Maurice de Berkeley Maurice de Berkeley Sir Maurice de Berkeley "the Resolute" (1218 - 4 April 1281), 5th (feudal) Baron de Berkeley, was an English soldier and rebel, residing at Berkeley Castle in the English county of Gloucestershire. Maurice was born in 1218 to Thomas de Berkeley and Joan de Somery. He married Isabel FitzRoy, the daughter of Richard FitzRoy, Baron of Chilham (an illegitimate son of King John of England) and Rose de Douvres, sometime before 12 July 1247. Berkeley fought in the French Wars and was invested as a knight before 1242. He inherited the title of Baron de Berkeley in
Berkeley Castle and remained lying in state at Berkeley for a month, in the Chapel of St John within the castle keep, before Thomas de Berkeley escorted it to Gloucester Abbey for burial. Thomas was later charged with being an accessory to the murder, but his defence was that it was carried out by the agents of Roger Mortimer while he was away from the castle, and in 1337 he was cleared of all charges. In the 14th century, the Great Hall was given a new roof and it is here the last court jester in England, Dickie Pearce, died after falling