Thomas of Brotherton, Earl of Norfolk, Marshall of England

Other Events and Attributes:

• Military: 1313
• Offices Held: 10 Feb 1316
• Offices Held: Spring 1319
• Knighted: 15 Jul 1319
• Travel: 1320
• Miscellaneous: From 1321 to 1322
• Legal: 3 Aug 1321
• Land/House: Aug 1323
• Offices Held: say 1325
• Military: 1326
• Miscellaneous: 3 Mar 1327
• Military: 1328
• Miscellaneous: Feb 1330
• Military: 1333
• Military: 1337
• Miscellaneous: 1337
• Offices Held: 25 May 1337
• Offices Held: 1338
• Will: 4 Aug 1338, Framlingham, Suffolk, England

Notes:

Birth:
Edward I, his new young wife Margaret, who turned twenty-one that year and was pregnant with their first child, and the royal household, set out north from St Albans on 15 April 1300. The army had been summoned to Carlisle for mid-summer, for a new Scottish campaign. Queen Margaret parted company with the main household at Stamford on 5 May, and continued her own journey northward. Preparations had been made for her to use Cawood Castle, a residence of the Archbishop of York, for her confinement. She stopped in the village of Brotherton to hunt late that month, and went into labor, early and unexpectedly. Margaret had married Edward I on 10 September 1299 and, if conception occurred immediately, she was in her 38th week, but as she was apparently hunting and had not yet reached Cawood, she may have been a week or two earlier in her pregnancy. The labor was difficult, and Margaret reportedly called on St Thomas of Canterbury for assistance. The baby was delivered on 1 June, and named for the saint. Edward I rushed over to the village as soon as he was given the news, and stayed there until 9 June.

Military:
Thomas received a summons for military service in Scotland, but it was shortly afterwards remitted by the king (Waugh, 2004) and the young earl of Norfolk appears to have missed completely the disastrous battle of Bannockburn in June 1314.

Offices Held:
He was made the Marshal of England.

Offices Held:
He served as keeper of the realm while the king was on a Scottish military campaign.

Travel:
He accompanied the king to France in June and July, travelling with a large retinue.

Miscellaneous:
Thomas remained strongly supportive of Edward II during the baronial rebellion of 1321-1322, but failed in the one task he assumed on his own, an attempt to arrange negotiations with the earl of Hereford in March 1321. His other roles during that time were ceremonial and undertaken with fellow peers.

Legal:
Rigaud de Asserio, bishop of Winchester, wrote to Roger de Martival, Bishop of Salisbury, authorizing the latter to absolve Thomas of Brotherton from a sentence of excommunication. Thomas had incurred this by violently assaulting a clerk of the bishop - one Deodatus de Pyno - within the diocese of Winchester. Unfortunately the date of the assault is not mentioned, so it is not known how long Thomas was under excommunication. The assault could have happened shortly before the date of the letter, or possibly as early as the spring of 1319, when Thomas was acting as keeper of the realm and working in close conjunction with John de Sandale, the prior bishop of Winchester who was also chancellor of England.

Land/House:
He negotiated with the earl of Norfolk to take control for life of the lordship of Chepstow for a rent of £200 a year,20 and the following year, purchased the lordship outright for only £800. Chepstow was worth far more, so Thomas came out much the worse in this transaction, and many historians surmise he was forced into it, another victim of the Despenser tyranny. Yet the rest of the victims of the Despensers were widows, minor heirs, and those lower down on the social order. The earl of Norfolk was a young man in his early twenties, a peer of the realm and the brother of the king. The fact that Despenser was able to take such advantage of him is another indication of the low regard in which he was held

Offices Held:
The king confiscated the one office he was holding, marshal of England, because Thomas had failed to have someone execute the office on his behalf in Lancashire, when royal justices arrived there to hold the king's pleas. Thomas offered a fine of £100 to recover the office, which Edward II pardoned, but not without a public verbal rebuke, threatening his younger brother with punishment should he again fail to perform the duties of marshal properly.

