General Notes

Alias:<ALIA> Nele /d'Aubigny/
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The Mowbrays, Dukes of Norfolk, were from an ancient period a great
baronial family, and made succession of fortunate alliances. The royal
match of John Mowbray, Lord Mowbray, with Elizabeth Segrave, whose mother
was Margaret, Countess of Norfolk, daughter and heir of Thomas, Earl of
Norfolk, son of Edward I., may be considered the first step from the
baronial rank. King Richard II., constituted Thomas, son of the great
alliance, Earl Marshal in 1386, when his grandmother, Margaret, was also
advanced to be Duchess of Norfolk. The duke, preparing in 1398 to fight a
duel with Henry, Duke of Hereford, afterwards King Henry IV., was
banished and died in exile the next year. The family was restored and
continued for four generations down to Anne, the infant daughter and
heiress of John, 4th duke, whom King Edward IV., married, as a child, to
his 2nd son, Richard, Duke of York, then a young boy, and he made a
settlement of the title and estate upon him and his heirs. She died
immediately afterwards, in 1478, but the Duke of York continued in
possession till he was murdered with his brother, King Edward V., by his
uncle, Richard, on June 20, 1483. All Edward's plans for seizing the
Mowbray property being thus terminated, and Richard III., wishing to
secure vigorous allies, the succession to the estates were allowed to
open to the Berkeleys and Howards, the heirs of the daughters of the
duke. who died in exile in 1400, eighty-three years before, and King
Richard,, on the 3rd day of his reign, June 28, 1483, created William
Berkeley, Viscount Berkeley, Earl of Nottingham, and John Howard, Lord
Howard (who had been raised to be a baron by his brother, Edward), at
once Duke of Norfolk and Marshal of England (Burke, pg. 386). The family
was founded originally by Nigil de Albini.
Nigel (Nele) de Albini (d'Aubigny), the younger son of Roger de Albini
and the brother of William de Albini, was the founder of the family from
which the ancient Earls of Arundel descended. The Albinis, who were
maternally of the house of Mowbray, came into England with William the
Conqueror, and obtained large possessions after the victory at Hastings.
Nigil's grants lay in the cos. Bucks, Bedford, Warwick, and Leicester,
and comprised several extensive lordships. In the reign of Rufus, he was
bow-bearer to the king; and being knighted by King Henry I., had the
manor of Egmanton, with divers parks in the forest of Shirwood, of that
monarch's gift; which lordship he transferred however, to his particular
friend, Robert Davil. But when King Henry had further experience with his
valor and military skill, he augmented his royal bounty, and conferred
upon him the vavassories of Camville and Wyvile; which gracious marks of
favor so attached Albini to the interests of the his sovereign, that he
espoused with the most devoted zeal the cause of Henry, against his
brother, Robert Curthose, and took a conspicuous part in the battle of
Tenercheby in 1106, he there slew the horse of Curthose, and brought the
prince himself to the king; for which eminent service the king granted
him the English lands of Robert de Stuteville, Baron of Frontebeof, which
Frontebeof had fortified in behalf of Curthose. During the Norman
rebellion, he, with his brother, William de Albini, remained faithful to
King Henry I. and fought for him at the victory over the French king at
Bremule on August 20, 1119. He had a grant of Montbrai or Mowbray and the
other forfeited lands in Normandy and England of Robert de Mowbray, Earl
of Northumberland, his maternal uncle; as also his castles, with the
castle of Bayeux and its appurtenences; so that he had no less than 120
knight's fees in Normandy, and a s many in England; thus becoming one of
the most powerful persons of the period in which he lived. He married
after 1107 (1) Maud Aquila