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The House Mowbray
A chronology of the de Mowbray family in Yorkshire
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Headlines are in brown.
Dates are in red.
Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.
References and citations are in turquoise.
Context and local history are in purple.
Geographical context is in green.
The House of Mowbray was an Anglo-Norman
noble house, derived from Montbray in Normandy and
founded by Roger de Mowbray, son of Nigel d'Aubigny.
1088
Another Scottish force under Malcolm
Canmore attacked the north of England again. Roger de Mowbray was made Earl of
Northumberland. He built New Castle as a defence against invasion.
1095
Robert de Mowbray rebelled in
Northumberland in 1095 and was replaced.
Following the Norman conquest of
England, Geoffrey de Montbray, bishop of Coutances, was granted some 280 English manors. His heir,
his brother Roger's son, Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumbria, was forfeited
and imprisoned for life on rebelling in 1095. His lands were confiscated
and he was forced to divorce his wife, Matilda de L'Aigle,
daughter of Richer, Lord of L'Aigle. His Mowbray
lands would be granted to her new husband, a royal favourite, Nigel d'Aubigny.
1106
Henry I defeated his elder brother and rival
Robert Curthose at the Battle of Tinchebrai.
After his victory he visited York and Pickering.
Henry I redistributed land from Robert Curtose’s supporters, including Robert de Stuteville to his new men, including Nigel d’Albini, ancestor of the Mowbray
family and Robert de Brus.
The de
Stutevilles were deprived of the Kirkbymoorside estate in 1106 when it was
granted to Nigel d’Aubigny, one of Henry I’s “new
men”
.
The relevant estate including
Kirkbymoorside passed to Nigel d'Aubigny
(Neel d'Aubigny or Nigel de Albini, died
1129), who was a Norman Lord and English baron who was the son of Roger d'Aubigny and Amice or Avice de Mowbray. His paternal uncle
William was lord of Aubigny, while his father was an avid supporter of Henry I
of England. His brother William d'Aubigny Pincerna was the king's Butler and father of the 1st Earl
of Arundel. He was the founder of the noble House of Mowbray.
Nigel d'Aubigny
was son of Roger d'Aubigny (of Saint-Martin-d'Aubigny) and with his brother William was an ardent
supporter of Henry I. The brothers were rewarded with great estates in England.
William was made king's butler, and was father of William d'Aubigny,
1st Earl of Arundel; Nigel was rewarded with marriage to the former wife of the
imprisoned Robert de Mowbray, and with the escheated Norman fief of her former
husband, also being give a number of lands in England.
After a decade of childless marriage, he would divorce Matilda and remarry in
1118 to Gundred de Gournay (died 1155), daughter of
Gerard de Gournay, lord of Gournay. They had one son by that marriage, Roger,
who would inherit from his father the Mowbray lands in Normandy and take the
Mowbray surname.
He is described as "one of the
most favoured of Henry's 'new men'". While he entered the king's
service as a household knight and brother of the king's butler, William d'Aubigny, in the years following the Battle of Tinchebrai in 1106 Nigel was rewarded by Henry with
marriage to an heiress to the Mowbray estates who brought him lordship in
Normandy and with the lands of several men, primarily that of Robert de
Stuteville. The Mowbray honour became one of the wealthiest estates in Norman
England.
He had a castle at Thirsk.
1107
From 1107 to about 1118, Nigel served as
a royal official in Yorkshire and Northumberland. In the last decade of his life he was frequently traveling with Henry I, most likely
as one of the king's trusted military and administrative advisors.
Nigel's first marriage, after 1107, was
to Matilda de L'Aigle, whose prior marriage to the
disgraced and imprisoned Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumbria, had been
annulled based on consanguinity. She brought to the marriage with Nigel her
ex-husband's lordship of Montbray (Mowbray).
