Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/229

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Mowbray
223
Mowbray

lectanea, ii. 490 ; Fœdera, x. 356 ; Ramsay, Lancaster and York, i. 368). He was still under age at his father's death in October 1432, and his estates were in the custody of Humphrey of Gloucester until 1436 (Ord. Privy Council, iv. 132; cf. Rot. Parl. iv. 433). Nevertheless, he was summoned to the council in November 1434 (Ord. Privy Council, iv. 287, 300) . In August 1436 he served under Gloucester in the army which had been intended to relieve Calais, but arrived after the Duke of Burgundy had raised the siege, and made an inglorious raid into Flanders (Stevenson, Wars of the English in France, u. p. xlix; Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles, p. 61 ; Hardyng, p. 396). The onerous post of warden of the east march towards Scotland and captain of Berwick was in March 1437 entrusted to Norfolk for a year, and at the end of that time he was appointed a guardian of the truce concluded with Scotland (Doyle, Official Baronage ; Paston Letters, i. 41). In 1439 he was one of the English ambassadors in the great peace conference near Oye, between Calais and Gravelines (Fcedera, x. 728 ; Wavrin [1431-47], p. 264 ; Ord. Privy Council, v. 334-407). In the summer of 1441 he was ordered to inquire into the government of Norwich, in consequence of disturbances in that city (DOYLE). The disturbances were renewed in the following year, and the populace, irritated by the exactions of the prior of Christchurch, held the town against Norfolk (Will. Worc. p. 763 ; Chron. of London, ed. Nicolas, p. 131). When the riot was quelled the civic franchises were withdrawn, and Norfolk, by the royal command, installed Sir John Clifton as captain of the citv (ib. Ord. Privy Council, v. 229, 244). The council on 5 March 1443 specially thanked him for his services (ib. p. 235). Two years later (11 March 1445) Norfolk's ducal title, which had received parliamentary recognition in 1425, during Henry's minority, was confirmed by the king's letters patent, and precedence was assigned him next to the Duke of Exeter (Rot. Parl. v. 446). In October 1446 he obtained permission, then rarely sought by men of rank, to go on pilgrimage to Rome and other holy places (Doyle). He returned in time to join an embassy to France in July 1447 to treat of the surrender of Maine (ib.)

At the beginning of 1450 (Paston Letters, i. introd. p. 1) popular opinion accused the Duke of Suffolk of keeping Norfolk in the background :

The White Lion is laid to sleep
Thorough the envy of th' Apè Clog.

Later in 1450 Richard, duke of York, came over from Ireland, after the murder of the Duke of Suffolk, and entered into a rivalry with Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset, for the direction of the royal policy. York's wife, Cecily Nevill, was the youngest sister of Norfolk's mother, while Norfolk's wife, Eleanor Bourchier, was sister of Viscount Bourchier, who had married York's sister. Norfolk at once became the chief supporter of York, who was thus connected with him by a double family tie. He may have been aggrieved, too, that the dukes of Somerset had been expressly given precedence over himself on the ground of 'nighness of blood and great zeal to do the king service ' (Ord. Privy Council, v. 255). About the middle of August, before York's actual return, Norfolk went down to his chief seat, Framlingham Castle in Suffolk, whither he summoned ' certain notable knights and squires ' of Norfolk, to commune with him for the ' sad rule and governance ' of that county, 'which standeth right indisposed ' (Paston Letters, i. 139, 143). In the first days of September it was rumoured in Norwich that, along with the Earl of Oxford, Lord Scales, and others, he had been entrusted with a commission of oyer and terminer to inquire into the wrongs and violences that prevailed in Norfolk (ib. p. 145). He met his 'uncle of York ' at Bury St. Edmunds on Thursday, 15 Oct., and, after being together until nine o'clock on Friday, they settled who should be knights of the shire for Norfolk in the parliament summoned for 6 Nov. (ib. p. 160). Only one of their nominees, however, was returned. A week after the meeting at Bury Norfolk ordered John Paston to join him at Ipswich on 8 Nov. on his way to parliament, 'with as many cleanly people as ye may get for our worship at this time' (ib. p. 162). About 18 Nov. he and York arrived in London, both with a ' grete multytude of defensabylle men,' and he supported his kinsman in the fierce struggle with Somerset which ensued (Gregory, p. 195; Will. Worc. p. 770). In March 1451 he held sessions of oyer and terminer at Norwich, and in July he and York were ordered to meet the king at Canterbury (Paston Letters, i. 123, 216 ; Ramsay, Lancaster and York, ii. 146). He does not appear, however, to have joined York in his futile armed demonstration of February 1452 (Wavrin [1447-71], p. 265 ; Paston Letters, i. cxlviii, 232). Yet he thought it necessary to take advantage of the king's Good-Friday amnesty, and sued out a pardon on 23 June (ib. i. lxxxiii). At the instance of Somerset and Queen Margaret he dismissed some of his advisers 'who owed good will and service unto the Duke of York and others' (ib. pp. 243, 305). In Norfolk,