Soon after reaching his majority and taking responsibility for the Earldom, he saw military action in Wales, defending against a Welsh rebellion led by Owain Glyndŵr. On 22 July 1403, the day after the Battle of Shrewsbury, he was made a Knight of the Garter. In the summer of 1404, he rode into what is today Monmouthshire at the head of an English force. Warwick engaged Welsh forces at the Battle of Mynydd Cwmdu, near Tretower Castle a few miles northwest of Crickhowell, nearly capturing Owain Glyndwr himself, taking Owain's banner, and forcing the Welsh to flee. The Welsh were chased down the valley of the River Usk where they regrouped and turned the tables on the pursuing English force, attempting an ambush. They chased the English in turn to the town walls of Monmouth after a skirmish at Craig-y-Dorth, a conical hill near Mitchel Troy.
Chivalry and Pilgrimage
Warwick acquired quite a reputation for chivalry, when in 1408 he went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and was challenged many times to fight in the sporting combat which was then popular. On the return trip he went through Russia and Eastern Europe; in 1410 he tried to join Teutonic Order after the battle of Grunwald, not returning to England until later the same year.
Soldier of the King
In 1410, he was appointed a member of the royal council, and two years later he was fighting in command at Calais. Up to this time Warwick's career had been that of the typical knight-errant, but in 1413 he was Lord High Steward at the Prince's coronation as Henry V of England, and became a trusted counsellor to the king. The following year he helped put down the Lollard uprising, and then went to Normandy as Captain of Calais, and represented England at the coronation of Sigismund as King of Germany and the Council of Constance. Warwick spent much of the next decade fighting the French in the Hundred Years' War. He took a prominent part in the campaigns of 1417–18. Then he joined the king before Rouen, and in October 1418 had charge of the negotiations with the dauphin Louis and with the duke of Burgundy. Next year he was again the chief English spokesman in the conference at Meulan, and afterwards was Henry's representative in arranging the Treaty of Troyes. He held high command at sieges of French towns between 1420 and 1422. In 1419, he was created Count of Aumale, as part of the King's policy of giving out Norman titles to his nobles. He was appointed Master of the Horse.
Responsibilities
Henry V's will gave Warwick the responsibility for the education of the infant Henry VI of England. This duty required him to travel back and forth between England and Normandy many times, and during these travels he acted as superintendent of the trial of Joan of Arc. In 1437, when the king's minority ended, the Royal Council deemed his duty complete. Despite his age, he loyally accepted an appointment as lieutenant of France and Normandy. Arriving in Normandy on 8 November, he ruled with vigour and remained in France for the remaining two years of his life.
Richard de Beauchamp's will was made at Caversham Castle in Oxfordshire, one of his favoured residences, in 1437. Most of his property was entailed, but with a portion of the rest the will established a substantial trust. After his debts were paid, the trust endowed the Collegiate Church of St Mary in Warwick, and called for the construction of a new chapel there. It also enlarged the endowment of the chantries at Elmley Castle and Guy's Cliffe, and gave a gift to Tewkesbury Abbey. Beauchamp died in Rouen, Normandy, two years later, on 30 April 1439. After the completion of the chapel, his body was in 1475 transferred there, where his magnificent gilt-bronze monumental effigy may still be seen.
