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.

Reginaldus (dative Reginaldo) is the Latin form of his name; the French and English was Reynold. His 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.

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.

He married Margaret Thorley of Tybeste, Cornwall c. 1424, which created a connection with the Earl of Suffolk. She bore him at least two sons, Richard West, 7th Baron De La Warr (birth date variously given as 1430 or 1432) and John West of Waith, (c. 1432). This latter son in turn married Eleanor Neville, thus establishing another important connection for the family. She also bore him two daughters, Margaret (c. 1424) who married Thomas de Echyngham and Anne (c. 1426) who married Maurice Berkeley and was the mother of one of the Sir William Berkeleys.

Margaret died in 1433. Either in that year, or in 1443, Reginald married Elizabeth Greyndour. (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 and Mary born 1415 married about 1472 to Sir Roger Lewknor. A son, William, of uncertain date, appears to have died in infancy.

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