John Mowbray, 2nd Duke of Norfolk
John de Mowbray, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, 3rd Earl of Nottingham, 8th Baron Mowbray, 9th Baron Segrave KG, Earl Marshal (1392 – 19 October 1432) was an English nobleman and soldier. He was a younger son of the first Duke of Norfolk and Lady Elizabeth Fitzalan, but inherited his father's earldom of Norfolk (but not the dukedom) when his elder brother rebelled against King Henry IV and was executed before reaching the age of inheritance. This and the fact that his mother lived to old age and held a third of his estates in dower, meant that until the last few years of his life he was, although an important political figure, poorly-off financially.
Probably due to the need to augment his income, he took the still-popular path for young members of the English nobility by taking part in the Hundred Years' War in France. His first campaign was in 1415 with Henry V, and although he took part in some of the great expeditions, he, like so many of his comrades, fell badly ill with dysentery and had to return to England. For this reason, he missed the Battle of Agincourt.
When Henry V died in 1422, Mowbray remained a leading commander of the armed forces in France for the new boy-king, Henry VI. He continued campaigning there for the next five years, and, when parliament decided it was time to crown the new young king—in both Westminster Abbey and in France—Mowbray acted as both royal bodyguard and councillor. He also took part in Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester's personal campaign in Hainaut, which appears for once to have been profitable to him.
Foreign service occupied most of Mowbray's career but often cost him more than he gained from any spoils. Hence it was not until his mother died in 1425 that his fortunes changed for the better; not only did he inherit her large share of his father's estates, but he also received promotion from Earl of Norfolk to
Whilst still a youth Mowbray had been married by his
Youth and early career
John Mowbray was born in
On 12 January the following year, John married Neville's eldest daughter, Katherine. At this time he also received the return of his family's hereditary office of Earl Marshal, which had been granted to Westmorland in 1399 on the death of John's father.[2] Historian Christine Carpenter has suggested that his restoration was part of Henry V's policy of reconciling the families that had rebelled against his father.[5] Chris Given-Wilson has noted that in spite of this spirit of reconciliation, none of the heirs received outright their treacherous fathers' lands, and that this, therefore, made John Mowbray more likely to be "dependent on the crown" for additional sources of income.[3] G. L. Harriss described Mowbray as "younger than the king and anxious to recover forfeited lands and titles and restore... family honour".[6]
King Henry IV died in March 1413 and was succeeded by his eldest son, who became Henry V. It was probably at his coronation, on 9 April that year, that Mowbray first exercised his office of Earl Marshal, and as a fee, he was paid with a silver dish, worth approximately twenty-five marks. Furthermore, one of the old King's last acts, in early March, had been to restore Mowbray to full seisin of his estates, and to confirm him as Earl of Nottingham. Two days after the king's death, the earl was summoned to the parliament for the first time;[2] however, he "continued to badger" the new king, Henry V, for the restoration of his full estates.[3]
Military service in France
Under Henry V
By the spring of 1414, the new king was publicly reiterating the claim to the French throne that English Kings had traditionally upheld.
Henry V's expeditionary force landed in France on 14 August, and Mowbray took part in the first major engagement, the
The following year Mowbray again contracted to go to France, this time with a bigger force than before, at 100 men-at-arms and 300 archers; he would not return to England for five years. During this period of the war he took part in some of the major sieges of the campaign, for example, those of
In 1420, Mowbray continued with his success in the military; the extent of his activity is indicated by the fact that he had to allow duties in England to pass by. He passed Christmas 1419 with the king at his
With the Duke of Gloucester
What has been described as a "curious" episode in Mowbray's career occurred in 1424. Already friends with Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, when the duke decided to invade the county of Hainaut in November that year, Mowbray journeyed with him[2] and acted as his military commander.[12] Little is known of this expedition except that, having raided Brabant, it was probably profitable for Mowbray.[2]
Under Henry VI
Mowbray was still in France when King Henry returned in 1421, maintaining a
