Thomas Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, KG was an English landowner and peer. His family was a venerable one, and by the time Thomas reached adulthood, they were extremely influential in national politics. He claimed a direct bloodline from King Edward I. His father died when Thomas and his elder brother were young. John soon died, and Thomas inherited the Earldom of Nottingham. He had probably been friends with the king, Richard II, since he was young, and as a result, he was a royal favourite, a role he greatly profited from. He accompanied Richard on his travels around the kingdom and was elected to the Order of the Garter. Richard's lavish dispersal of his patronage made him unpopular with parliament and other members of the English nobility, and Mowbray fell out badly with the king's uncle, John of Gaunt.
Mowbray journeyed into Scotland with the king when he invaded in 1385, although it is possible that their friendship was waning at this point. Richard had a new favourite, Robert de Vere; Mowbray, meanwhile, became increasingly close to Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, whose daughter Elizabeth he married. The king already distrusted Arundel and Mowbray's new circle included the equally estranged Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester. Together they plotted against the king's chancellor, the Earl of Suffolk, appealing him in parliament. Suffolk was impeached, and a council was appointed to oversee the king. Mowbray gradually became disillusioned with his comrades, perhaps because of the brutal revenges they took and by 1389, he was back in the king's favour. Mowbray entered into jousts, led embassies and joined Richard on his 1395 invasion of Ireland, negotiating successfully with the Irish Kings. By now, the king felt sufficiently restored to power to attack his enemies, which seems to have culminated in Mowbray's killing of Gloucester in Calais in 1397 on Richard's orders. Probably in a quid pro quo, Mowbray was made Duke of Norfolk soon after.
In the meantime, Mowbray had fallen out with John of Gaunt's eldest son, Henry Bolingbroke, and they arranged a trial by combat. No sooner had this begun than the king cancelled it in person. He exiled them both: Mowbray for life, Bolingbroke for ten years. Mowbray took a vow of pilgrimage, intending to travel to Jerusalem. He reached Venice, but in September 1399, he died before leaving it. By his wife Elizabeth, he left two sons and three daughters. The eldest son, Thomas, inherited his father's earldom of Norfolk, rebelled against the king in 1405 and was beheaded for treason. Mowbray's second son, also John, inherited the dukedom and served the crown faithfully.
Background and youth
The Mowbrays were an old baronial family, having been first ennobled in 1295. By the 14th century, advantageous marriages, service to the crown and its rewards gave them great political standing. Thomas Mowbray was the son of John, Lord Mowbray and his wife Elizabeth Segrave, the daughter and heiress of John, Lord Segrave by his wife Margaret, Duchess of Norfolk. Margaret in turn was daughter and heiress of Thomas of Brotherton, Earl of Norfolk, the fifth son of King Edward I.Thomas Mowbray was born in 1366; the precise date is unknown. He was probably named after the cult of St Thomas Becket, which his mother followed. Thomas's elder brother John was their father's heir. Lord Mowbray died in 1368. Four years later, the brothers became the ward of their great-aunt, Blanche of Lancaster. John—a "special friend" to the king, suggest Enoch Powell and Keith Wallis— was created Earl of Nottingham on the coronation of King Richard II in 1377 but died in early 1383. Almost immediately—within a few days—the earldom was re-granted to Thomas, and even though he was still legally a minor, he was allowed seisin of his patrimony.
As a second son, little was recorded of Mowbray's youth, although his background and status ensured him a position at court. The King and Mowbray had probably been childhood friends and he was a royal favourite from around 1382. That year he was granted hunting rights in certain royal forests and was knighted. It was around this time that John of Gaunt's son Henry Bolingbroke began falling out of favour with the King. Mowbray supplanted him in the king's favour. In 1383, he married ten-year-old Lady Elizabeth Lestrange, heiress of John, Lord Blakemere, although she died not long after the wedding.
Political background
Richard II was only ten when he succeeded his grandfather's, Edward III's, throne in 1377. Although the appearance was maintained that he personally reigned, a continual council was organised to manage government business for him. This government, originally popular, faced increasing criticism following the suppression of the Peasants' Revolt in 1381. King Richard was reproved for his patronage of a few select royal favourites, to an extent that has been described as "lavish to the point of foolishness" by a biographer, historian Anthony Tuck. Parliament also believed that the King should rule as economically as possible, and they observed with displeasure the King's distribution of extravagant wealth to a limited circle. The greatest recipient was Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk. Abroad, the Hundred Years' War was going poorly for England. Several expeditions had left for France in the early years of the reign to defend English French territory, but they were almost all military and political failures.Career to 1390
Mowbray remained high in royal favour following the death of his wife, and he was elected to the Order of the Garter in October 1383, despite his military inexperience. The King granted him grace and favour rooms at the royal palaces of Eltham and Kings Langley. As an important courtier, Mowbray accompanied Richard on his tour of East Anglia in 1383. His closeness to the King drew the opprobrium of his uncle, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster—the most powerful man in the Kingdom after the King. Gaunt accused Mowbray, along with Robert, Earl of Oxford and William, Earl of Salisbury of plotting against Richard. Gaunt had fallen out of favour with his nephew and had withdrawn from the council. In retaliation for his accusations, says the chronicler Thomas Walsingham, Mowbray, de Vere and Montacute plotted to kill the duke in February 1385. The King held jousts between 13 and 14 February and Gaunt's murder was to be committed on the 14th; it is possible that Richard did not disapprove, such had relations between him and his uncle broken down over military policy. Gaunt told Richard that he viewed the King's advisors as "unsavoury"; Mowbray and his colleagues lodged a series of further accusations against the duke. Gaunt received a warning of the attack at the joust and fled on the night of 14 February.On 30 June 1385—as the royal army was about to leave for Scotland—Mowbray received his great-grandfather's office of Marshal of England. He led a force of 99 men-at-arms and 150 archers, serving with Gaunt in the vanguard. Mowbray helped draw up the King's ordinances for the campaign at Durham, although by now, suggests Given-Wilson, Mowbray's relations with Richard were cooling.
