Thomas Woodford of Sproxton
Thomas
Woodford, the eldest son of Sir Robert Woodford, married his cousin Alice
Berkeley who was the daughter of Sir Lawrence Berkeley of Wymondham and
Joan Woodford, sister to Sir Robert Woodford.
Their son, Ralph was born in 1430. Thomas died before his father, and hence Ralph became the heir to his grandfather's estates.
Alice's
father, Sir Lawrence Berkeley (d.c.1413) was a descendant of a cadet
branch of the Berkeley family from Thomas, 1st Lord Berkeley
(d.1321) through his son Sir Thomas Berkeley, Lord of Coston, Leics., a
younger brother of Maurice, 2nd Lord Berkeley. (d.1326).
Thomas, 1st Lord Berkeley was in turn the great-grandson of King John of England (d.1216) through Richard Fitzroy, the illegitimate son of King John and Ela de Warenne, sister of the 6th Earl of Warenne, and Fitzroy's daughter, Isabel (d.1276/7).
From Joan (d.1309), the wife of Thomas, 1st Lord Berkeley, can also be traced a descent from Henry I of England. Hence Sir Ralph Woodford would have been able to claim through his mother to be descended from both Henry I and John, and through his grandmother Isabel Neville, from Alfred the Great.