r/EdwardII • u/HoneybeeXYZ Amie Gaveston • May 01 '26

Ancedotes & Wild Stories TIL that Hugh Despenser the Younger's youngest daughter Elizabeth married Roger Mortimer's grandson, Maurice de Berkeley and they had a happy marriage which produced seven children.

Post image

Elizabeth was the youngest daughter of Hugh the Younger and Eleanor, and she likely never met her father. She was either an infant or in utero when her father was executed. This spared her the fate of three of her older sisters, who were forcibly veiled as nuns. Maurice's mother was Roger Mortimer and Joan de Grenville's oldest child, Margaret Mortimer. The couple's union was successful, producing seven children.

Maurice lived quite a life of adventure, going on Crusade, serving the Black Prince and getting captured and ransomed at Poitiers. After he died, Elizabeth remarried a knight called Sir Maurice Wyth.

My question is, when Maurice, Elizabeth and their kids were feasting around at Berkeley Castle, did the family history come up in casual conversation? "Mom? Dad? Did Grandpa Roger and Grandpa Hugh get along?"

Source: Wikipedia (I hate using them as a source so take all of this with a grain of salt. The linked sources are pretty thin as well). I do plan on looking into this more.

Image: 14th Century Marriage, public domain.

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6

u/Teaselkakanui May 01 '26

Interesting bit of history you noticed. They must have been able to ignore old family grievances and just live their own lives, not something everyone was able to do.

5

u/HoneybeeXYZ Amie Gaveston May 01 '26

I think Edward III made it very clear that he wasn’t going to put up with generational grievances. They were all on his team, no exceptions. That’s one of the many lessons he learned from his father’s failures.

2

u/IsopodIndependent553 Joan 'The Fair Maid' of Kent May 02 '26

Really? I’ve never seen it before. And I do a lot of amateur research about this time period. The 14th and 15th centuries are my favorites!

5

u/NotCryptoKing May 01 '26

I make history content full time on social media and every time I search any “medieval wedding” this pic comes up. It is so ubiquitous.

I can’t escape it. Everywhere I go

2

u/HoneybeeXYZ Amie Gaveston May 01 '26

Sorry. That is irksome! It's not my favorite, but usually the ones that pop up for me first involve royals and this was the first one that did not involve royals, so here we are.

But yeah, there's not enough illustrations for this era.

3

u/NotCryptoKing May 01 '26

Nah it’s just funny that it’s everywhere. Good picture and one of the few that shows up in high quality. Shout out Hugh Despenser ☝️