John de Mowbray, 4th Baron Mowbray

John de Mowbray, 4th Baron Mowbray
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth de Segrave
Issue John de Mowbray, 1st Earl of Nottingham Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk Eleanor Mowbray Margaret Mowbray Joan Mowbray
Father	John de Mowbray, 3rd Baron Mowbray
Mother	Joan of Lancaster
Born	24 June 1340
Died	1368 near Constantinople

Arms of Mowbray: Gules, a lion rampant argent

John de Mowbray, 4th Baron Mowbray (24 June 1340 – 1368) was an English peer. He was slain near Constantinople while en route to the Holy Land.

Family

John de Mowbray, born 25 June 1340 at Epworth, Lincolnshire, was the son of John de Mowbray, 3rd Baron Mowbray, of Axholme, Lincolnshire, by his second wife, Joan of Lancaster, sixth and youngest daughter of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster.^[1][2][3] He had two sisters, Blanche and Eleanor (for details concerning his sisters see the article on his father, John de Mowbray, 3rd Baron Mowbray.^[4]

Career

He and twenty-six others were knighted by Edward III in July 1355^[3] while English forces were at the Downs before sailing to France. In 1356 he served in a campaign in Brittany.^[2][3] He had livery of his lands on 14 November 1361; however his inheritance was subject to the dower which his father had settled on his stepmother, Elizabeth de Vere.^[3] By 1369 she had married Sir William de Cossington, son and heir of Stephen de Cossington of Cossington in Aylesford, Kent; not long after the marriage she and her new husband surrendered themselves to the Fleet prison for debt.^[2][4] According to Archer, the cause may have been Mowbray's prosecution of his stepmother for waste of his estates; he had been awarded damages against her of almost £1000.^[3]

In about 1343 an agreement had been made for a double marriage between, on the one hand, Mowbray and Audrey Montagu, the granddaughter of Thomas of Brotherton, and on the other hand, Mowbray's sister, Blanche, and Audrey's brother, Edward Montagu. Neither marriage took place.^[3] Instead, about 1349 a double marriage was solemnized between, on the one hand, Mowbray and Elizabeth Segrave, and on the other hand, Mowbray's sister Blanche, and Elizabeth Segrave's brother John, Pope Clement VI having granted dispensations for the marriages at the request of the Earl of Lancaster in order to prevent 'disputes between the parents', who were neighbours.^[5][3] Mowbray had little financial benefit from his marriage during his lifetime as a result of the very large jointure which had been awarded to Elizabeth Segrave's mother, Margaret, Duchess of Norfolk, who lived until 1399.^[6][3] However, when Elizabeth Segrave's father, John de Segrave, 4th Baron Segrave, died on 1 April 1353, Edward III allowed Mowbray to receive a small portion of his wife's eventual inheritance. Estate accounts for 1367 indicate that Mowbray enjoyed an annual income of almost £800 at that time.^[3]

Mowbray was summoned to Parliament from 14 August 1362 to 20 January 1366.^[2] On 10 October 1367 he appointed attorneys in preparation for travel beyond the seas; these appointments were confirmed in the following year.^[7] He was slain by the Turks near Constantinople while en route to the Holy Land.^[8] A letter from the priory of 'Peyn' written in 1396 suggests that he was initially buried at the convent at Pera opposite Constantinople;^[9][10] according to the letter, 'at the instance of his son Thomas' his bones had now been gathered and were being sent to England for burial with his ancestors.^[7]

His will was proved at Lincoln on 17 May 1369.^[11][5] His wife, Elizabeth, predeceased him in 1368 by only a few months.^[5]

Marriage and issue

Mowbray married, by papal dispensation dated 25 March 1349,^[5] Elizabeth de Segrave (born 25 October 1338 at Croxton Abbey),^[5] suo jure Lady Segrave, daughter and heiress of John de Segrave, 4th Baron Segrave (d.1353),^[3] by Margaret, daughter and heiress of Thomas of Brotherton, son of Edward I.^[12]

They had two sons and three daughters:^[12]

• John de Mowbray, 1st Earl of Nottingham (1 August 1365 – before 12 February 1383), who died unmarried, and was buried at the Whitefriars, London.^[13]
• Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk.^[14]
• Eleanor Mowbray (born before 25 May 1364),^[5] who married John de Welles, 5th Baron Welles.^[13][15]
• Margaret Mowbray (d. before 11 July 1401), who married, by licence dated 1 July 1369, Sir Reginald Lucy (d. 9 November 1437) of Woodcroft in Luton, Bedfordshire.^[16]
• Joan Mowbray, who married firstly Sir Thomas Grey (1359 – 26 November or 3 December 1400) of Heaton near Norham, Northumberland, son of the chronicler Sir Thomas Grey, and secondly Sir Thomas Tunstall of Thurland in Tunstall, Lancashire.^[17][13]

Notes

1. Richardson III 2011, pp. 202-3.
2. Cokayne 1936, p. 383.
3. Archer 2004.
4. Richardson III 2011, p. 203.
5. Cokayne 1936, p. 384.
6. Tait 1894, p. 220.
7. Cokayne 1936, pp. 383-4.
8. Caley, Ellis & Bandinel 1846, p. 321.
9. Richardson III 2011, p. 206.
10. Angold 2006, p. 66.
11. Gibbons 1888, p. 62.
12. Richardson III, pp. 206-7.
13. Richardson III 2011, pp. 206-7.
14. Richardson III 2011, pp. 206-9.
15. Richardson IV 2011, p. 303.
16. Richardson III 2011, pp. 64, 206-7.
17. Richardson II 2011, pp. 254-5.

References

• Angold, Michael, ed. (2006). The Cambridge History of Christianity: Eastern Christianity V. London: St. Catherine Press. Retrieved 15 September 2013.
• Archer, Rowena E. (2004). "Mowbray, John (III), fourth Lord Mowbray (1340–1368)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19452. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Caley, John; Ellis, Henry; Bandinel, Bulkeley (1846). Monasticon Anglicanum by Sir William Dugdale. VI, Part I (New ed.). London: James Bohn. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
• Cokayne, George Edward (1936). The Complete Peerage, edited by H.A. Doubleday and Lord Howard de Walden IX. London: St. Catherine Press. pp. 380–5.
• Gibbons, Alfred (1888). Early Lincoln Wills. Lincoln: James Williamson. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
• Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G., ed. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families II (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City. ISBN 1449966381.
• Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G., ed. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families III (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City. ISBN 144996639X.
• Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G., ed. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families IV (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City. ISBN 1460992709.
•  Tait, James (1894). "Mowbray, John de (d.1361)". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography 39. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 219–21.

Further reading

• Burke, Sir Bernard. "Mowbray-Earls of Nottingham, Dukes of Norfolk, Earls-Marshal, Earls of Warren and Surrey." A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, of the British Empire. London: Wm Clowes and Sons, Ltd., 1962. p. 387.
• The West Family Register: Important Lines Traced, 1326–1928: NEHGS Research Library, call number RB/F16/G66/no. 5