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
Edward II of England castle. As a result of these threats, Edward was moved around to other locations in secret for a period, before returning to permanent custody at the castle in the late summer of 1327. The political situation remained unstable, and new plots appear to have been formed to free him. On 23 September Edward III was informed that his father had died at Berkeley Castle during the night of 21 September. Most historians agree that Edward II did die at Berkeley on that date, although there is a minority view, described below, that he died much later. Edward's death was, as