Maurice Berkeley (died 1581)

For his later namesake, see Maurice Berkeley (died 1617).

Detail of monument to Sir Maurice and his two wives in the Church of St Mary, Bruton, Somerset. Arms: Berkeley quartering Botetourt and Zouche[1]
Arms of Berkeley: Gules, a chevron between ten crosses pattée six in chief and four in base argent
Arms of Berkeley of Stoke Gifford, Gloucestershire: Gules, a chevron ermine between ten crosses pattée six in chief and four in base argent. Also arms of descendants Berkeley of Bruton, Somerset, and of Berkeley of Pylle, Somerset and of Baron Berkeley of Stratton. A difference of Berkeley of Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire

Sir Maurice Berkeley (by 1514–1581) of Bruton in Somerset and of Berkeley House, Clerkenwell,[2] Middlesex, served as Chief Banner Bearer of England to Kings Henry VIII and Edward VI and to Queen Elizabeth I, and rose rapidly in the Tudor court. He came from a cadet branch of the great Berkeley family of Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, but in his career, his initial advantage was due to his mother's second marriage to Sir John FitzJames, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench 1526–1539, which by 1538 had brought him into the household of Thomas Cromwell, from which he passed into the royal household by 1539.[3]

He built a mansion house on the site of Bruton Priory in Somerset, which he acquired following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, incorporating some of the monastic buildings, but this was demolished in 1786. Sir Maurice's impressive Renaissance monument, with recumbent effigies of himself and his two wives, survives in the later rebuilt chancel of the Church of St Mary, Bruton. His descendants, known as "Berkeley of Bruton" included many notable figures until the 18th century, including five Barons Berkeley of Stratton (extinct in 1773), and four Viscount Fitzhardinges (extinct in 1712), as well as William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia. Today Berkeley Square, Berkeley Street, Bruton Street and Stratton Street in Mayfair cover the site of the demolished Berkeley House, their London townhouse. Portraits of himself and his second wife by Federico Zuccari (c.1540/1–1609), in England from 1574, survive at Berkeley Castle.[4]

  1. ^ The wife of his great-great-great-grandfather Maurice Berkeley (1333-1361) was Catherine de Botetourt, daughter and heiress of John de Botetourt, 2nd Baron Botetourt (c.1318-1386) by his wife Joyce la Zouche, daughter and eventual heiress of William la Zouche, 1st Baron Zouche of Mortimer
  2. ^ Now memorialised by Berkeley Street. Walter Thornbury, 'Clerkenwell: (part 2 of 2)', in Old and New London: Volume 2 (London, 1878), pp. 328-338. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol2/pp328-338
  3. ^ Virgoe
  4. ^ "In Darius's Tent" at Berkeley Castle, as reported in the Monthly Epitome, Volume 5, January 1801, p.275 [1]