Military:
On 24 September 1326, Queen Isabella and her son Edmund, landed on the Suffolk Coast. Thomas immediately joined them. While the usurpation was successful, he received little reward.

Miscellaneous:
He was granted the wardship and marriage of John de Segrave, the 12-year-old heir to the barony of Segrave.

Military:
In the Summer of 1328, Thomas participated in Edward Ill's disastrous Weardale campaign against the Scots.

Miscellaneous:
Thomas of Brotherton and Edmund of Woodstock led Edward III's young wife Queen Philippa to her coronation dressed as simple grooms.

Military:
Thomas commanded a contingent of royal forces in the Scottish campaign culminating in the battle of Halidon Hill on 19 July 1333.

Military:
He joined the King in the Scottish campaign, and was named the keeper of Perth. Yet he was not given a leadership position (there are no payments to him as a captain on the pay roll) which had to be humbling for the former Marshal of England. At some point in December 1337, Thomas left the campaign and returned to England, apparently without first informing the king.

Miscellaneous:
In the spring of 1337, Edward III appointed Sir Constantine Mortimer, lord of Attleborough in Norfolk, to restore the Brotherton household to order.

Offices Held:
The office of Marshal was taken from Thomas.

Offices Held:
The office of Marshal of England was resorted to Thomas.

Thomas married Alice de Hales in 1321 in Bungay Castle, Bungay, Suffolk, England. Alice (daughter of Sir Roger de Hales and Alice Skogan) was born in 1305; died before 12 Oct 1330 in England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Thomas married Mary de Braose, Countess of Norfolk in 1334. Mary was born in 1305/06; died on 11 Jun 1362. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• History: birth to death
• Title(s): 29 Sep 1397; She became the Duchess of Norfolk

Notes:

History:
On 29 September 1397, she became the Duchess of Norfolk.

Margaret married John de Segrave, Lord Segrave in 1334. John (son of Stephen de Segrave, Lord Segrave and Alice Arundell) was born in 1315; died on 20 Mar 1353. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Margaret married Sir Walter de Mauny in 1353. Walter was born about 1310; died in 1372. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• History: birth to death

Notes:

History:
He was the heir of Norfolk.

Edward married Beatrice Mortimer in 1329. Beatrice was born about 1320; died in 1383. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Alice married Sir Edward Montagu in 1337. Edward was born about 1315; died in 1361. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:

Elizabeth married John de Mowbray, Lord Mowbray in 1353 in England. John (son of John de Mowbray, Baron Mowbray and Joan Plantagenet, of Lancaster) was born on 25 Jun 1340 in Epworth, Lincolnshire, England; died on 9 Oct 1368 in Thrace. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Title(s): 1377; He was created the Earl of Northampton.

Notes:

Died:
He never married.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Married: Roger de la Warr, Baron de la Warr.

Eleanor married Sir John de Welles, Baron de Welles before May 1368 in England. John (son of John de Welles, Baron de Welles and Maud de Ros) was born on 20 Apr 1352 in Conisholme, Lincolnshire, England; was christened on 20 Apr 1352 in St. Peter's Church, Conisholme, Lincolnshire, England; died on 26 Aug 1421 in England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• History: birth to death

Notes:

Name:
He was also Earl of Nottingham; Lord Mowbray and Segrave; Earl Marshal of England; and a Knight of the Garter.

History:
On 12 February 1383, he was created the Earl of Nottingham.

In 1384, he became the Earl Marshall of England.

In 1387, he was part of the naval battle which secured the castle of Brest.

In 1393, he was the Governor of Calais.

On 29 September 1397, he became the Duke of Norfolk.

Died:
He had been banished from England for his support against Henry IV during the War of the Roses. He died of pestilence.

Family/Spouse: Elizabeth de Strange. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Thomas married Elizabeth FitzAlan in 1384. Elizabeth died on 8 Jul 1425. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:

Family/Spouse: Sir Thomas de Grey. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]