Bartholomew Badlesmere
This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica. Please update as needed.
Bartholomew Badlesmere (1275-1322) was a English nobleman. He was the son and heir of Gunselm de Badlesmere (d. 1301), and fought in the English army both in France and Scotland during the later years of the reign of Edward I. In 1307 he became governor of Bristol Castle. Edward II appointed him steward of his household. Badlesmere made a compact with some other noblemen to gain supreme influence in the royal council. Although very hostile to Earl Thomas of Lancaster, Badlesmere helped to make peace between the king and the earl in 1318, and was a member of the middle party which detested both Edward's supporters and his enemies. The king's conduct, however, drew him into opposition to the king, and he had already joined Edward's enemies when, in October 1321, his wife, Margaret de Clare, refused to admit Queen Isabella to her husband's castle at Leeds in Kent. The king assaulted and captured the castle, seized and imprisoned Lady Badlesmere, and civil war began.
After the defeat of the Earl of Lancaster at the Battle of Boroughbridge, Badlesmere was captured and hanged at Canterbury on April 14, 1322. His son and heir, Giles, died without children in 1338.
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