Maurice de Berkeley, 4th Baron Berkeley Maurice de Berkeley, 4th Baron Berkeley Maurice de Berkeley, 4th Baron Berkeley (c. 1330 – 8 June 1368), "The Valiant", feudal baron of Berkeley, of Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, was an English peer. His epithet, and that of each previous and subsequent head of his family, was coined by John Smyth of Nibley (died 1641), steward of the Berkeley estates, the biographer of the family and author of "Lives of the Berkeleys". He was born in Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, the eldest son and heir of Thomas de Berkeley, 3rd Baron Berkeley by his wife Lady Margaret Mortimer. In August
James Berkeley Berkeley died on 24 June 1327, having been murdered and having suffered the destruction and despoilation of his manors, according to the account by his successor John de Grandisson. Berkeley was buried in Exeter Cathedral, against the north wall of the south ambulatory, where survives his chest tomb. It is devoid of the monumental brass which originally adorned the Purbeck marble ledger stone top, in the form of a demi-effigy of a bishop wearing a mitre, the indent of which is still visible. Following the Reformation the brass was stripped away in 1561 on the orders of the Cathedral authorities.