He was not a particularly regular attendee to the council,[13] and within a year, he had contracted again to serve abroad, on this occasion bringing 115 men-at-arms and 300 archers with Lords Willoughby, Hungerford, and the Duke of Exeter. Although Mowbray did not participate in the Battle of Cravant, which took place on 31 July 1423, he was not inactive; having taken part in so many sieges in his career, he was assisting Jean de Luxembourg in his efforts to relieve Bohain, and later the Lyonnais castle of La Folleye.[2] This campaign appears to have succeeded in its brief of the "protection and defence" of English France, and not only was Normandy almost cleared of enemy forces, the English even managed some "daring sorties" beyond the region.[13]
Although by now a leader of the royal armies in France,[13] Rowena Archer suggests that it was around this time that his martial enthusiasm for royal service began to pale, at least in part because "it had owed much to his personal service to Henry V and to his office as marshal." But the new King was a baby, and with no further major campaigns taking place during the young king's minority, Mowbray's office of Earl Marshal was effectively unused.[2] On 19 May 1426, the Duke of Bedford knighted the young king, who in turn dubbed a number of new knights from amongst the heirs of the nobility, including John Mowbray's son and namesake.[13]
Later career and death
John Mowbray nearly drowned in the River Thames in November 1428 after his barge capsized after hitting a pier beneath London Bridge; he lost a number of his household in this accident.[14] Mowbray was present in the council that same year which denounced the Duke of Gloucester's re-asserted attempt to increase his authority; Mowbray signed his name to an "astonished" memoranda that the duke would think of such a thing when the king was increasingly close to attaining his majority and with it being ready "to occupy his full royal power."[12]
By May 1429, he had written his first surviving
John Mowbray died on 19 October 1432
Estates and income
Mowbray's wealth was adversely affected by his service in France. The Agincourt campaign, for example, cost him around £2,000, the detailed expenditure being recorded by his receiver-general including such purchases as his personal privy seat.[2] In spite of his years of fighting there, however, he had never received any lands or titles based on conquest[2] (although he did manage to sell a large number of French prisoners to Lord Fanhope).[6] Equally affecting his English estates was the fact that substantial dowers were still in the hands of his mother and sister-in-law, Lady Constance Holland (1387–1437) (his brother's widow, and daughter of John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter).[2] As K.B. McFarlane put it, his estate was "both wasted and encumbered" from the moment he came into possession[9] On his mother's death, however, in 1425, Mowbray received her dower estates concentrated in East Anglia, centred around Framlingham Castle, which he took over,[2] and secured his recognition as duke of Norfolk.[16]
Although he seems never to have been a particularly active Councillor to the King, he nevertheless received 300 marks payment a year for the office, and indeed, even on his deathbed, he was still owed a portion of £1,300 arrears from the government in salary.[2] He had, however, been the first Mowbray to gain possession of the Brotherton and Seagrave estates that had been in the possession of his great-grandmother, Margaret of Brotherton, Duchess of Norfolk, who had died in 1399;[2] and he has been described, after his mother's death, as representing "a new nobility" in East Anglia, alongside the Duke of Suffolk.[17] The Brotherton lands particularly have been described as having political potential due to their being a large new conglomerate of estates in a whole new area of influence. As these lands were concentrated in East Anglia, for the first time, a Mowbray Duke of Norfolk had substantially expanded his natural patrimony out of and away from Lincolnshire. The Brotherton lands were worth over £1,400 at the turn of the century, although by the time Mowbray had inherited it, he had two dowagers (the widows of his brother and father) to support out of his income, and they were themselves relatively young[17]
Thus, although he inherited a large estate in East Anglia, it has been estimated that only around half of it was under Mowbray's direct control. It may well be as a direct result of his lack of political significance in the region that even though he spent most of his career in France, on his visits home, he spent the majority of his time in London or Epworth, not the east of England.[17]
Precedence and the dukedom of Norfolk
Throughout his life, Mowbray was obsessed with his "rights and privileges," even arguing with Henry V over the powers and extent of his office of Earl Marshal. His concern for establishing—and augmenting—his own authority was such that he was drawn in dispute with
A month later, on 14 July, John Mowbray paid homage to Henry VI as the second Mowbray Duke of Norfolk,[2] which, says Griffiths, was intended to "soothe his offended dignity and quiten the discord".[13] Having recently fought for the Duke of Gloucester in Brabant, Mowbray relied on the duke's support against Beauchamp, who was himself known to be part of Cardinal Beaufort's clique.[18]
