Noble family Beauchamp Mother Alice de Toeni | Name Thomas Beauchamp, | |
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Father Guy de Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick Died November 13, 1369, Calais, France Spouse Katherine Mortimer, Countess of Warwick (m. 1319–1369) Children Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick Parents Guy de Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick, Alice de Toeni, Countess of Warwick Grandchildren Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick Similar People Richard Beauchamp - 13th Earl, Isabella de Beauchamp, Roger Mortimer - 1st Earl of |
Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick, KG (c. 14 February 1313 – 13 November 1369) was an English nobleman and military commander during the Hundred Years' War. In 1348 he became one of the founders and the third Knight of the Order of the Garter.
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Early life
Thomas de Beauchamp was born at Warwick Castle, Warwickshire, England to Guy de Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick and Alice de Toeni. He served in Scotland frequently during the 1330s, being captain of the army against the Scots in 1337. He was hereditary High Sheriff of Worcestershire from 1333 until his death (in 1369). In 1344 he was also made High Sheriff of Warwickshire and Leicestershire for life.
Victor at Crécy and Poitiers
Warwick was Marshall of England from 1343/4 until 1369, and was one of the commanders at the great English victories at Crécy and Poitiers.
Thomas de Beauchamp fought in all the French wars of King Edward III; he commanded the centre at the Battle of Crecy (where many of his relatives were killed including his younger half-brother Alan la Zouche de Mortimer). He was trusted to be guardian of the sixteen-year-old Black Prince. Beauchamp fought at Poitiers in 1356 and at the Siege of Calais (1346).
He began the rebuilding of the Collegiate Church of Saint Mary in Warwick using money received from the ransom of a French Archbishop. He died of plague in Calais on 13 November 1369 and was entombed in the Beauchamp Chapel. The chapel contains the finest example of the use of brisures for cadency in medieval heraldry—seven different Beauchamp coats of arms.
Marriage and children
He married Katherine Mortimer, daughter of Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March. They had five sons and ten daughters:
Catherine Grandison, Countess of Salisbury was not his daughter, although she is presented as such in William Painter's Palace of Pleasure and in the Elizabethan play Edward III, that may be by William Shakespeare.
Death
Beauchamp's wife Katherine died on 4 August 1369. Beauchamp died three months later, on 13 November 1369, of the Black Death and was buried alongside his wife at St. Mary's Church, Warwick, Warwickshire.