Family history Viscount of Beaumont

Viscount of Beaumont – The history of the House of Beaumont

The House of Beaumont combined English castles with an international lineage. Its line led to Ludwig von Brienne, a son of John of Brienne, King of Jerusalem and later co-emperor in Constantinople. Ludwig married Agnes, heiress of the French viceroycy of Beaumont-sur-Sarthe. Her son Henry came to England in the entourage of Queen Eleanor of Castile and was appointed Baron Beaumont to the Parliament in 1309.

The family acquired land in Lincolnshire and made Folkingham Castle their center of power. Through marriage, further connections were made: Henry Beaumont claimed the Scottish county of Buchan temporarily through his wife Alice Comyn, while later generations were related to the houses of Lancaster, Willoughby, and Bardolf. Thus, the Beaumonts moved between court, army, and estates.

The peak was reached by John Beaumont, born around 1409. As a child he inherited the barony and became advisor to King Henry VI. In 1440 he became the first Englishman to receive the new and unique title of Viscount. Shortly thereafter, the French viceroycy of Beaumont, the office of Lord Great Chamberlain and admission to the Order of the Garter followed. John was thus one of the most influential magnates of his time. His marriage to Elizabeth Phelip also brought the Bardolf inheritance into the family.

John's son William took over titles and responsibilities in 1460. As a supporter of the House of Lancaster, he experienced alternating circumstances during the Wars of the Roses, but regained his titles under Henry VII. With William's final phase of life until 1507, the immediate descendants of the viscounts were established. The family legacy passed through his sister Joan and her daughters to the lines of Lovel, Stapleton and Norreys. The name Beaumont thus retained its place in English noble history – as the origin of the country's first viscountship and as a bridge between Jerusalem, France and England.

Sources: University of Oxford Faculty of History, The Complete Peerage, The Medieval Combat Society, Richard III Society

Family coat of arms Viscount of Beaumont

This Coat of arms is attributed to John Beaumont, 1st Viscount Beaumont, and the House of Beaumont. John Beaumont was made the first Viscount of the English Peerage in 1440.

In blue, strewn with golden lilies, a golden upright lion. On a helmet with a blue-gold or blue-hermeline helmet cover, a blue chapeau strewn with golden lilies and sculpted with herlaine, on which a roaring golden lion.

John Beaumont, 1st Viscount Beaumont, lived from about 1409 to 1460. He was 6th Baron Beaumont, was elevated to Viscount Beaumont in 1440 and belonged to the Knights of the Garter as a Knight of the Garter.

Sources: Wikimedia Commons, 1309), a lion rampant Or, Garter stall plate of John Beaumont, 4th Baron Beaumont, Helmdecke und Helmzier, Debrett’s Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage