Maurice Berkeley, 3rd Baron Berkeley Maurice Berkeley, 3rd Baron Berkeley Maurice Berkeley, "de jure" 3rd Baron Berkeley (1435 – September 1506), of Thornbury in Gloucestershire, "Maurice the Lawyer", was an English nobleman. He was born at Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, the younger son of James Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley (c. 1394–1463), "James the Just", by his third wife Isabel de Mowbray, and was the younger brother and heir of William Berkeley, 1st Marquess of Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley (1426–1492), "William the Waste-All". Because of his marriage to Isabel Meade, the daughter of a Bristol alderman, who was considered to be below his social status, Maurice
Berkeley Castle and remained lying in state at Berkeley for a month, in the Chapel of St John within the castle keep, before Thomas de Berkeley escorted it to Gloucester Abbey for burial. Thomas was later charged with being an accessory to the murder, but his defence was that it was carried out by the agents of Roger Mortimer while he was away from the castle, and in 1337 he was cleared of all charges. In the 14th century, the Great Hall was given a new roof and it is here the last court jester in England, Dickie Pearce, died after falling