daughter of Richard Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, by whom he had two sons, Thomas and John, and two daughters.
His elder son, Thomas Mowbray (1385–1405), became earl of Nottingham and earl marshal on his father’s death, but he was not allowed to assume the title of duke of Norfolk. He quarrelled with Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, over the precedence of their respective earldoms, and left the court in anger when Henry IV. decided in favour of Warwick. At this time (1405) Richard le Scrope, archbishop of York, and other northern potentates were preparing to rise against the king. The earl marshal joined them, was taken prisoner at Shipton Moor, and was beheaded at York on the 8th of June 1405.
John Mowbray (1390–1432), 2nd duke, brother of the last-named, now became earl marshal and earl of Nottingham. He sat in judgment upon Richard, earl of Cambridge, and the other rebels in 1415, and went to France with Henry V. He took part in the siege of Harfleur, but illness prevented him from fighting at Agincourt. He saw service in France in subsequent years, and after Henry’s death he was a member of the English governing council. In 1424 he followed Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, on his campaign in Hainaut, and in 1425 he secured his recognition as duke of Norfolk. He died on the 19th of October 1432 at Epworth, where his father had founded a Cistercian priory. By his wife Catherine, daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st earl of Westmorland, he left an only son, the 3rd duke.
John Mowbray, 3rd duke (1415–1461), became warden of the Scottish marches; he also served as a soldier and an ambassador in France. Upon the outbreak of the fierce rivalry between the houses of York and Lancaster about 1450 he joined Richard, duke of York, to whom he was related; he aided the Yorkist cause in Norfolk and in London, and it was he who in November 1453 demanded an inquiry into the administration of Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset. In 1459 he appeared on the Lancastrian side and took the oath of allegiance to Henry VI. and to his son Edward at Coventry, but soon he was again figuring as an active Yorkist. He was a member of the deputation which in March 1461 asked the duke of York (Edward IV.) to take the crown, and he fought at the second battle of St Albans and also at Towton, where one authority says he saved the day for the Yorkists.
John Mowbray, 4th duke (1444–1476), who had already been created earl of Surrey, a title formerly held by his ancestors, the Fitzalans, was the only son of the preceding. The names both of John and of his father appear frequently in the Paston Letters, as both dukes in turn seized Caister castle, which had been left by Sir John Fastolf to John Paston, and the 4th duke held it against the Pastons for some years. On his death in 1476 the dukedom became extinct, but the earldom passed to his daughter Anne (1472–1481), who married Richard, duke of York, the younger son of Edward IV. Richard was created duke of Norfolk and made earl marshal, but when he was murdered in 1483 the dukedom again became extinct, the earldom having reverted to the crown on the death of Anne.
The illustrious family of Howard (q.v.), members of which have been dukes of Norfolk from 1483 to the present day, with the exception of two periods during which the title was forfeited, was connected with the family of Mowbray.Howard line.
John Howard, 1st duke of Norfolk (c. 1430–1485), was the son of Sir Robert Howard by his wife Margaret, daughter of Thomas Mowbray, the first duke of that family. In 1455 John Howard was sent to parliament as member for Norfolk, although he “hadde no lyvelode in the shire”; in 1461 he was knighted; and in 1470, although he appears to have been a consistent Yorkist, he was created a baron by Henry VI. He was treasurer of the royal household from 1467 to 1474, and went to France with Edward IV. in 1475. After Edward’s death, however, he supported Richard III., who created him duke of Norfolk and made him earl marshal of England in June 1483. He was killed at Bosworth whilst fighting for this king on the 22nd of August 1485, and the title thus suffered attainder. He is frequently mentioned in the Paston Letters.
His son, Thomas Howard, afterwards 2nd duke (1443–1524), shared his father’s fortunes; he fought at Barnet for Edward IV. and was made steward of the royal household and created earl of Surrey in 1483. Taken prisoner at Bosworth he was attainted and remained in captivity until January 1489, when he was released and restored to his earldom but not to the dukedom of Norfolk. He was then entrusted with the maintenance of order in Yorkshire and with the defence of the Scottish borders; he was made lord treasurer and a privy councillor in 1501, and he helped to arrange the marriage between Margaret, the daughter of Henry VII., and James IV. of Scotland. Henry VIII., too, employed him on public business, but the earl grew jealous of Wolsey, and for a short time he absented himself from court. He commanded the army which defeated the Scots at Flodden in September 1513, and was created duke of Norfolk in February of the following year, with precedency as of the creation of 1483. In his later years Norfolk worked more harmoniously with Wolsey. He was guardian of England during Henry’s absence in France in 1520, and he acted as lord high steward at the trial of his friend Edward Stafford, duke of Buckingham, in 1521. Among his sons were William, 1st Lord Howard of Effingham, and Sir Edward Howard (c. 1477–1513), lord high admiral, who defeated the French fleet off Brest in August 1512, and lost his life during another engagement in April 1513.
Thomas Howard, 3rd duke (1473–1554), eldest son of the 2nd duke, married in 1495 Anne (1475–1512), daughter of Edward IV., thus becoming a brother-in-law of Henry VII., who had married Anne’s sister Elizabeth. He became lord high admiral in 1513, and led the van of the English army at Flodden in September, being created earl of Surrey in February 1514. In 1513 he took for his second wife Elizabeth (d. 1558), daughter of Edward Stafford, duke of Buckingham. In 1520 Surrey went to Ireland as lord-deputy, but soon vacated this post to command the troops which sacked Morlaix and ravaged the neighbourhood of Boulogne in 1522; afterwards he raided and devastated the south of Scotland. He succeeded his father in May 1524, and as the most powerful nobleman in England he headed the party hostile to Cardinal Wolsey. He favoured the divorce of Henry VIII. from Catherine of Aragon, and the king’s marriage with his niece Anne Boleyn. In 1529 he became president of the council, but in a few years his position was shaken by the fate of Anne Boleyn, at whose trial and execution he presided as lord high steward. But his military abilities rendered him almost indispensable to the king, and in 1536, just after the rising known as the Pilgrimage of Grace had broken out, he was despatched into the north of England; he temporized with the rebels until the danger was past, and then, as the first president of the council of the north, punished them with great severity. Sharing in the general hatred against Thomas Cromwell, Norfolk arrested the minister in June 1540. He led the English army into Scotland in 1542 and into France in 1544; but the execution of Catherine Howard, another of his nieces who had become the wife of the king, had weakened his position. His son Henry Howard, earl of Surrey (q.v.), was arrested on a charge of treason; Norfolk himself suffered the same fate as accessory to the crime. In January 1547 Surrey was executed; his father was condemned to death by a bill of attainder, but owing to the death of the king the sentence was not carried out. Norfolk remained in prison throughout the reign of Edward VI., but in August 1553 he was released and restored to his dukedom. Again taking command of the English army he was sent to suppress the rebellion which had broken out under Sir Thomas Wyat, but his men fled before the enemy. He acted as lord high steward at the trial of John Dudley, duke of Northumberland; and he died on the 25th of August 1554. Norfolk was a brutal and licentious man, but was a supporter of the Roman church, being, as he himself admits, “quick against the sacramentaries.” As a soldier he was serviceable to Henry VIII., but as a diplomatist he was a failure, being far inferior to Wolsey and to Cromwell. He had two sons, Henry, earl of Surrey, and Thomas (c. 1528–1582), who in 1559 was created Viscount Howard of
