John Mowbray, 2nd Baron Mowbray

John Mowbray, 2nd Baron Mowbray ( September 4, 1286 - March 23, 1322 ) was an English nobleman and rebel.

Origin and youth

He was a son of Roger de Mowbray, 1st Baron Mowbray and his wife Rohese , a daughter of Richard de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford . He was a minor when his father died in 1297. The next year he was married in Swansea Castle to Alicia, the eldest daughter of his guardian William de Braose , who paid a fee of 500 marks for the marriage .

Follower of Edward II.

On May 22, 1306 Mowbray was one of those who interact with the heir Edward the Knights were defeated. On June 1, 1306 he was able to inherit from his father. On August 26, 1307 he received a Writ of Summons for Parliament . On February 25, 1308 he was present at the coronation of Edward II as King of England. After the death of Roger Lestrange , the second husband of Maud de Beauchamp, his paternal grandmother, he received her share of the lands of his great-grandfather William de Beauchamp in Bedfordshire , Buckinghamshire , Cambridgeshire and Kent in 1311 . Despite these newly acquired possessions in southern England and the probable inheritance of his father-in-law's estates in South Wales, Mowbray's main interest was in his possessions in northern England. In 1306 he took part in Edward I's last campaign against Scotland , and in 1308 and 1309 he supported the Scottish campaigns of Edward II. He was several times administrator of the city of York , Yorkshire , Northumberland and the Scottish Marches at Carlisle , to which the king entrusted him still other offices. Among other things, the king appointed him in January 1315 as one of the four commanders of the English troops in the Scottish Marches.The king tried to secure his loyalty by paying him an unknown number of men-at-arms annually for his services from June 1317 Promised £ 100. When John Lilburn , a henchman of the Earl of Lancaster , occupied Knaresborough Castle in October 1317 , a castle owned by the royal favorite Roger Damory , Mowbray was part of the cast of northern English barons who besieged the castle and forced Lilburn to surrender in late January 1318.

Participation in the inheritance dispute over Gower

In 1316 Mowbray assured his father-in-law Braose to hand over the estates of Hawnes, Stotfold and Willington in Bedfordshire. This allowed the king to pass the goods on to his favorite Hugh le Despenser . That same year, Braose, whose only son had already died, agreed to the transfer of his property in Sussex to his daughter Alicia and her husband Mowbray. The possession of Gower , the most important rule of Braose, remained unclear. Because of his debts, Braose planned to sell this South Welsh dominion, but presumably he had also promised Mowbray Gower. Mowbray occupied the rule in 1320, but also Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford , the father-in-law of Braose's second daughter Joan, claimed the rule. In addition, Braose had negotiated with Roger Mortimer of Chirk , Roger Mortimer of Wigmore and Hugh le Despenser about a sale of the rule. Despenser was already lord of the neighboring Glamorgan , and he persuaded Edward II to seize the rule due to the occupation of Gower by Mowbray. Mowbray countered that Gower as the rule of the Welsh Marches was not subject to English law and that the king did not have the right to deprive him of his inheritance. The other contenders for Gower then allied with Mowbray to defend their privileges as Marcher Lords and their territories against the growing influence of Hugh le Despenser in South Wales. Edward II then forbade Mowbray and 29 other Marcher Lords to ally themselves.

Rebel against Despenser and against the King

During the Despenser War , the Marcher Lords allied raided Despenser's estates in south Wales in May 1321, conquered many of his castles and captured John Iweyn , Despenser's sheriff of Glamorgan. Since Iweyn had previously been in the service of Braose, Mowbray had him executed as a traitor. Mowbray and the Marcher Lords now allied themselves at a meeting in Sherburn-in-Elmet with the Earl of Lancaster, the king's longstanding domestic political opponent. They got the majority of the barons in parliament on his side, who exiled Hugh le Despenser in August 1321 and pardoned Mowbray on August 20. From autumn 1321, however, the king took military action against the rebels. In January 1322 he forced most of the Marcher Lords to give up. Mowbray had joined Lancaster in northern England and took part in the siege of Tickhill in January . In February 1302 Mowbray was to be one of the negotiators negotiating an alliance between the rebels and the Scots. On March 11, 1322, the King declared Mowbray a traitor, and on March 17, he was captured at the Battle of Boroughbridge . He was taken to York and hanged there on March 23rd as a traitor. His body was hung in chains on display for the next three years before being buried in the Dominican Church of York.

Aftermath

Like his ancestors, Mowbray supported Byland Abbey in Yorkshire with foundations. In Melton Mowbray he built a new mansion. With his wife Alicia he had two sons, John and Alexander. His wife and eldest son John were arrested after his rebellion and imprisoned in the Tower of London ; they were only released after the fall of Edward II and Despenser in early 1327. Mowbray's sentence was overturned posthumously in 1327 . His son John was then awarded the goods of his father and Gower.

Web links

• Rowena E. Archer: Mowbray, John (I), second Lord Mowbray (1286-1322). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of January 2006

Individual evidence

1. ^ Diane M. Williams: Gower. A Guide to ancient and historic monuments on the Gower peninsula . Cadw, Cardiff 1998. ISBN 1-85760-073-8 , p. 16
2. ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 1, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 111.
3. ↑ John Robert Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322. A Study in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970, p. 168
4. ↑ John Robert Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322. A Study in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970, p. 211
5. ↑ John Robert Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322. A Study in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970, p. 207
6. ↑ John Robert Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322. A Study in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970, p. 271
7. ↑ John Robert Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322. A Study in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970, p. 302

predecessor	Office	successor
Roger de Mowbray	Baron Mowbray 1297-1322	John Mowbray