On 16 Feb. 1401, just a fortnight after he was born, Berkeley’s wardship and marriage were granted to the ‘King’s knight’ Sir Francis Court, although a few months later this concession was limited to estates to the value of £60 p.a. According to inquiries held following the death of the infant’s father in the previous year, his manors of Brigmerston and Milston, in Wiltshire, and Kings Weston, Aylburton, Rockhampton, Uley, Bradley, Stoke Gifford and Wallscourt, in Gloucestershire, were worth at least £154 annually, and his portion of the manor of Kingston Seymour in Somerset produced £5 p.a. more. A substantial part of this income, perhaps as much as £100 a year, was received by Berkeley’s mother as her jointure and dower until her death in 1412, and for a further 11 years profits from the estates also continued to be paid to Court’s widow, Alice de Vere, who married Lewis John*. Fresh inquiries about Maurice’s paternal inheritance were held in the spring of 1422 and again in the following year, but it was not until 6 Apr. 1423, when he was 22, that he made formal proof of age and received seisin.
The delay may have been occasioned by military service overseas under Henry V, for before the end of the reign Berkeley had been knighted. It may be speculated that although he was then only 16 he was the Sir Maurice who was mustered in the retinue of Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, before crossing to France in July 1417.
However unsatisfactory he may have found the outcome, in his dealings with Warwick Berkeley no doubt benefited from the advice of his father-in-law, Sir William Mountfort, one of the earl’s most prominent retainers and councillors. His marriage to Mountfort’s daughter, Eleanor, had taken place by September 1429, and just before the opening of his second Parliament (which Mountfort also attended, as a shire knight for Warwickshire), he settled on her in jointure his principal manor of Uley. Eleanor was not an heiress, but her father was the wealthiest non-baronial landowner in Warwickshire, and their family was clearly one of high standing. Sir Maurice is recorded paying visits to his father-in-law’s house at Coleshill in 1433-4.
Berkeley’s standing in the county is indicated by his links with other members of the gentry. Before 1431 he was enfeoffed of the Gloucestershire manor of Dymock, for its sale by John Merbury* and Agnes his wife, and in May 1433 he and his co-feoffees, who included Henry Bourgchier, count of Eu, were awarded keeping of the same at the Exchequer for a year. However, within two months they were unjustly removed from possession, and litigation over their title to Dymock continued for several years more.
The confrontation at Siston was by no means the only occasion that Berkeley’s followers reportedly came out in force to promote his interests, and in the late 1440s he was frequently called to account in the courts at Westminster. He was accused of taking woollen cloths worth £20 from members of the Stanburgh family in the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, in 1445, and proved unsuccessful in his plea that the men concerned were bondmen on his manor of Aylburton.
Although not explicitly described in such terms in the plea rolls, some of those whom Berkeley accused, including Fulk Stafford, are known to have been closely linked to a more powerful opponent of his. Berkeley’s standing in the locality and at the centre was being undermined by a major dispute over the former Botetourt estates with Sir James Butler, son of the earl of Ormond and grandson and heir of Lady Abergavenny. The feud over this inheritance had reopened in about 1440, some five years after Lady Joan’s death and shortly after the demise of the earl of Warwick, whose mediating influence had helped to preserve order. At first it was concentrated on Aston in Warwickshire, where Berkeley could claim to be overlord of the manor and entitled to a view of frankpledge. In 1444 John Holt, esquire, the tenant of the manor, claimed in a petition to Chancery that Thomas Hore of Solihull, gentleman, with some 40 others arrayed for war, had by the ‘heddryng and comandement’ of Berkeley, come to Aston, driven away 40 oxen, and while seeking out his bailiff with the intention of murdering him, had assaulted the latter’s wife. Holt claimed that on another occasion Sir Maurice had sent John Newhay of Nechells to lie in wait to slay him; and that he had ordered a gang of 60 or more to attack his servants in the marketplace at Birmingham. Furthermore, Berkeley harboured outlaws and ‘recles people’ in his house, and he himself had no recourse to common law because of Sir Maurice’s ‘myght’ and ‘for doubte of his riotous felischip’. Holt looked for help not only to Sir James Butler, whom he perceived to be his rightful overlord, but also to Ralph Butler, Lord Sudeley, the then treasurer of England.
The dispute formed the background to suits in the courts of common pleas and King’s bench in 1448. In the Easter term Berkeley and 12 others were attached to answer John Baker, a labourer of Northfield, Worcestershire, who alleged that they had conspired to have him falsely indicted before the j.p.s in Warwickshire (who included Berkeley’s father-in-law) for an illegal entry. Baker claimed damages of as much as £1,000.
Attempts were made to arbitrate between them. In December 1450 Earl James was bound in 1,000 marks to perform covenants of agreements with Berkeley, and in the following June he promised to abide by the arbitration of Sir William Mountfort (nominated by Berkeley) and Henry Filongley*, his own retainer.
Through his wife’s family Berkeley had been drawn into the affairs of another Warwickshire landowner and former retainer of the late earl of Warwick, Sir William Peyto‡. Together with his brother-in-law, Edmund Mountfort*, he stood bail for Peyto in November 1451, guaranteeing under pain of £100 that he would appear in the King’s bench in the following Easter term. When the date arrived Berkeley went to the court to explain that Peyto was currently overseas on royal service in the defence of Calais, and offered mainprise for his appearance the following Michaelmas. However, even though Peyto did subsequently present himself (and was committed to the Marshalsea), it was decided in 1454 that the King might still recover sums of money against his mainpernors; and Berkeley was not excused payment until April 1455. Before Sir William Mountfort’s death in December 1452 Berkeley had been party to transactions regarding his manor of Mollington, apparently intended to work to the advantage of Edmund, Sir William’s favourite son by his second marriage, yet he seems to have avoided involvement in the disputes arising from Sir William’s favouritism which divided the Warwickshire gentry for the rest of the decade and beyond.
Sir Maurice died on 25 Nov. 1464, and was buried in what is now the ‘Lord Mayor’s chapel’ in St. Mark’s hospital. His effigy depicts him wearing the Yorkist collar of suns and roses, although nothing recorded about him suggests any personal connexion with Edward IV, and, indeed, his public service to the Crown had ended nearly ten years earlier.