James Berkeley
Bishop of Exeter
Elected	5 December 1326
Term ended	24 June 1327
Predecessor	Walter de Stapledon
Successor	John Godeley
Orders
Consecration	22 March 1327
Personal details
Died	(1327-06-24)24 June 1327
Denomination	Catholic
Coat of arms

James Berkeley (died 1327) wasBishop of Exeter for a period of three months in 1327, a term of office cut short by his death.

Berkeley was a younger son ofThomas de Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley (1245-1321),The Wise,feudal baron of Berkeley ofBerkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, by his wife Joan de Ferrers, a daughter ofWilliam de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby by his wife Margaret de Quincy, a daughter ofRoger de Quincy, 2nd Earl of Winchester.

Berkeley was elected bishop on 5 December 1326 and was consecrated on 22 March 1327.^[1]

Berkeley died on 24 June 1327,^[1] having been murdered and having suffered the destruction and despoliation of his manors, according to the account by his successor John de Grandisson.^[2]

Berkeley was buried inExeter Cathedral, against the north wall of the southambulatory, where survives hischest tomb. It is devoid of themonumental brass which originally adorned thePurbeck marble^[3]ledger stone top, in the form of a demi-effigy of a bishop wearing amitre, the indent of which is still visible.^[3] Following theReformation the brass was stripped away in 1561^[4] on the orders of the Cathedral authorities. The antiquarianJohn Leland (c. 1503-1552) saw the monument complete and recorded in his writings that it bore inscribed Latin verse of which one line was:In Barkley natus, jacet hic Jacobus tumulatus^[3] ("InBerkeley (Castle) he was born, here lies James covered"). This is similar to the eight-lineleonine verse (or "jingling verse") on the ledger stone of SirPeter Courtenay (1346–1405),KG, situated a few feet away from the bishop's tomb on the floor of the south ambulatory (but originally part of the Courtenaychantry chapel in the nave) which commences:Devoniae natus, comitis (comes) Petrusque vocatus ("Born of the Earl of Devon, called Peter"). The bishop's monument although now very plain, is of interest as it was constructed whilst the Norman nave was being demolished and rebuilt in the Gothic style, and it was made from some of the stones from the Norman building, alternate squares of pink and cream coloured stone, of which some similar survive in the south aisle of the nave marking the responds of the Norman arcade.^[5]

• Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996).Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 0-521-56350-X.

• Bishops of Exeter
• 1327 deaths
• 14th-century English Roman Catholic bishops
• 14th-century English clergy
• Berkeley family
• Younger sons of barons

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