General Notes

Thomas de Mowbray, 6th baron, then seventeen years of age, who was created Earl of Nottingham, as his brother had been, by charter, dated 12 February, 1383, and three years afterwards was constituted Earl Marshal by reason of his descent from Thomas, of Brotherton, his lordship being the first who had the title of earl attached to the office. In the 10th Richard II [1387], his lordship participated in the naval victory achieved by Richard, Earl of Arundel, over the French and Spaniards, and the subsequent conquest of the battle of Brest. In the 16th of the same reign, he was made governor of Calais, and in four years afterwards obtained the king's charter of confirmation of the office of earl marshal of England to the heirs male of his body, and that they, by reason of the said office, should bear a golden truncheon, enameled with black at each end, having at the upper end the kings arms, and at the lower, their own arms engraven thereon. Moreover, he stood in such favour that the king, acknowledging his just and hereditary title to bear for his crest a golden leopard with a white label, which of right belonged to the king's eldest son, did, by letters patent, grant to him and his heirs authority to bear the golden leopard for his crest, with a coronet of silver about his neck instead of the label; and the same year appointed him justice of Chester and Flintshire for life. In the 18th Richard, he attended the king into Ireland, but, afterwards siding with the parasites who controlled that weak and unfortunate prince, he not only aided in the destruction of his father-in-law, Richard, Earl of Arundel -- being one of the chief persons that guarded the unhappy nobleman to the place of execution -- but he is also accused of being an accomplice in the murder of Thomas, of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, the king's uncle. Certain it is that he was at this period in high estimation with the prevailing party and obtained a grant of all the lands of the unfortunate Lord Arundel, with those of Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, which had also vested in the crown be forfeiture. These grants bore date 28 September, 1396, and the next day he was created Duke of Norfolk (his grandmother, Margaret, Duchess of Norfolk, being still alive). Prosperous, however, as this nobleman's career had hitherto been, it was doomed eventually to a disgraceful termination. Henry, Duke of Hereford (afterwards Henry IV), having accused his Grace of Norfolk, of speaking disrespectfully of the king, a challenge ensued, and a day was named for the combat, when the lists were accordingly set up at Gosford Green, Coventry, and the king and court were present, but just as the combatants were about to engage and the charge had been sounded, Richard interfered, and by the advice of his council, prohibited the conflict, banishing the Duke of Hereford for ten years,m and the Duke of Norfolk for life -- who, thereupon going abroad, d. at Venice, of the pestilence, but, according to Sandford, of grief, in 1400. The duke, who along with his other great honours, was a knight of the Garter, m. 1st, Elizabeth, dau. of John, Lord Strange, of Blackmere, but had no issue; he m. 2ndly, Lady Elizabeth FitzAlan, dau. of Richard, Earl of Arundel, sister and co-heir of Thomas, Earl of Arundel, and widow of William de Montacute, by whom he had issue, Thomas, John, Isabel, Margaret, and Elizabeth. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 387, Mowbray, Earls of Nottingham, Dukes of Norfolk, Earls-Marshal, Earls of Warren and Surrey]

Thomas, 6th Lord Mowbray, created after the decease of his brother, Earl of Nottingham and Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal, and K.G. His grace, for his military services, was authorised to bear for his crest a golden leopard with a coronet of silver. In 1398 he was accused by Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Hereford, of having spoken slanderously of the king, when he charged with a design of destroying the principal members of the nobility. Norfolk denied the accusations and desired Hereford to prove its truth in single combat. The lists were set at Coventry in the presence of the king and the peers of the disputants, but on the eve of the contest the king interposed and forbade the combat. Both Norfolk and Hereford were banished, the former for life and the other for ten years. Norfolk d. of the plague at Venice in 1399. By his first wife, Elizabeth, dau. and heir of John, Lord Strange, of Blackmere, he had no issue. By his second wife, Elizabeth, dau. and co-heir of Richard FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel and Surrey, he left two sons and two daus., viz., Thomas, John, Margaret, and Isabel. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 485, Segrave, Barons Segrave of Barton Segrave]