Following a decade of childless marriage
and the death of her powerful brother, Nigel in turn repudiated Matilda based
on his consanguinity with her former husband, and in June 1118 Nigel married to
Gundred de Gournay (died 1155), daughter of Gerard de
Gournay and his wife Edith de Warenne, and hence
granddaughter of William de Warenne, 1st Earl of
Surrey.
Nigel and Gundred
had son who would be known as Roger de Mowbray after
the former Mowbray lands he would inherit from his father, and he was
progenitor of the later noble Mowbray family.
1129
Nigel died in
Normandy, possibly at the abbey of Bec in 1129.
Gundreda
administered the estate on behalf of her under aged son Roger de Mowbray.
It was she who
granted the whole of Welburn and Skiplam together
with the western side of Bransdale to Rievaulx Abbey, who developed the whole
area as a series of granges and cotes, including Colt House and Stirk House in
Bransdale.
1138
Sir Roger de
Mowbray (c. 1120–1188) was an Anglo-Norman magnate. He had substantial
English landholdings. A supporter of King Stephen, with whom he was captured at
Lincoln in 1141, he rebelled against Henry II. He made multiple religious
foundations in Yorkshire. He took part in the Second Crusade and later returned
to the Holy Land, where he was captured and died in 1187.
Roger was the
son of Nigel d'Aubigny by his second wife, Gundreda de Gournay. On his father's death in 1129 he
became a ward of the crown. Based at Thirsk with his mother, on reaching his
majority in 1138, he took title to the lands awarded to his father by Henry I
both in Normandy including Montbray, from which he
would adopt his surname, as well as the substantial holdings in Yorkshire and
around Melton.
Soon after, in
1138, he participated in the Battle of the Standard against the Scots and,
according to Aelred of Rievaulx, acquitted himself honourably. Thereafter,
Roger's military fortunes were mixed. Whilst acknowledged as a competent and
prodigious fighter, he generally found himself on the losing side in his
subsequent engagements.
1141
During the
anarchic reign of King Stephen Roger de Mowbray was captured with Stephen at
the battle of Lincoln in 1141. Soon after his release, Roger married Alice de
Gant (d. c. 1181), widow of Ilbert de Lacy and daughter of Walter de
Gant. Roger and Alice had two sons, Nigel and Robert. Roger also had at least
one daughter, donating his lands at Granville to the Abbaye aux Dames in Caen
when she became a nun there.
1147
In 1147, he was
one of the few English nobles to join Louis VII of France on the Second
Crusade. He gained further acclaim, according to John of Hexham, defeating a
Muslim leader in single combat.
1154
The first
reference to Farndale, the place
It was only to
be expected that the monks would seek to extend their properties into the
Mowbray territories further east and at some time before 1154, Roger, granted
them a wood in Farndale called Midelhoved, ie middle head, and another word called Duvanesthuat,
probably near Duffin Stone Farm at the northwestern end of the dale, together
with common pasture rights and permission to take building timber and wood for
those who stay there. Duvanesthuat embodies an Irish
Norse personal name, but there is nothing to suggest that it was a functioning
settlement by the mid 12th century. The whole area
was regarded as a private forest of the Mowbrays. The grant was made “saving
Roger’s wild beasts”, and it seems to have been anticipated that the monks
would want to build a new dwelling there, probably to use as a grange or cote.
Two clearings
in the valley of Farndale (Midelhovet and Duvansesthuat) were granted by Roger de Mowbray to the
Abbey and monks of Rievaulx Abbey. By it Roger bestowed upon the Monastery, ‘….Midelhovet, that clearing in
Farndale where the hermit Edmund used to dwell; and another clearing which is
called ‘Duvanesthuat’ and common of pasture in the
same valley of Farndale….
Roger de
Mowbray, son of Niel Daubeney, grantee of the Stuteville lands, was holding
Kirkby Moorside.
Robert de Stuteville, grandson of the first Robert, laid
claim to the barony.
Roger gave him
Kirkby Moorside for 10 knights’ fees in satisfaction of his claim. This
arrangement however was not ratified in the King’s courts.
