Reginald West, 6th Baron De La Warr

Reginald West, 6th Baron De La Warr and 3rd Baron West (7 September 1395 – 27 August 1450) was the second son of Thomas West, 1st Baron West and Joan La Warr, half-sister and heiress of Thomas la Warr, 5th Baron De La Warr. He inherited the title Baron West in 1416 when his brother Thomas West, 2nd Baron West died during the Agincourt campaign, and the title Baron De La Warr in 1427 upon the death of his uncle.

Nomenclature

Reginaldus (dative Reginaldo) is the Latin form of his name; the French and English was Reynold. His writs of summonses to Parliament were addressed first to Reginaldo La Warr 1427–1429, then to Reginaldo West 1431–1449; he was not summoned before his brother-in-law died. Modern genealogists sometimes refer to him as West-De la Warr.

Marriages

He married twice:

• Firstly to Margaret Thorley (d.1433) of Tybeste, Cornwall c. 1424, which created a connection with William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk. She bore him the following progeny:
  • Richard West, 7th Baron De La Warr (birth date variously given as 1430 or 1432)
  • John West of Waith, (c. 1432), who married Eleanor Neville, thus establishing another important connection for the family.
  • Margaret (c. 1424) who married Thomas de Echyngham
  • Anne (c. 1426) who married Maurice Berkeley and was the mother of Sir William Berkeley.
• Secondly in 1433 or 1434, to Elizabeth Greyndour (d.1452), daughter and sole heiress of Robert Greyndour (d.1443) of Clearwell, Gloucestershire. (The earlier date would make her twelve or thirteen, which is not impossible, but Cokayne gives the latter date.) She bore him two daughters:
  • Elizabeth, who in 1466 married William Berkeley, 1st Marquess of Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley
  • Mary born 1415 married about 1472 to Sir Roger Lewknor.
  • William, of uncertain birth-date, appears to have died in infancy.

Career

Reginald was primarily important as the juncture between two important families, and for the politically-important connections that he and his children formed, and from which later holders of the title would profit; although he did go to the wars, commanding garrisons in France from 1418 to 1421.

He had to petition the Crown that he might sit in Parliament with the precedence of his la Warre ancestors, but Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, then regent, granted it. The rules for inheritance of titles in the fifteenth century were not as definite as they are now; or he would not have had to petition.

In 1446 he was granted license to go to Rome and thence to the Holy Land, but whether for pilgrimage or crusade is unclear; there is no evidence he went. He is buried at Broadwater, Sussex (now part of the town of Worthing.

Ancestry

Reginald West, 6th Baron de la Warr's ancestors in three generations

Reginald West, 6th Baron de la Warr	Father: Thomas West, 1st Baron West	Paternal Grandfather: Sir Thomas West	Paternal Great-grandfather: Sir Thomas West
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Eleanor Cantelupe/Cantelou (first cousin of William de Cantelou and daughter of Margaret de Mohun, descendant of William de Mohun)
		Paternal Grandmother: Alice Fitzherbert	Paternal Great-grandfather: Either Edmund Fitzherbert or Reginald Fitzherbert
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Unknown
	Mother: Joan la Warr	Maternal Grandfather: Roger la Warr, 3rd Baron la Warr	Maternal Great-grandfather: John la Warr
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Margaret Holland (daughter of Robert de Holand and half-sister of Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent)
		Maternal Grandmother: Eleanor Mowbray	Maternal Great-grandfather: John de Mowbray, 3rd Baron Mowbray
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Joan of Lancaster

Peerage of England
Preceded by Thomas West	Baron West 1416–1450	Succeeded by Richard West
Preceded by Thomas la Warr	Baron De La Warr 1427–1450