Sir William Bereford (died 1326) was an English justice.
He was the son of Walter de Bereford, with the family name coming from the village of Barford, Warwickshire. In 1287 his brother, Osbert de Bereford, a previous High Sheriff of Warwickshire and Leicestershire, bought a property in Wishaw, and after his death a few years later the land was left to William. In the 1280s he also married Margaret, daughter of Hugh de Plessy, who brought lands in Wittenham, Berkshire, with whom he had at least one child, Edmund Bereford, who later became a King's Clerk.
By 1285, he was a Pleader for the Court of Common Pleas, and after the purging of the courts in 1289 and 1290 various avenues of promotion opened him, and he was made a justice of the Common Bench in 1292. In Michaelmas term of that year he joined one of the last countrywide Eyres. In 1294 he returned to the Common Bench, standing as second to John of Mettingham and then Ralph de Hengham before becoming Chief Justice in 1309 following Hengham's retirement. He was knighted in 1302, and in 1304 was appointed as a commissioner to investigate a break-in at the Treasury. In 1305 he was one of twenty-one representatives of the crown who met with an equal number of Scottish representatives to establish how to promote stability in Scotland, and in 1306 he was a commissioner of a Trailbaston on the northern circuit. [1] After Edward II became king in 1307 he was in charge of collecting querelae, or formal complaints, against Walter Langton, who had been Edward I's treasurer and central advisor.
Bereford was associated with Piers Gaveston, a favorite of Edward II, perhaps because he had bought land in the Honour of Wallingford held by the earl. Bereford was one of only four who stood with the king against the barons who demanded Gaveston's exile in 1308, and acted as the executor of his will. [2] Standing against the barons seems not to have harmed his career; in 1318 after attempts to reform the king's household he was among the ministers retained in office, where he stayed until his death in 1326.
Edward II, also called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir to the throne following the death of his older brother Alphonso. Beginning in 1300, Edward accompanied his father on campaigns to pacify Scotland, and in 1307 he was knighted in a grand ceremony at Westminster Abbey. Edward succeeded to the throne later that year, following his father's death. In 1308, he married Isabella of France, the daughter of the powerful King Philip IV, as part of a long-running effort to resolve the tensions between the English and French crowns.
Guy de Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick was an English magnate, and one of the principal opponents of King Edward II and his favourite, Piers Gaveston. Guy 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.
Hugh le Despenser, sometimes referred to as "the Elder Despenser", was for a time the chief adviser to King Edward II of England. He was created a baron in 1295 and Earl of Winchester in 1322. One day after being captured by forces loyal to Sir Roger Mortimer and Edward's wife, Queen Isabella, who were leading a rebellion against Edward, he was hanged and then beheaded.
Hugh Despenser, 1st Baron Despenser, also referred to as "the Younger Despenser", was the son and heir of Hugh Despenser, Earl of Winchester, and his wife Isabel Beauchamp, daughter of William Beauchamp, 9th Earl of Warwick. He rose to national prominence as royal chamberlain and a favourite of Edward II of England. Despenser made many enemies amongst the nobility of England. After the overthrow of Edward, he was eventually charged with high treason and ultimately hanged, drawn and quartered.
Sir John de Benstede KB (c.1275 –1323/4) was a prominent member of the English royal household in the late 13th and early 14th century. He was Prebendary of Sandiacre from 3 February 1297 until, presumably, 1308, when he married. He was also King's Secretary, and he served variously as keeper of the Great Seal and controller of the wardrobe. He also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1305 to 1306, and as a royal judge from 1309 onwards.
Sir Ralph de Hengham was an English cleric who held various high positions within the Medieval English judicial system.
Sir William Coningsby was an English Member of Parliament and a Justice of the King's Bench.
Eustace Folville was an English criminal and outlaw who is credited with assassinating the unpopular Sir Roger de Beler, Baron of the Exchequer and henchman of the despised Hugh le Despencer and King Edward II. He was the most active member of the Folville Gang, which engaged in acts of vigilantism and outlawry in Leicestershire in the early 1300s, often on the behalf of others.
Hervey de Stanton was an English judge and Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Sir Roger Hillary was an English judge. He was one of five sons of William Hillary and his wife Agnes, a landowning family which held properties in Lincolnshire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, and Leicestershire, and appear to have been related to Sir William Bereford, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas; a useful connection for a nascent lawyer. In 1310 Hillary was recorded as a court attorney, and in 1324 he was made a Serjeant-at-law. In the later years of Edward II's reign Hillary kept a low profile. In spring 1320 he married Katherine, and added to his property portfolio the Manor of Fisherwick near Lichfield in 1327 and a life-grant of a mill at Bentley at around the same time.
John Segrave, 2nd Baron Segrave was an English commander in the First War of Scottish Independence.
John de Bourchier was an English Judge of the Common Pleas and the earliest ancestor, about whose life substantial details are known, of the noble and prolific Bourchier family, which in its various branches later held the titles Barons Bourchier, Counts of Eu, Viscounts Bourchier, Earls of Essex, Barons Berners, Barons FitzWarin and Earls of Bath.
Richard de Beresford or Bereford was an English-born cleric and judge who held high political office in Ireland in the early fourteenth century as Lord High Treasurer of Ireland and Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
Roger de Beaufeu also known as Bello Fago was an English judge, possibly of the same family as Nicholas de Beaufo of Beaufo's Manor, Norfolk, a contemporary of the judge.
Roger Beler was a Baron of the Exchequer and right-hand man of Hugh le Despencer and King Edward II. Beler was killed by the Folville gang in 1326.
Ralph de Bereford was an English judge, of a legal family possessing large estates in the midland counties.
John Maltravers, 1st Baron Maltravers (1290?–1364) was an English nobleman and soldier.
Sir William Trussell was an English politician and leading rebel in Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March's rebellion against Edward II. William acted as Speaker of the House of Commons and renounced the allegiance of England to Edward II, forcing his abdication, and became King Edward III's Secretary.
William la Zouche, 1st Baron Zouche (1276/86–1352), lord of the manor of Harringworth in Northamptonshire, was an English baron and soldier who fought in the Wars of Scottish Independence. He is referred to in history as "of Harringworth" to distinguish him from his first cousin Alan la Zouche, 1st Baron la Zouche (1267–1314) of Ashby de la Zouch in Leicestershire.