Less than a year after his first wife's death, Mowbray married Elizabeth Fitzalan. Elizabeth was a daughter of Richard, Earl of Arundel, and, although the King attended their wedding and the week-long festivities accompanying it, it is unlikely that the marriage was popular with Richard. His second marriage must have been a turning point. Richard doubtless saw Arundel as a negative influence on Mowbray and feared the strengthening of the earl's position against him. Mowbray and Elizabeth had also wed without his permission, so the King distrained Mowbray's estates until he had received the value of the license. Tuck argues that "nor was the king's concern unfounded"; Mowbray had been increasingly isolated at court by the King's latest favourites, such as Oxford, and had moved into the circle of those who opposed the new royal intimates, perhaps seeing them as the best way to dispose of his rival. This circle also included not only Richard's father-in-law but his uncle, Thomas, Duke of Gloucester. In a sign that Mowbray was not completely out of favour, Elizabeth received her robes as a Lady of the Garter in 1386.
Both men had played an important role in parliament's attack on Richard's chancellor, Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk at the Wonderful Parliament of 1386. The Wonderful Parliament had taken place against a backdrop of genuine fear of a French invasion—Walsingham described how Londoners, in his view, like "timid mice they scurried hither and thither—and Arundel had been appointed Admiral of England. In March the following year he, in turn, appointed Mowbray his deputy, and they took a fleet out of Margate and encountered a French-Flemish fleet almost immediately. The result was its crushing defeat. Between 50 and 100 French-Flemish ships were captured or destroyed. The King was unimpressed. When Arundel and Mowbray returned to court, Richard claimed they had only defeated merchants, and Oxford turned his back on the earls. It was, however, an extremely popular victory with the people.
Appellant
For most of the 1380s, Mowbray received what he doubtless considered his due from the King in lands, offices and grants. But by 1387, he became increasingly estranged from Richard's court. The main reason for this was probably jealousy of de Vere. While he was wealthy enough not to rely on royal favour, as de Vere did, he expected the honour and dignity that his birth and status demanded. This he saw increasingly syphoned off to his rival. Although the Wonderful Parliament had set up a commission to effectively restrain the King, it turned out to be ineffective. Richard emasculated the commission by leaving London immediately, ignoring its deliberations, and holding his own councils in the provinces. He also took legal advice from his judges who, unsurprisingly, found in his favour that those responsible for parliament's treatment of the King should be deemed traitors. In response, Mowbray joined Bolingbroke, Gloucester, Arundel and Warwick in appealing several of the King's friends, including Oxford, of treason, and raised an army at Hornsey, north of London. The Appellants' army engaged Oxford's at the Battle of Radcot Bridge, inflicting a crushing defeat on the royalists in December. Mowbray did not take part, as he was guarding the road back to the West Midlands at Moreton in Marsh, although he may have sent a portion of his retinue to the Appellant army.Mowbray appears responsible for dissuading Gloucester, Arundel and Warwick from marching to London and deposing the King. Indeed, he and Bolingbroke may have been a moderating influence on the others. Conversely, due to his position as Earl Marshal—one of the two heads of the Court of Chivalry—his presence with the Appellants enabled them to frame their offensive juridically rather than as a traditional noble rebellion. Mowbray was amongst the Appellants that attended Richard in the Tower of London—with arms linked— on 30 December 1387 and accused the King of treachery towards them. They also demanded Richard order the arrest of the appellees; Walsingham reports that he only agreed to do so on being threatened, once again, with deposition. The King attempted to divide Mowbray from his colleagues, asking him to stay behind when the others were ready to leave. With the King now under their control, Mowbray and the Appellants called parliament for early 1388. This session became known as the Merciless Parliament on account of the vengeance it laid on the King's closest supporters, with Mowbray overseeing the executions with "the aid and authority of the mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen of London". Mowbray was to take the condemned to the Tower and "'from there drag him through the city of London as far as the gallows at Tyburn, and there hang him by the neck".