Bartholomew de Burghersh, 1st Baron Burghersh

Bartholomew Burghersh, 1st Baron Burghersh (died 3 August 1355, Dover), called "the elder", was an English nobleman and soldier, a younger son of Robert Burghersh, 1st Baron Burghersh and Maud Badlesmere, sister of Bartholomew Badlesmere, 1st Baron Badlesmere. He was the father of Bartholomew Burghersh the younger. Life He was the second (or perhaps the third) son of Robert Burghersh, 1st Baron Burghersh, and succeeded to his father's title and estates on the death of his elder brother Stephen. He was the nephew on his mother's side and namesake of Bartholomew, lord Badlesmere, one of the most powerful of the barons. He married Elizabeth, one of the three co-heiresses of Theobald de Verdun, 2nd Baron Verdun and his first wife Maud Mortimer (c.1289-18 September 1312), an alliance by which Burghersh increased his wealth and power. Lord Badlesmere was a bitter enemy of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster. Burghersh took an active role (1316) in the unhappy contests of parties in Edward II's reign as an adherent of his uncle, whom in 1317 he accompanied in an expedition to Scotland. In October 1321, when Leeds Castle, Kent—the gates of which had been shut against Queen Isabella by Lady Badlesmere – surrendered to Edward, who had with unwonted spirit raised a force of thirty thousand men to avenge the insult offered to his wife. Burghersh, who was one of the garrison, was taken prisoner and incarcerated in the Tower of London. This imprisonment was probably the means of saving him from the fate of his uncle after the disastrous battle of Boroughbridge. He was spared to aid in the overthrow of his unfortunate sovereign. On the landing of Isabella, on 24 September 1326, his brother Henry Burghersh, the bishop of Lincoln, hastened to join her, and with Orlton, bishop of Hereford, took the initiative in the measures which speedily led to Edward's deposition and murder.