Family
Mowbray married
Apart from his elder brother, John Mowbray had three sisters, Elizabeth, Margaret and Isabel. Because of Thomas' treason, the sisters had to be found husbands in severely straitened circumstances. Elizabeth married Michael de la Pole, 3rd Earl of Suffolk, although, as K. B. McFarlane noted, his family was, although later ducal, both "impoverished and discredited and also parvenu", they had no sons.[9]
At some point between 1415 and 1420, Margaret married Sir Robert Howard; their son John was to be an important player in the Wars of the Roses. He was to be a close associate of Mowbray's son and heir and also close to King Richard III who was to grant Howard the dukedom of Norfolk in 1483.[20] Isabel married twice: firstly to Sir Henry Ferrers of Groby ("heir of an ancient but minor lordly house") and latterly, to James Berkeley ("one of two claimants to the headship and depleted lands of another").[9]
Character
Mowbray's most recent biographer, Dr. Rowena Archer, has not overemphasised his positive qualities. She has described his contributions to the political weal as "at best routine, at worst half-hearted," and notes generally how little he went out of his way to actively participate in domestic politics. Most councils he attended were mostly focused on organising his foreign expeditions; in fact, he "did the minimum amount expected" of him in terms of the running of the country during the king's minority.[2]
She does, however, note that being on friendly relations with both the Duke of Gloucester and Cardinal Beaufort as he was throughout the king's minority, he was active in keeping the peace and arbitrating between them on occasions during their periodic feud.[2] Yet, if he kept the peace between those two men, he was perfectly capable of entering into his own feuds as he showed in November 1428, when he was in a violent dispute with the Earl of Huntingdon.[2] This feud was virulent enough that both lords were removed from the Bedfordshire King’s Bench while the Duke of Gloucester personally investigated the "inveterate feud".[13]
References
- ^ St. John Hope 1901.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag Archer 2004.
- ^ a b c d e f Given-Wilson 2012, p. 447.
- ^ Castor 2000, pp. 102.
- ^ Carpenter 1997, p. 71.
- ^ a b c d e Harriss 2005, p. 590.
- ^ Allmand 1992, pp. 66–73.
- ^ Pugh 1988, p. 118.
- ^ a b c d McFarlane 1980, p. 221.
- ^ Sumption 2015, pp. 501–502.
- ^ Vickers 1907, p. 245.
- ^ a b c Jacob 1993, p. 239.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Griffiths 1981, p. 1980.
- ^ a b Crawford 2010, p. 3.
- ^ Griffiths 1981, p. 95.
- ^ a b Chisholm 1911, p. 743.
- ^ a b c Castor 2000, pp. 102–104, +n..
- ^ Carpenter 1997, p. 81.
- ^ Jewell 1996, pp. 144–145.
- ^ Carpenter 1997, p. 107.
Bibliography
- Allmand, C. (1992). Henry V. Yale Monarchs. Berkeley: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-30021-293-8.
- Archer, R. E. (2004). "Mowbray, John, second duke of Norfolk (1392–1432), magnate". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
- Carpenter, C. (1997). The Wars of the Roses: Politics and the Constitution in England, c.1437–1509. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-31874-7.
- Castor, H. (2000). The King, the Crown, and the Duchy of Lancaster: Public Authority and Private Power, 1399–1461. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-820622-4.
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 742–744.
- Crawford, A. (2010). Yorkist Lord: John Howard, Duke of Norfolk c.1425–1485. London: Continuum. ISBN 978-1-44115-201-5.
- Given-Wilson, C. (2012). Henry IV. Padstow: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-30015-419-1.
- Griffiths, R. A. (1981). The Reign of Henry VI. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-04372-5.
- Harriss, G. L. (2005). Shaping the Nation: England 1360-1461. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-921119-7.
- Jacob, E. F. (1993). The Fifteenth Century, 1399-1485. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-285286-1.
- Jewell, H. M. (1996). Women in Medieval England. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-4017-7.
- McFarlane, K. B. (1980). The Nobility of Later Medieval England: the Ford Lectures for 1953 and Related Studies. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19822-362-7.
- Pugh, T. B. (1988). Henry V and the Southampton Plot of 1415. Stroud: Alan Sutton. ISBN 978-0-86299-541-6.
- St. John Hope, W. H. (1901). The Stall Plates of the Knights of the Order of the Garter, 1348-1485. London: A. Constable and Company, Limited. OCLC 785063205.
- Sumption, J. (2015). The Hundred Years War: Cursed Kings. Vol. IV. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-81222-388-0.
- Vickers, K.H. (1907). Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. London: Archibald Constable. OCLC 718124587.