Maurice de Berkeley Maurice de Berkeley Sir Maurice de Berkeley "the Resolute" (1218 - 4 April 1281), 5th (feudal) Baron de Berkeley, was an English soldier and rebel, residing at Berkeley Castle in the English county of Gloucestershire. Maurice was born in 1218 to Thomas de Berkeley and Joan de Somery. He married Isabel FitzRoy, the daughter of Richard FitzRoy, Baron of Chilham (an illegitimate son of King John of England) and Rose de Douvres, sometime before 12 July 1247. Berkeley fought in the French Wars and was invested as a knight before 1242. He inherited the title of Baron de Berkeley in
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