Baron Zouche

Baron Zouche is a title that has thrice been created in the Peerage of England.

The de la Zouche family descended from Alan de la Zouche, sometimes called Alan de Porhoët and Alan la Coche (c. 1136–1190), a Breton who settled in England during the reign of Henry II. He was the son of Vicomte Geoffrey I de Porhoët (a great-grandson of Henry I of England) and Hawisa of Brittany. He married Adeline (Alice) de Belmeis, daughter of Phillip de Belmeis and Maud la Meschine and died at North Melton in Devon. He obtained Ashby in Leicestershire (called after him Ashby-de-la-Zouch) by his marriage.

His son was Roger la Zouche (c. 1175– bef. 14 May 1238). Roger La Zouche became the father of Alan la Zouche (1205–1270) and Eudo La Zouche.


 * 1) Alan was justice of Chester and justice of Ireland under Henry III of England. He was loyal to the king during the struggle with the barons, fought at the Battle of Lewes, and helped to arrange the peace of Kenilworth. As the result of a quarrel over some lands with John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey, he was seriously injured in Westminster Hall by the earl and his retainers, and died on August 10, 1270.


 * 1) Eudo La Zouche married Millicent de Cantilou.

Alan's grandson, Alan la Zouche, was summoned to Parliament on 6 February 1299 as Baron la Zouche of Ashby. He was governor of Rockingham Castle and steward of Rockingham Forest. However, this barony fell into abeyance on his death in 1314.

Another grandson of Alan de la Zouche was William la Zouche, Lord of Haryngworth, who was summoned to Parliament as Baron Zouche, of Haryngworth, on 16 August 1308. His great-great-great-grandson, the fifth Baron, married Alice Seymour, 6th Baroness St Maur, and assumed that peerage in her right. Their son succeeded to both titles.

On the death in 1625 of the eleventh and twelfth Baron, the peerages fell into abeyance between the latter's daughters Hon. Elizabeth and Hon. Mary.

However, in 1815 the Barony of Zouche was called out of abeyance in favour of Sir Cecil Bishopp, 8th Baronet, of Parham (see Bishopp Baronets of Parham), who became the twelfth Baron Zouche. Through his mother he was a descendant of the aforementioned Hon. Elizabeth. (The Barony of St Maur, however, remains in abeyance to this day.) On his death in 1828 he was succeeded in the Baronetcy by a cousin, while the Barony of Zouche once again fell into abeyance, this time between his two daughters Hon. Harriet Anne Curzon and Lady Katherine Isabella Brooke-Pechell. The abeyance was terminated the following year in favour of Hon. Harriet Anne, who became the thirteenth Baroness. Known as Baroness de la Zouch, she was the wife of Hon. Robert Curzon, younger son of Assheton Curzon, 1st Viscount Curzon. Her son was the fourteenth Baron. On his death the title passed to his son, the fifteenth Baron, and then to the latter's sister, the sixteenth Baroness. She never married and was succeeded by her cousin, the seventeenth Baroness, the granddaughter of a younger son of the thirteenth Baroness. She was succeeded by her grandson, the eighteenth and present Baron, who had already succeeded his father as 12th Baronet in 1944.

Another grandchild of the original Alan de la Zouche, Joyce la Zouche, married Robert Mortimer of Richard's Castle; one of their younger sons, William la Zouche, took the name of la Zouche and bought Ashby-de-la-Zouch from Alan in 1304, the latter to hold it until his death (1314). On December 26, 1323, he was created, by writ, Baron Zouche of Mortimer. This peerage became abeyant in 1406.

Barons la Zouche of Ashby (1299)

 * Alan la Zouche, 1st Baron la Zouche of Ashby (1267–1314) (abeyant 1314)

Barons Zouche (of Haryngworth) (1308)

 * William la Zouche, 1st Baron Zouche (1276–1352)
 * William la Zouche, 2nd Baron Zouche (1321–1382)
 * William la Zouche, 3rd Baron Zouche (c. 1355–1396)
 * William la Zouche, 4th Baron Zouche (c. 1373–1415)
 * William la Zouche, 5th Baron Zouche (c. 1402–1462)
 * William la Zouche, 6th Baron Zouche, 7th Baron St Maur (c. 1432–1468)
 * John la Zouche, 7th Baron Zouche, 8th Baron St Maur (1459–1526) (His attainder of 1485 was reversed in 1495)
 * John la Zouche, 8th Baron Zouche, 9th Baron St Maur (c. 1486–1550)
 * Richard la Zouche, 9th Baron Zouche, 10th Baron St Maur (c. 1510–1552)
 * George la Zouche, 10th Baron Zouche, 11th Baron St Maur (c. 1526–1569)
 * Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche, 12th Baron St Maur (1556–1625) (abeyant 1625)
 * Cecil Bisshopp, 12th Baron Zouche (1753–1828) (abeyance terminated 1815; abeyant 1828)
 * Harriet Anne Curzon, 13th Baroness Zouche (1787–1870) (abeyance terminated 1829)
 * Robert Curzon, 14th Baron Zouche (1810–1873)
 * Robert Nathaniel Cecil George Curzon, 15th Baron Zouche (1851–1914)
 * Darea Curzon, 16th Baroness Zouche (1860–1917)
 * Mary Cecil Frankland, 17th Baroness Zouche (1875–1965)
 * James Assheton Frankland, 18th Baron Zouche (b. 1943)

The heir apparent is the present holder's son the Hon. William Thomas Assheton Frankland (b. 1983)

Barons Zouche of Mortimer (1323)

 * William la Zouche, 1st Baron Zouche of Mortimer (d. 1336)
 * Alan la Zouche, 2nd Baron Zouche of Mortimer (1317–1346)
 * Hugh la Zouche, 3rd Baron Zouche of Mortimer (1338–1368)
 * Robert la Zouche, 4th Baron Zouche of Mortimer (d. 1399)
 * Joyce Burnell, 5th Baroness Zouche of Mortimer (d. 1406) (abeyant 1406)