Page:EB1911 - Volume 19.djvu/769

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
742
NORE—NORFOLK, EARLS OF
  

are linen goods, soap, malt, and agricultural implements, and a brisk trade is carried on in cattle, grain and geese. From 898, when first mentioned, to 1215 Nördlingen was subject to the bishops of Regensburg, but about 1215 it became a free city of the Empire. It was annexed to Bavaria in 1803.

Nördlingen was the scene of two great battles in the Thirty Years’ War (q.v.). In the first, which was fought on the 5th and 6th of September 1634, the hitherto invincible Swedish army, commanded by Duke Bernhard of Saxe Weimar and Marshal Horn, was defeated with great loss by a somewhat superior army of Imperialists and Spaniards under General Gallas, Horn and 3000 men being made prisoners and 6000 killed or mortally wounded. In the second battle, fought eleven years later (3rd August 1645), Condé (then duke of Enghien) and Turenne were the leaders on the one side, and Mercy and Johann von Weert, the dashing cavalry commander whose onset had decided the battle of 1634, on the other. The Germans were posted some 5 m. to the east of Nördlingen, about Allerheim, with their right resting on a hill and the left on a castle, the guns with an infantry escort being placed on these points, and the village itself in the centre being also garrisoned and entrenched. In rear of the village the plain was occupied by Mercy’s army in the customary two lines, foot in the centre, horse in the wings. The French army, similarly arrayed, but with a few battalions attached to the cavalry wings, was more heterogeneous than the German, being composed of French, Hessian, German mercenaries, and Liégeois. After a cannonade in which it suffered more severely than its entrenched enemy, the French centre furiously attacked the village of Allerheim; the fighting here was very heavy, and on the whole in favour of the Germans, although Mercy was killed. The right wing of the French cavalry was swept off the field by Johann von Weert’s charge, but the German troopers, intoxicated with success, dispersed to plunder. On the French left, meanwhile, Turenne saved the day. Fighting cautiously at first with his leading line to gain time for his second to come up, he then charged and broke up the hostile right wing of cavalry, while some battalions of infantry scaled the hill and captured the Bavarian guns. Unlike Weert the marshal kept his troops in hand, and swung round upon the Bavarian infantry behind Allerheim, who were at the same time cannonaded by their lost guns. A prolonged fight now ensued, in which the Bavarians had the worst of it, and Weert, returning at last to the field, dared not attempt to engage afresh. The armies faced one another all night with their sentries fifty paces apart, but in the morning the Bavarians were found to have retreated. Nothing was gained by the victors but the trophies and the field of battle, and the losses of both sides had been enormous. Enghien had only 1500 of his foot in hand next day. Nördlingen, therefore, is a classical instance of the unprofitable and costly bataille rangée of the 17th century.

See Beyschlag, Geschichte der Stadt Nördlingen (Nördlingen, 1851), and Mayer, Die Stadt Nördlingen, ihr Leben und ihre Kunst im Lichte der Vorzeit (Nördlingen, 1856).


NORE, THE, a sandbank at the mouth of the river Thames, England, marked by various buoys and by a lightship, with revolving light. This ship lies 3 m. from the nearest point on the Kent coast, about the same distance from the Essex coast, and 47 3/4 m. below London Bridge. The first light was placed here as an experiment by Mr Hamblin, its patentee, in 1731. In 1797 the neighbouring anchorage was the scene of a mutiny in the British fleet then lying here, well known in history as the Mutiny of the Nore.


NORFOLK, EARLS AND DUKES OF. The 1st earl of Norfolk was Ralph de Guader, a follower of William the Conqueror, who forfeited the earldom when he revolted against William in 1075; the 2nd was Hugh Bigod (d. 1177), one of Stephen’s supporters, to whom the earldom was granted by this king before 1141. Hugh’s grandson, Hugh (d. 1225), the 3rd earl of this line, married Matilda, daughter of William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, and from the Marshals their son Roger (d. 1270), the 4th earl, inherited the office of marshal of England. This powerful family of Bigod retained the earldom until Roger, the 5th earl, died childless in December 1306.

The next earl of Norfolk was Thomas of Brotherton (1300–1338), a younger son of Edward I., to whom the earldom was granted in 1312 by his half-brother, Edward II. In addition to the estates which had formerly belonged to the Bigods Thomas received the office of marshal. He joined Queen Isabella when she landed in England in 1326, and was one of the group of nobles who brought about the deposition of Edward II. He died in August 1338, leaving no son. The survivor of his two daughters, Margaret (c. 1320–1400), who was countess of Norfolk in her own right, married John de Segrave, 3rd Lord Segrave (d. 1353), and their only child Elizabeth (d. c. 1375) became the wife of John de Mowbray, 4th Lord Mowbray (d. 1368), and the mother of two sons John and Thomas. In 1397 the countess Margaret was created duchess of Norfolk, and at the same time her grandson Thomas Mowbray was made duke of Norfolk.

Thomas Mowbray, 1st duke of Norfolk (c. 1366–1399), became Baron Mowbray and Baron Segrave when his elder brother John died in February 1382; about the same time Richard II. created him earl of Nottingham, a title held by his dead brother, and in 1385 made him marshal of England for life. For some years he enjoyed theMowbray line. favour and companionship of the king, but differences arose between them, and in 1387 Nottingham began to act with Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, his own brother-in-law, Richard Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, and the party of nobles who wished to deprive the king of his power. They routed the royal favourite Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford, at Radcot Bridge, and Richard was at their mercy. Owing partly to Nottingham’s moderate counsels the suggestion to depose him was not carried out, but in the “merciless parliament” of 1388 his favourites were “appealed” of treason and were sentenced to death. For nearly two years the chief power was in the hands of the lords appellant, as Nottingham and his friends were called, but in 1389 the king regained his authority. He detached Nottingham from his colleagues and made him warden of the Scottish marches; later he became captain of Calais and the royal lieutenant in the north-east of France. Richard took him to Ireland in 1394 and soon afterwards sent him to arrange a peace with France and his marriage with Isabella, daughter of King Charles VI. But the earl’s supreme service to the king was in 1397 when Richard took a tardy but severe vengeance upon three of the appellants. In their turn these lords were “appealed” of treason before the parliament, and as on the former occasion Nottingham was one of the accusers. He was present when Gloucester was arrested at Pleshey, and Froissart says that he actually beheaded Arundel himself. Gloucester was entrusted to his keeping at Calais, and in September 1397 he reported that his prisoner was dead. The duke had been murdered, and Nottingham was probably responsible, although the evidence against him is not conclusive. As a reward he received most of Arundel’s lands in Surrey and Sussex, and was created duke of Norfolk. He now began to fear for his own safety, and took the duke of Hereford, afterwards King Henry IV., into his confidence. Hereford carried his words to the king, who summoned him to his presence, and at Oswestry Norfolk accused Hereford of speaking falsely. A court of chivalry decided that the dispute should be referred to the arbitrament of single combat and Coventry was the place appointed for the duel; but when on the 16th of September 1398 everything was ready for the fight Richard interposed and ordered both combatants into banishment. Norfolk was deprived of his offices, but not of his titles; his “heavier doom” was exile for life, and he was ordered to confine himself to Germany, Hungary and Bohemia. At once he left England for Dordrecht, and after passing some months in wanderings he reached Venice, where he died on the 22nd or 27th of September 1399. The concluding scene of the duke’s life in England forms the staple material of act i. of Shakespeare’s Richard II. Norfolk left estates in nearly all the English counties. His wife was Elizabeth (c. 1372–1425),