Family of Guy + of BEAUCHAMP and Alice + of TOENI

Husband:	Guy + of BEAUCHAMP (1272-1315)
Wife:	Alice + of TOENI (1284-1324)
Children:	Thomas + of BEAUCHAMP (1314-1369)
Marriage	1309	Warwick Castle, Warwick. Warwickshire, England

Husband: Guy + of BEAUCHAMP

Wife: Alice + of TOENI

Name:	Alice + of TOENI
Sex:	Female
Father:	Ralph + of TOENI (1251-1295)
Mother:	Mary + (1251- )
Birth	26 Apr 1284	Flamsted, Hertfordshire, England
Death	1 Jan 1324 (age 39)

Child 1: Thomas + of BEAUCHAMP

Note on Husband: Guy + of BEAUCHAMP

Guy de Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick (c. 1272 – 12 August 1315) was an English magnate, and one of the principal opponents of King Edward II and his favourite Piers Gaveston. Guy de Beauchamp was the son of William de Beauchamp, the first Beauchamp earl of Warwick, and succeeded his father in 1298. He distinguished himself at the Battle of Falkirk and subsequently, as a capable servant of the crown under King Edward I. After the succession of Edward II in 1307, however, he soon fell out with the new king and the king's favourite Piers Gaveston. Warwick was one of the main architects behind the Ordinances of 1311, that limited the powers of the king and banished Gaveston into exile.

 

When Gaveston returned to England in 1312 – contrary to the rulings of the Ordinances – he was taken into custody by the Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. Warwick abducted Gaveston and, together with the Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, had him executed. The act garnered sympathy and support for the king, but Warwick and Lancaster nevertheless managed to negotiate a royal pardon for their actions. After the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, King Edward's authority was once more weakened, and the rebellious barons took over control of government. For Warwick the triumph was brief; he died the next year.

 

Guy de Beauchamp is today remembered primarily for his part in the killing of Gaveston, but by his contemporaries he was considered a man of exceptionally good judgement and learning. He owned what was for his time a large collection of books, and his advice was often sought by many of the other earls. Next to Lancaster, he was the wealthiest peer in the nation, and after his death his lands and title were inherited by his son, Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick

Guy de Beauchamp was the first son and heir of William de Beauchamp, 9th Earl of Warwick, (c. 1238 – 1298). His mother was Maud FitzJohn, daughter of John fitz Geoffrey, who was Justiciar of Ireland and a member of the council of fifteen that imposed the Provisions of Oxford on King Henry III.[3] William was the nephew of William Maudit, 8th Earl of Warwick, and when his uncle died without issue in 1268, he became the first Beauchamp earl of Warwick.[4] In 1271 or 1272 his first son was born, and in reference to the new family title, William named his son after the legendary hero Guy of Warwick.[1] William de Beauchamp was a capable military commander, who played an important part in the Welsh and Scottish wars of King Edward I.[4]

 

A marriage between Guy and Isabel de Clare, daughter of Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, was contemplated, or possibly even took place and then annulled.[5][a] It was not until early 1309 that Guy married Alice de Toeni, a wealthy Hertfordshire heiress.[6] By this time Guy had already succeeded as earl of Warwick, after his father's death in 1298.[7] By Alice, Guy had three children, including his heir and successor, Thomas.

 

[edit] Service to Edward IEdward I knighted Guy de Beauchamp at Easter 1296.[8] Warwick's career of public service started with the Falkirk campaign in 1298.[1] Here he distinguished himself, and received a reward of Scottish lands worth 1000 marks a year.[9] At this point his father was already dead, but it was not until 5 September that Guy did homage to the king for his lands, and became Earl of Warwick.[8] He continued in the king's service in Scotland and elsewhere. In 1299 he was present at the king's wedding to Margaret of France at Canterbury, and in 1300 he took part in the Siege of Caerlaverock.[5] The next year he was a signatory to a letter to the Pope, rejecting Rome's authority over the Scottish question, and also participated in negotiations with the French over the release of the Scottish King John Balliol.[5][10] He was present at the Siege of Stirling in 1304, serving under Edward, the Prince of Wales.[8] In March 1307 he made preparations to accompany Prince Edward to France, but this journey never took place.[5]

 

Early in 1307, Edward I made his last grant to Warwick, when he gave him John Balliol's forfeited lordship of Barnard Castle in County Durham.[5] On 7 July that year, near Burgh by Sands in Cumberland, Warwick was present when King Edward died.[11] Together with Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, and Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, he carried the ceremonial swords at the coronation of King Edward II on 25 February 1308.[8]

 

[edit] Conflict with Edward IIBefore his death, the old king had exiled Prince Edward's favourite Piers Gaveston, and Warwick was among those charged with preventing Gaveston's return.[12] The new king, however, not only recalled his favourite, but soon also gave him the title of earl of Cornwall. Warwick was the only one of the leading earls who did not seal the charter, and from the start took on an antagonistic attitude to Edward II.[9] Gaveston was a relative upstart in the English aristocracy, and made himself unpopular among the established nobility by his arrogance and his undue influence on the king.[13] He gave mocking nicknames to the leading men of the realm, and called Warwick the "Black Dog of Arden".[b]

