Maurice Berkeley, de jure 3rd Baron Berkeley (c. 1435 – September 1506), of Thornbury[1] in Gloucestershire, Maurice the Lawyer,[2] was an English nobleman.

It was assumed (according to a very unusual legal rationale) that the barony by writ created in 1412 was also held dependent on the tenure of Berkeley Castle (that is to say it was deemed a feudal barony or barony by tenure), and that it had thereby been forfeited[9] by association, and thus Maurice never assumed for himself the title of Baron Berkeley which he should have inherited as a matter of course from his brother.

In 1465 Maurice married Isabel Mede (1444 - 29 May 1514), the daughter of Philip Mede (c.1415-1475) of Wraxall Place in the parish of Wraxall in Somerset, MP, an Alderman of Bristol and thrice Mayor of Bristol, in 1458-9, 1461-2 and 1468-9.

Philip Mede was a merchant, and although a very wealthy man, was therefore considered to be below the social rank of gentry, which caused Maurice's brother to disinherit him for supposedly bringing the noble family of Berkeley into disrepute.

[12] In fact Philip Mede had provided valuable financing and had provided soldiers (and his nephews William Mede and Thomas Meade went up there, around 1470, perhaps to provide assistance) to fight on the side of William Berkeley, 1st Marquess of Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley in the Battle of Nibley Green, a private battle over the inheritance of the Berkeley estates with his cousin Thomas Talbot, 2nd Viscount Lisle.