Berkeley family Constable (Alnod), a high official under King Edward the Confessor. Berkeley Castle, the "caput" of the barony, and the adjoining town of Berkeley are located in the county of Gloucestershire and are situated about five miles west of Dursley and eighteen miles southwest of Gloucester, and northeast of Bristol. The location has conferred various titles on the family over the centuries, including Baron Berkeley (barony by writ), Earl of Berkeley, and Marquess of Berkeley. Berkeley Castle was originally granted by William the Conqueror to the Norman Roger de Berkeley, feudal baron of Dursley, under the feudal tenure of fee-farm. However,
Maurice Berkeley, 3rd Baron Berkeley was disinherited by his elder brother William Berkeley, 1st Marquess of Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley (1426–1492), who died without surviving progeny. As he never therefore possessed Berkeley Castle, he had no claim to the ancient feudal barony of Berkeley, which was dependent on landholdings. It was assumed (according to a very unusual legal rationale) that the barony by writ created in 1412 was also held dependent on the tenure of Berkeley Castle (that is to say it was deemed a feudal barony or barony by tenure), and that it had thereby been forfeited by association, and thus Maurice never assumed