Maurice Berkeley, 1st Baron FitzHardinge health in November 1857. On 26 February 1861, after inheriting his brother's estates, Berkeley unsuccessfully claimed the Barony of Berkeley as being one by tenure of Berkeley Castle. He was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 28 June 1861 and was created Baron FitzHardinge, of the city and county of Bristol on 3 August 1861. He was promoted to full admiral on 15 January 1862 and died at Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire on 17 October 1867. In 1823 Berkeley married Lady Charlotte Lennox, daughter of Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond; after his first
Thomas de Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley to that of his contemporary Sir Maurice Russell (d.1416) at Dyrham, who was the father-in-law of Gilbert Denys, one of Berkeley's feoffees. Having died without male progeny the succession to the vast Berkeley estates became disputed, and eventually resulted in the Battle of Nibley Green (1469/70), the last battle fought in England entirely between the private armies of feudal magnates, fought near Berkeley Castle on 20 March 1469/70 between the troops of Thomas Talbot, 2nd Viscount Lisle and William Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley, later 1st Marquess of Berkeley. Lisle and William Berkeley had long been engaged in a dispute over