1173
Roger, a great lord with a hundred
knight's fees, was captured with King Stephen at the battle of Lincoln, joined
the rebellion against Henry II (1173), founded abbeys, and went on crusade. His
grandson William, a leader in the rising against King John, was one of the 25
barons of the Magna Carta, as was his brother Roger, and was captured fighting
against Henry III at the rout of Lincoln.
Roger supported the Revolt of 1173–74
against Henry II and fought with his sons, Nigel and Robert, but they were
defeated at Kinardferry, Kirkby Malzeard
and Thirsk.
Henry the Young King allied himself with
the King of Scotland in 1172 and rebelled. Some of the sokemen of Pickering were fined for their involvement.
Bernard de Balliol and Robert de Stuteville captured the Scottish King at Alnwick
and imprisoned him at Richmond Castle.
Roger de Mowbray of Thirsk joined the rebels and he was attacked by royal forces. He was defeated
on two occasions around Northallerton.
There was peace by 1175, when Robert de Stuteville supervised the building of castles in
Edinburgh and Scarborough.
Roger de
Mowbray was compelled to hand back Kirkbymoorside to the de Stutevilles along with many other fees.
The rising Stuteville
family recovered much of the old estate forfeited by their ancestors, including
Kirkbymoorside.
1186
to 1187
Roger left for the Holy Land again in
1186, but encountered further misfortune being captured at the Battle of Hattin
in 1187. His ransom was met by the Templars, but he died soon after and,
according to some accounts, was buried at Tyre in Palestine. There is, however,
some controversy surrounding his death and burial and final resting-place.
1191
The House of
Mowbray, the senior line of which would become Barons Mowbray, descended from
Roger's son Nigel, who died on crusade at Acre in 1191.
A dispute broke out again between
William de Stuteville, son of Robert and William de Mowbray,
grandson of Roger.
William de Mowbray’s problems lay in his
family’s early rise to power, specifically in their acquisition from Henry I a century before of the lands of Robert de Stuteville, a
supporter of Henry’s brother Robert Curthose in his failed bid for the English
crown, and who had forfeited his property to Henry. In 1200 Robert’s descendant, William,
reactivated his family’s claim against the Mowbrays, and in that year William
offered the sum of 2,000 marks (over £1,300) to John to secure a judgement in
the matter. When the case was brought
before the king’s justices, however, it ended in a compromise, and one highly
favourable to Stuteville. William was
nonetheless still under obligation to pay and, like others before him, had
little alternative but to borrow from Jewish moneylenders. William had gambled everything on the
favourable outcome of a risky legal action and had failed. It is clear that, when
he embarked on rebellion against John, he had nothing to lose.
Finally
William de Mowbray confirmed the previous agreement and gave 9 knights’ fees in
augmentum.
Henceforward Kirkby Moorside was held of
the Mowbrays by the heirs of the Stutevilles until the end of the 14th century.
The Mowbrays after their interest in Kirkbymoorside ceased
1214
Some of the Yorkshire barons held no
continental lands, and had little interest in Johnm’s
overseas interests. William
de Mowbray and Peter de Brus refused to join the
overseas adventure to Poitou or to pay war taxes in 1214.
These barons were prominent amongst the northern
barons who forced the Magna Carta on John in 1215.
1215
John’s unpopular methods of raising
taxation came to a head by the barons insistence that
King John signed Magna Carta at Runnymede in June 1215. It included a
resolution of countless grievances of the day, but it also embraced some
fundamental legal principles which have passed through to contemporary legal
doctrine, including that No Freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned … but by
lawful judgment of his peers.
·
Imposed
restraints on monarchy;
·
Might
be taken as the first example of a written constitution, which was unusual
across Europe at that time;
·
Represented
a contract between monarchy and the community of the realm, which started to
emerge as a distinct legal entity.
William de Mowbray was on the
council of 25 barons set up under Magna Carta.
William's grandson Roger de Mowbray
(1266–1298), was summoned to parliament by Edward I, by which act he is held to
have become the first Lord Mowbray.