 

 

Warwick was in constant opposition to King Edward II.Gaveston was once more forced into exile, but Edward recalled him in less than a year. The king had spent the intervening time gathering support, and at the time, the only one to resist the return of Gaveston was Warwick.[14] With time, however, opposition to the king grew. Another source of contention was Edward abandoning his father's Scottish campaigns, a policy that opened the Border region up to devastating raids from the Scots.[15] This affected Warwick greatly, with his extensive landed interest in the north.[16] Tensions grew to the point where the king in 1310 had to ban Warwick and others from arriving at parliament in arms.[5] They still did, and at the parliament of March 1310, the king was forced to accept the appointment of a commission to draft a set of ordinances towards reform the royal government.[17]

 

The leaders of these so-called Lords Ordainers were Robert Winchelsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, on the side of the clergy, and Warwick, Lincoln and Lancaster among the earls.[17][18] Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, was the most experienced of the earls, and took on a modifying role in the group.[19] Thomas of Lancaster, who was Lincoln's son-in-law and heir, was the king's cousin and the wealthiest nobleman in the realm, but at this point he took a less active part in the reform movement.[20] Warwick is described by some sources as the leader of the Ordainers; he was certainly the most aggressive.[5] The set of Ordinances they drafted put heavy restrictions on the king's financial freedom, and his right to appoint his own ministers. It also – once more – ordered Gaveston to be exiled, to return only at the risk of excommunication.[21]

 

[edit] Gaveston's deathGaveston's third and final exile was of even shorter duration, and after two months he was reunited with Edward in England.[22] Archbishop Winchelsey responded by excommunicating Gaveston, as the Ordinances had stipulated.[23] Lancaster, who had by this time inherited his father-in-law Lincoln, had taken over leadership of the baronial opposition.[24] A number of the barons set out in pursuit of Gaveston while the king left for York. Gaveston ensconced himself at Scarborough Castle, and on 19 May 1312 agreed on a surrender to Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, as long as his security would be guaranteed.[25]

 

Pembroke lodged his prisoner in Deddington in Oxfordshire. On 10 June, while Pembroke was away, Warwick forcibly carried away Gaveston to Warwick Castle.[26] Here, in the presence of Warwick, Lancaster and other magnates, Gaveston was sentenced to death at an improvised court. On 19 June he was taken to a place called Blacklow Hill – on Lancaster's lands – and decapitated. According to the Annales Londonienses chronicle, four shoemakers brought the corpse back to Warwick, but he refused to accept it, and ordered them to take it back to where they found it.[27] Gaveston's body was eventually taken to Oxford by some Dominican friars, and in 1315, King Edward finally had it buried at Kings Langley.[27]

 

The brutality and questionable legality of the earls' act helped garner sympathy for the king in the political community.[28] Pembroke was particularly offended, as he had been made to break his promise of safety to Gaveston, and his chivalric honour had been damaged. From this point on Pembroke sided firmly with King Edward in the political conflict.[29] The king himself swore vengeance on his enemies, but found himself unable to move against them immediately, partly because they were in possession of a number of highly valuable royal jewels taken from Gaveston.[30][31] A settlement was reached in October, whereby the rebellious barons and their retainers received a pardon.[32] The king nevertheless emerged strengthened from the events, while Warwick and Lancaster were largely marginalised.[33] This all changed in 1314, when the king decided to stage his first major campaign against the Scots. Warwick and Lancaster refused to participate in the campaign, which ended in a humiliating English defeat at the Battle of Bannockburn on 24 June. This led to another political bouleversement, and Edward was forced to reconfirm the Ordinances, and submit to the leadership of the rebellious barons.[34]

 

[edit] Death and historical assessment

The coat of arms of the Beauchamp familyIn mid-July Warwick had to withdraw from government to his estates, due to illness.[35] Political leadership was soon left almost entirely to Lancaster, when Warwick died on 12 August 1315. The chronicler Thomas Walsingham reported rumours that the king had him poisoned.[36] He was buried at Bordesley Abbey in Worcestershire, an establishment to which his family had served as benefactors.[5] In value, his possessions were second only to those of the earl of Lancaster among the nobility of England.[2] His lands, though primarily centred on Warwickshire and Worcestershire, were spread out over nineteen counties as well as Scotland and the Welsh Marches.[5] His heir was his oldest son, whom he had named Thomas after the earl of Lancaster.[5] Thomas, born probably on 14 February 1314, did not succeed to his father's title until 1326, as Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick.[7][37] In the meanwhile his possessions went into the king's hand, who donated his hunting dogs to the earl of Pembroke.[38] A younger son, named John, also became a peer, as John de Beauchamp, 1st Baron Beauchamp. Like his older brother, he distinguished himself in the French wars, and was a founding member of the Order of the Garter.[39]

 

