Berkeley family Berkeley family The Berkeley family is an aristocratic English family, nearly unique in English history in that it has to this day an unbroken male line of descent from a noble Saxon ancestor before the Norman conquest of England in 1066 and also retains possession of much of the lands it held from the 11th and 12th centuries, centred on Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, which still belongs to the family. The Berkeley family descends in the male line from Robert Fitzharding (d.1170), 1st feudal baron of Berkeley, Gloucestershire, reputedly the son of Harding of Bristol, the son of Eadnoth the
Maurice de Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley his wife he had children including: His second marriage, in about 1316, was to Isabella de Clare, daughter of Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford by his wife Alice de Lusignan. Berkeley was imprisoned by the Despencers in Wallingford Castle in Berkshire (now in Oxfordshire), where he died on 31 May 1326 and was eventually buried in St Augustine's Abbey (now Bristol Cathedral) in Bristol, founded by his ancestor. He was succeeded by his eldest son Thomas de Berkeley, 3rd Baron Berkeley (born c. 1296). Maurice de Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley Maurice de Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley (April 1271