George Berkeley, 8th Baron Berkeley and Frances de Vere, daughter of John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford and Elizabeth Trussell. Berkeley's childhood was spent in Warwickshire, where he was a pupil of the translator, Philemon Holland of Coventry, and of Henry Ashwood. He succeeded to his titles of Baron Berkeley of Berkeley, Mowbray, Segrave, & Breuse of Gower at the death of his grandfather, Henry Berkeley, 7th Baron Berkeley, on 26 November 1613. His family seat was at Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire. He was made a Knight of the Order of the Bath on November 4, 1616, when Prince Charles was made Prince of
Lydford Castle but had little interest in Lydford, preferring Restormel and Lostwithiel; by his death in 1299 the castle had been left to decay and was in ruins. It reverted to the Crown, and when Edward II made his royal favourite, Piers Gaveston, the Earl of Cornwall in 1307, Lydford Castle was passed to him. The castle was repaired at the start of the century and was in use once again as a prison. Edward II and Gaveston fell from power in 1327 and Thomas le Ercedekne was temporarily entrusted with the castle and Dartmoor by the new regime. In 1329 the