Richard Beauchamp, 13th earl of Warwick

Richard Beauchamp, 13th earl of Warwick (born January 25/28, 1382, Salwarpe, Worcestershire, England—died April 30, 1439, Rouen, France) was a soldier and diplomatist, a knightly hero who served the English kings Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI.

(Read Sir Walter Scott’s 1824 Britannica essay on chivalry.)

Richard Beauchamp succeeded his father, Thomas II de Beauchamp, the 12th earl of Warwick, in 1401. He fought for Henry IV against Sir Henry Percy (“Hotspur”) in the Battle of Shrewsbury (July 21, 1403), and he assisted in the suppression of Owain Glyn Dŵr’s rebellion in Wales. On his return from a pilgrimage to Rome and the Holy Land, Warwick was made a member of the king’s council (1410).

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Warwick was appointed captain of Calais (February 1414) by Henry V, was the king’s chief lay representative at the Council of Constance (October 1414), and frequently was employed in diplomatic negotiations with the French and Burgundian courts. He was also one of Henry V’s principal lieutenants in the conquest of Normandy and Picardy (1417–22); as a reward, he received the French county of Aumale (1419).

After the death of Henry V (August 31, 1422), Warwick helped to prevent Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, from becoming regent for the infant Henry VI. Although he was a member of the council that ruled England for some years, Warwick evidently spent much time in France. Because of his prudence, the council appointed him tutor to the young king (June 1428–May 1436). While attending the king in France (1430–32), Warwick was present at the trial and execution of Joan of Arc and scored a notable victory over the French near Beauvais (1431). He died while serving as English military governor in France and Normandy (from 1437).

One of the greatest English landowners, Warwick enlarged his estates by successive marriages to two heiresses. He founded (1422–23) a chantry at Guys Cliffe, Warwickshire. A chaplain there, John Rous, in the second half of the 15th century wrote a biography of the earl, stressing his deeds of chivalry. The Beauchamp Chapel in the Church of St. Mary, Warwick, was built (1443–64) by the earl’s executors. In the chapel is the earl’s tomb (a brass recumbent effigy on a Purbeck marble tomb chest), one of the finest medieval monuments in England.