 135. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
2. [S6] Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume II, page 136

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Mede
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Berkeley,_3rd_Baron_Berkeley
• Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families; 2nd Edition. Page 184. < GoogleBooks >