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By Root 2145 0

Beauchamp, the noted historian and archaeologist, examined some old documents found in Warwick Castle, that the existence of Richard’s full sister Isabel was revealed, and the consequences of her daughter Leverseye’s only child’s marriage to the son of Richard’s illegitimate Anthony were recognized as continuing the ancient barony. The full facts about the scandal that persuaded the family to keep that marriage secret, and to attempt to eliminate the evidence for the existence of Isabel and Leverseye, have yet to be published by Dr. Beauchamp, but the preparation for his claim to be recognized as Lord St. Amand is currently in the hands of a well-known firm of peerage lawyers, and doubtless the details of the scandal, rumored to be associated with the involvement of Isabel’s husband, a close companion of Henry VII, with the death of the Princes in the Tower “after” the death of Richard III, will doubtless soon be released.

Dr. Beauchamp’s sole heir is his niece, Claire Randall, who will be recognized by the Committee for Privileges in the House of Lords as heir presumptive to the title.

RANDALL (IN SUSSEX)3

The origins of the Randall family are neither so well known nor so distinguished as those of the Beauchamps. In recent years some of the more imaginative historians have claimed that Randall is but Randolph, and that the origins lie in Scotland with the Randolphs, anciently Earls of Moray, while others write of Rannulf the clerk of Wilkingeston (Wigston) at the end of the twelfth century, whose name was taken as a surname by his great-grandson Adam in 1309. The family continued on the same lands and in the same house until, in 1436, Richard Randolff (also Randull) migrated to Leicester and faded from the records.

Subsequently the name spread wide, many of its owners claiming minor gentility and adopting arms. Most of these arms featured three, four, or five mullets, reminiscent of the arms of the great warrior Freskin, who freed Moray from the threat of the Vikings and whose province passed to the Randolphs. One may assume that the adoption of their mullets was specifically to suggest that origin. Other Randall families took cushions instead of mullets, as three cushions were featured in the Randolph of Moray arms. Yet others, curiously, took martlets (a little bird with no beak and no feet, a notable feature of the Beauchamp of St. Amand arms), one of these being formally granted by the English heralds in 1573 (when the falsification of pedigrees and forgery of armorial histories were so widespread that Queen Elizabeth suggested that if a newly appointed King of Arms was as dishonest as his predecessor it would be no bad thing if he be hanged).

The Sussex Randalls emerged from comparative obscurity in the late seventeenth century when Sir Denys Randall was knighted, bought an attractive estate on the South Downs to rear yet more of the sheep that had made his money, and then was awarded a baronetcy by that impecunious monarch George I. (A baronetcy is not an hereditary knighthood, but in many ways its descent behaves as if it is. It was introduced as a title of honor and then degraded by the many kings who treated it as a source of revenue, and who even threatened to inflict fines on candidates who refused the award of the honor.) The subsequent descent of the Sussex Randalls was set out as a neatly illuminated parchment by Dr. Q. L. Beauchamp when his niece Claire married Franklin Wolverton Randall, heir presumptive to the baronetcy held by his fifth cousin, Sir Alexander Randall. (The Tatler noted at the time of the wedding the pleasing coincidence of martlets appearing in the arms of both bride and groom.)

FRASER OF LOVAT

As with many of the ancient families, scribblers down through the centuries have been ever ready to establish invented or speculative origins for the Frasers. Some have stated categorically that the Scottish Frasers have derived their name from La Fresilière in Anjou, France, while others have insisted that the name was accorded on a hot summer day when the King of France, thirsty from