Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, KG (22 March 136622 September 1399) was an English peer. As a result of his involvement in the power struggles which led up to the fall of King Richard II, he was banished and died in exile in Venice.
Background and youth
The Mowbrays were an old family in the English peerage, having been first raised to the baronage in 1295. Several advantageous marriages, combined with loyal service to the crown and rewards from it made them, by the late 14th century, a great political standing. Thomas was the son of John de Mowbray, 4th Baron Mowbray and his wife Elizabeth Segrave, the daughter and heiress of John Segrave, 4th Baron Segrave by his wife Margaret, Duchess of Norfolk, daughter and heiress of Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk, the fifth son of King Edward I.
Thomas Mowbray was born in 1366; the precise date is unknown. He was probably named after the cult of St Thomas Becket, of which his mother was a follower. His elder brother John was their father's heir; he died in 1368. Four years later, they became the ward of their great-aunt, Blanche of Lancaster. John was created Earl of Nottingham on the coronation of King Richard II in 1377, but died in early 1383. Almost immediately—within a few days—the earldom was re-granted to Thomas, and even though he was still legally a minor, he was allowed seisin of his patrimony and the comital penny.
Political background
Richard II succeeded to the throne in 1377 on the death of his grandfather, Edward III, but his unpopularity had been growing since Richard's suppression of the Peasants' Revolt in 1381. He was increasingly criticised for his patronage of a few select royal favourites, to an extent that has been described as "lavish to the point of foolishness" by a biographer, historian Anthony Tuck. Parliament was also coming to the view that the King needed to rule as economically as possible, and they observed with displeasure the King's distribution of extravagant patronage to a limited circle, the greatest recipient of which was Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk. Furthermore, the Hundred Years' War was going poorly for England. Several expeditions had left for France in the early years of Richard's reign to defend English territory, but they were almost all military and political failures.
As a second son, little is recorded of Mowbray's youth, although his background and status "virtually guaranteed him a place at court", says Saul. The King and Mowbray had probably been childhood friends, and was a royal favourite from at least 1382, when he was granted hunting rights in certain royal forests and was knighted. It was around this time that Bolingbroke began to fall out of favour with the King, with Mowbray supplanting him. Mowbray also married the ten-year-old Lady Elizabeth Lestrange, heiress of John, Lord Blakemere, whose marriage cost the King around £1000. Elizabeth died in 1383, not long after the wedding.
Career to 1390
Mowbray remained high in royal favour following the death of his wife, and he was elected to the Order of the Garter in October the same year, even though he was militarily unproven. The King granted him grace and favour rooms at the royal palaces of Eltham and Kings Langley. Reflecting his role as an important courtier, Mowbray accompanied Richard on his tour of East Anglia in 1383. His closeness to the King drew the opprobrium of the King's uncle, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster—probably the most powerful man in the Kingdom after the King. Gaunt accused Mowbray, along with Robert, Earl of Oxford and William, Earl of Salisbury of plotting against the King. Gaunt himself was becoming increasingly unpopular and had withdrawn from the council. As a result, says the chronicler Thomas Walsingham, Mowbray, de Vere and Montacute plotted to kill the duke in February 1385. The King held jousts between the 13th and 14th of the month, and Gaunt's murder was to be committed on the 14th; it is possible that Richard did not disapprove, such had relations between him and his uncle broken down. Originally, this had been over foreign policy; Gaunt favoured a restoration of the war with France, while Richard was keen to invade Scotland. Gaunt had also recently told Richard that he viewed the King's advisors as "unsavoury", and Mowbray and his friends deliberately exacerbated the two men's antagonism by proffering a series of accusations against the duke. Gaunt received a forewarning of the attack, however, and fled in the night.