He was father
of John (1286–1322), a warrior and warden of the Scottish March, who, joining
in Thomas of Lancaster's revolt, was captured at Boroughbridge and hanged. His
wife, a Braose heiress, added Gower in South Wales and the Bramber lordship in
Sussex to the great possessions of his house.
Their son John
de Mowbray, 3rd Baron Mowbray (d. 1361) was father, by Joan of Lancaster, a
daughter of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster, of John, Lord Mowbray (c. 1328–1368),
whose marriage with the heiress of John de Segrave, 4th Baron Segrave, by the
heiress of Edward I's son Thomas, earl of Norfolk and marshal of England,
further increased the family's wealth and property. In addition to a vast
accession to their lands, the earldom of Nottingham and the marshalship of
England were bestowed on them by Richard II, and the dukedom of Norfolk
followed.
The 1st duke
left two sons, of whom Thomas the elder was only recognized as earl marshal.
Beheaded for joining in Scrope's conspiracy against
Henry IV (1405), he was succeeded by his brother John, who was restored to the
dukedom of Norfolk in 1424. His son John, the third duke, was father of John,
4th and last duke, who was created earl of Warenne
and Surrey in his father's lifetime (1451). At his death (1481) his vast
inheritance devolved on his only child Anne, who was married as an infant to
Edward IV's younger son Richard (created duke of Norfolk and earl of Nottingham
and Warenne), but died in
1481.
The next heirs
of the Mowbrays were then the Howards and the Berkeleys,
representing the two daughters of the first duke. Between them were divided the
estates of the house, the Mowbray dukedom of Norfolk and earldom of Surrey
being also revived for the Howards (1483), and the earldom of Nottingham (1483)
and earl marshalship (1485) for the Berkeleys. Both
families assumed the baronies of Mowbray and Segrave, but Henry Howard was
summoned in his father's lifetime (1640) as Lord Mowbray, which was deemed a recognition
of the Howards' right; their co-heirs, from 1777, were the Lords Stourton and the Lords Petre, and in 1878 Lord Stourton was summoned as Lord Mowbray and Segrave. The
former dignity is claimed as the premier barony, though De Ros ranks before it.
Lord Stourton's son claimed, but unsuccessfully, in
1901–1906 the earldom of Norfolk (1312), also through the Mowbrays. Of the
Mowbray estates the castle and lordship of Bramber is still vested in the dukes
of Norfolk.
Individuals of the Mowbray Family
Nigel d'Aubigny, lord of Mowbray (d.1129)
Roger de Mowbray,
lord of Mowbray (d.1188)
William de
Mowbray, lord of Mowbray (d.ca.1224)
Roger de
Mowbray, 1st Baron Mowbray (d.1298)
John de
Mowbray, 2nd Baron Mowbray (d.1322)
John de
Mowbray, 3rd Baron Mowbray (d.1361)
John de Mowbray,
4th Baron Mowbray (d.1368)
John Mowbray,
1st Earl of Nottingham, 5th Baron Mowbray (d.1383)
Thomas Mowbray,
1st Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Nottingham and Norfolk, Baron Segrave and 6th
Baron Mowbray (d.1399)
Thomas Mowbray,
4th Earl of Norfolk, Earl of Nottingham, Baron Segrave and 7th Baron Mowbray
(d.1405)
John Mowbray,
2nd Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Norfolk, Baron Segrave and 8th Baron Mowbray
(d.1432)
John Mowbray,
3rd Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Nottingham and Norfolk, Baron Segrave and 9th
Baron Mowbray (d.1461)
John Mowbray,
4th Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Nottingham, Norfolk, Surrey and Warenne, Baron Segrave and 10th Baron Mowbray (d.1476)
Anne de
Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk, Baroness Segrave and 11th Baroness Mowbray
(d.1481)
Early Yorkshire
Families and Illustrative Documents, 1973, Yorkshire Archaeological Society
