Thomas de Berkeley, 3rd Baron Berkeley was succeeded by Maurice de Berkeley, 4th Baron Berkeley (born 1320, date of death unknown), eldest son and heir from his first marriage. Thomas de Berkeley, 3rd Baron Berkeley Thomas de Berkeley (c. 1293 or 1296 – 27 October 1361), "The Rich", feudal baron of Berkeley, of Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, England, was a peer. His epithet, and that of each previous and subsequent head of his family, was coined by John Smyth of Nibley (d.1641), steward of the Berkeley estates, the biographer of the family and author of "Lives of the Berkeleys". He was the eldest son and heir
Berkeley Castle before returning him to Berkeley Castle in September. Some commentators have claimed that Edward's escape was actually successful, and that someone else was later murdered in his place. Historical sources record that Edward was murdered there on 21 September 1327. Raphael Holinshed's "Chronicles" (1587 edition), drawing on earlier sources, describes Edward's murder in detail:they [the murderers] came suddenlie one night into the chamber where he laie in bed fast asléepe, and with heauie featherbeds or a table (as some [sources] write) being cast vpon him, they kept him down and withall put into his fundament [i.e., his anus] an horne,