Guy de Beauchamp is probably best remembered by posterity for his opposition to King Edward II, and for his part in the death of Gaveston.[5] To contemporaries, however, he was considered a man of considerable learning and wisdom. His library, of which he donated 42 books to Bordesley Abbey during his lifetime, was extensive. It contained several saints' lives as well as romances about Alexander and King Arthur.[1] As mentioned, Edward I entrusted the supervision of his son with Warwick. Likewise, when the earl of Lincoln died in 1311, he supposedly instructed his son-in-law Thomas of Lancaster to heed the advise of Warwick, "the wisest of the peers".[40] Chronicles also praised Warwick's wisdom, the Vita Edwardi Secundi said that "Other earls did many things only after taking his opinion: in wisdom and council he had no peer".[1][5] Later historians have reflected this view, in the nineteenth century William Stubbs called Warwick "a discriminating and highly literate man, the wisdom of whom shone forth through the whole kingdom".[5]

 

Warwick's death came at an inconvenient time; Thomas of Lancaster proved unequal to the task of governing the nation, and further years of conflict and instability followed. Nevertheless, the problems of Edward II's reign were deep, and in the words of Michael Hicks: "one must doubt whether even Warwick could have brought unity as one chronicler supposed".[1]

Note on Wife: Alice + of TOENI

Alice de Toeni was born on 26 April 1284[citation needed] in Flamsted, Hertfordshire, the only daughter of Ralph VII de Toeni, Lord Toeni of Flamsted (1255–1295) and his wife, Mary, about whom nothing is known except that she was born in Scotland. Alice's paternal grandparents were Roger V de Toeni, Lord Flamsted and Alice de Bohun. The latter was a daughter of Humphrey de Bohun, 2nd Earl of Hereford and Maud de Lusignan. Alice had an older brother Robert de Toeni, Lord Toeni of Flamsted (4 April 1276–1309), who married Maud, the daughter of Malise, 6th Earl of Strathearn, but died childless in 1309. Upon his death, Alice became his heir. Her inheritance included manors in Essex, Worcestershire, Wiltshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and the Welsh Marches.

 

 

Warwick Castle, the principal residence of Guy de Beauchamp and Alice de Toeni[edit] Marriages and issueIn 1300, when Alice was sixteen, she married her first husband, Sir Thomas Leybourne (died May 1307), son of Sir William Leybourne, by whom she had one daughter: Juliana de Leybourne (1303/1304–1367), married firstly, John, Lord Hastings, by whom she had issue, secondly Thomas le Blount, and thirdly, William Clinton.

 

On 28 February 1310, less than three years after the death of her first husband, Alice married secondly Guy de Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick, the only son of William de Beauchamp, 9th Earl of Warwick and Maud FitzJohn. He had been previously married to Isabel de Clare, the daughter of Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Gloucester and Alice de Lusignan of Angoulême, but the marriage, which had produced no children, was annulled. Guy had already distinguished himself in the Scottish Wars and was one of the Ordainers, who sought to restrict the powers of the King. Guy de Beauchamp was one of the chief adversaries of Piers Gaveston, King Edward's favourite, who often referred to Guy as The Mad Hound, due to the Earl's habit of foaming at the mouth when angry.[1] In 1312, Guy de Beauchamp captured Gaveston and took him to his principal residence Warwick Castle where Gaveston was held prisoner and afterwards murdered.

 

Alice and Guy had two sons and five daughters:

 

Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick (14 February 1313/1314 – 13 November 1369), married Katherine Mortimer, by whom he had fifteen children.

John de Beauchamp, Lord Beauchamp KG (1315 – 2 December 1360), carried the royal standard at the Battle of Crecy

Elizabeth de Beauchamp (c. 1316–1359), married in 1328, Thomas of Astley, 3rd Lord Astley, by whom she had a son William of Astley, 4th Lord Astley.

Maud de Beauchamp (died 1366), married Geoffrey de Say, 2nd Lord Say, by whom she had issue.

Isabella de Beauchamp, married John Clinton.

Emma de Beauchamp, married Rowland Odingsells.

Lucia de Beauchamp, married Robert de Napton.

Following the sudden death of Guy de Beauchamp at Warwick Castle on 28 July 1315, which was rumoured to have been caused by poisoning, Alice married thirdly on 26 October 1316, William la Zouche de Mortimer, 1st Lord Zouche de Mortimer (see Baron Zouche), by whom she had a son and daughter:[2]

 

Alan la Zouche de Mortimer. (born 15 September 1317), participated in the Battle of Crécy, and died shortly afterwards.

Joyce la Zouche de Mortimer (born 1318)

[edit] DeathAlice de Toeni died on 1 January 1324/25.[3] The de Toeni lands and manors passed to her eldest son Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick.

 

Her widower, Lord Zouche, later abducted and married Eleanor de Clare, widow of Hugh Le Despenser, the Younger. Lord Zouche had been one of Le Despenser's captors and had led the siege of Caerphilly Castle.

 

Alice de Toeni, Countess of Warwick (26 April 1284 – 1 January 1324/25) was a wealthy English heiress and the second wife of Guy de Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick (1272 – 12 August 1315), an English nobleman in the reign of Kings Edward I and Edward II. He was one of the principal opponents of Piers Gaveston, a favourite of Edward II. Alice married three times; Guy was her second husband.