General Notes

EARLDOM OF NORFOLK (VIII, 1)

THOMAS, styled "of Brotherton," 5th son of EDWARD I, being 1st son by his 2nd wife, Margaret, daughter of PHILIP III of France, was born 1 June 1300, at Brotherton, Yorks. In 1310 Edward II assigned to his brothers Thomas and Edmund jointly the estates of Roger Bigod, late Earl of Norfolk; and on 16 December 1312 Thomas was created EARL OF NORFOLK, and summoned to Parliament as such 8 January 1312/3. On 10 February 1315/6 he was created Marshal of England. With the King's permission he joined in guaranteeing the treaty made at Leake, 9 August 1318. During the King's absence in Scotland in the spring of 1319 he was left as Keeper of England. He was knighted by the King at York, 15 July of that year, on his way north, and accompanied him overseas in the summer of 1320. In 1321 he was joint commissioner to try Hugh de Audley the younger at Gloucester, and in the autumn joined his brother Edmund in the King's campaign against the enemies of the Despensers. In 1323 he made a grant to Hugh le Despenser the younger of the castle of Strigoil, &c. In 1326 he was chief commissioner of array in Norfolk and Suffolk, and cos. Lincoln, Cambridge and Huntingdon, and sole commissioner in Essex and Herts. Like his brother, he seems to have given unhesitating support to the Queen's opposition, and met her in 1326 at her landing in Orwell, his own property. At the extraordinary council held at Bristol, 26 October 1326, his name stands first of the temporal lords who elected Prince Edward as Keeper of the Realm, and the following day he sat as assessor at the trial of the Earl of Winchester there. He attended the Coronation of Edward III, and executed many administrative and political commissions in 1327 and 1328. The following year he joined the alienated magnates against the Queen Mother and Roger de Mortimer, Earl of March. At the Coronation of Queen Philippe 18 February 1330, he and his brother Edmund, dressed as simple grooms, rode on either side of her palfrey from the city to Westminster, holding her reins. Later in the year the Earl of Norfolk was going to Gascony in the King's service, and in September 1331 was one of the commissioners to treat with France. In 1332 he was commissioner of the peace in Norfolk, and later joint keeper of the peace in Norfolk and Suffolk. He was fighting again in Scotland in the summer of 1333, and in 1335 and 1336 was commissioned to lead troops raised in the eastern counties for defence against invaders from Scotland and from France. In May 1337 the King ordered the Marshalcy to be taken into his hands. He married, 1stly (probably circa 1320), Alice, daughter of Sir Roger DE HALES, coroner of Norfolk 1303 till his death in 1313. She, on whom he had licence to make a settlement 8 January 1325/6, died in or before 1330. He married, 2ndly, Mary, widow of Sir Ralph DE COBHAM [LORD COBHAM, died Febbruary 1325/6], sister of Sir Thomas DE BREWES (or BREWOSE) [LORD BREWES], and daughter of Sir Piers DE BREWES, of Tetbury. He died s.p.m.s., in the late summer of 1338, and was buried in the abbey of Bury St. Edmunds. Under the charter of creation the Marshalcy (limited to heirs male of his body) reverted to the Crown. His widow died between 17 April 1361 and 15 June 1362. [Complete Peerage IX:596-9, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]