Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk

Anne de Mowbray
Duchess of York; Duchess of Norfolk

The marriage of Lady Anne Mowbray with Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York.
Duchess of Norfolk
Predecessor John Mowbray, 4th Duke, 7th Earl
Born (1472-12-10)10 December 1472
Framlingham Castle, Suffolk
Died c. 19 November 1481 (aged 8)
Greenwich, London
Burial Westminster Abbey
Spouse Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York
(m. 1478–81; her death)
House York (by marriage)
Father John Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk
Mother Elizabeth Talbot

Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk, later Duchess of York and Duchess of Norfolk (10 December 1472 – c. 19 November 1481) was the child bride of Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, one of the Princes in the Tower. She died at the age of eight.

Heiress

She was born at Framlingham Castle in Suffolk, the only (surviving) child of John de Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk and Elizabeth de Mowbray, Duchess of Norfolk. Her maternal grandparents were John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury and his second wife Lady Margaret Beauchamp. The death of her father in 1476 left Anne a wealthy heiress.

Marriage

On 15 January 1478, aged 5, she was married in St Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, to Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, the 4-year-old younger son of Edward IV and his queen Elizabeth Woodville.

Death and heirs

Anne died at Greenwich in London, nearly two years before her husband disappeared into the Tower of London with his older brother Edward V.

Upon her death, her heirs normally would have been her cousins William, Viscount Berkeley and John, Lord Howard, but by an act of Parliament in January 1483 the rights were given to her husband Richard, with reversion to his descendants, and, failing that, to the descendants of his father Edward IV.[1] This action may be a motivation for Lord Howard's support of the accession of Richard III. He was created Duke of Norfolk and given his half of the Mowbray estates after Richard's coronation.

Burial

Anne was entombed in a lead coffin in the Chapel of St. Erasmus of Formiae in Westminster Abbey. When that chapel was demolished in about 1502 to make way for the Henry VII Lady Chapel, Anne's coffin was moved to a vault under the Abbey of the Minoresses, run by nuns of the Order of Poor Ladies. Her coffin eventually disappeared.

In December 1964, construction workers in Stepney accidentally dug into the vault and found Anne's coffin. It was opened, and her remains were analyzed by scientists and then entombed in Westminster Abbey in May 1965. Her red hair was still on her skull and her shroud still wrapped around her. Westminster Abbey is the purported resting place of her husband, Richard Duke of York.

Ancestors

See also

Notes

  1. Ross, Charles (1997). Edward IV (second ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. p. 248. ISBN 0-300-07372-0. OCLC 38886953.

References

Sources

Political offices
Preceded by
The Duke of Norfolk
Earl Marshal
with Richard from 1478;
Sir Thomas Grey acting as deputy 1476-1483

1476–1481
Succeeded by
The Duke of York and Norfolk
Sir Thomas Grey acting as deputy;
finally from 1483, The Duke of Norfolk
Peerage of England
Preceded by
John Mowbray
Countess of Norfolk
suo jure

3rd creation
14761481
Extinct
(or abeyant?)
Baroness Mowbray
suo jure

14761481
In abeyance
Title next held by
John Howard
Baroness Segrave
suo jure

14761481
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