William de Mowbray

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Coat of arms of William de Mowbray

William de Mowbray (* 1173 ; † before March 1224 in Axholme Castle ) was an English nobleman. He was one of the northern English barons who were disadvantaged by this under King John Ohneland , whereupon they formed an opposition to the nobility and forced the king to recognize the Magna Carta .

Origin and succession of his father

William de Mowbray came from the House of Mowbray . He was the eldest son of Nigel de Mowbray and Mabel († 1219), who was believed to be a daughter of William de Patri. His paternal grandfather was Roger de Mowbray . In a contemporary chronicle he is described as small as a dwarf, but generous and brave. When his father died in 1191, he became heir to his lands in Yorkshire , especially around Thirsk , and on the Isle of Axholme in Lincolnshire . When he came of age in 1194, he had to pay a fee of £ 100 to get his inheritance. Then he immediately had to raise almost exactly the same amount as his contribution for the ransom for King Richard the Lionheart imprisoned in Germany . He remained hostage in Germany until the ransom was paid in full. After his release in 1197 he witnessed the English treaty of alliance with Flanders .

Vassal of Johann Ohneland and quarrel with William de Stuteville

When Richard the Lionheart died in April 1199, Mowbray, like other barons, used the unexplained succession to the throne to expand their castles without royal permission. He was critical of Richard's brother Johann Ohneland, but ultimately swore allegiance to him because of the promises Archbishop Hubert Walter , the legal advisor Geoffrey fitzPeter and William Marshal made in Johann's name. In the next few years he often served the king on his campaigns in the war against France, above all to avoid further shield money demands. When France conquered Normandy in the Franco-English War in 1204, his family's ancestral estates in Montbray were also lost. In 1210 Mowbray took part in the king's campaign to Ireland .

In 1200 he got involved in a dispute with William de Stuteville , another Northern English baron, who claimed land that his ancestor Robert de Stuteville had lost to Mowbray's ancestors after a vain rebellion against King Henry I almost 100 years ago. Although Mowbray's grandfather had reached an agreement with Stuteville's father, Stuteville offered the king 2,000 marks for a new judgment on this matter, whereupon the royal court negotiated a compromise favorable to Stuteville in early 1201. After that he received from Mowbray Brinklow in Warwickshire and other goods with a total of nine Knight's fees . Mowbray had borrowed heavily from Jewish moneylenders for the process.

Rebel against the king

From 1214 at the latest, Mowbray belonged to the Northerners , a group of barons who were in sharp opposition to the king and who, under the leadership of Eustace de Vesci, rejected a strong royal administration. All of them had refused to take part in the campaign to Poitou in 1214 and also refused to pay a shield fee, since in their opinion their oath of feud against the king did not extend to areas outside of England. Easter 1215 Mowbray joined the army of the aristocratic opposition that had gathered in Stamford . After the rebels had wrested the king's recognition of the Magna Carta, Mowbray and other Northerners were among the 25 barons in 1215 who were supposed to oversee the king's compliance with the rules of the Magna Carta. Mowbray tried to use the power struggle for his own ends by claiming the hereditary administration of York Castle for his family . The king granted him this on June 19th. When it came to the open war of the barons again in the fall of 1215 , Mowbray was rebels against the king, in particular by Pope Innocent III. excommunicated. Even after the death of Johann in October 1216, Mowbray continued to fight against the new King Heinrich III. until he was captured at the Battle of Lincoln in May 1217 . He was only released after the Peace of Lambeth in September 1217. As a ransom, however, he had to hand over the estate of Banstead in Surrey , which he had inherited from his mother, to Hubert de Burgh and waive his claims to York Castle. His other possessions, which had been confiscated by the king, were returned to him in October 1217. During the rebellion of William de Forz in January 1221, Mowbray was asked to conquer Skipsea's castle . He died in 1223 or early 1224.

Family and offspring

According to information from the 16th century, he was married to Agnes, a daughter of William d'Aubigny, 2nd Earl of Arundel , but older sources only name one woman named Avice. He definitely had two sons:

  • Nigel († 1228)
  • Roger (around 1220 – around 1266)

His eldest son Nigel became his heir, after whose childless death he was followed by his younger brother Roger.

Mowbray founded the chapel of St Nicholas in Thirsk, in addition he left endowments for the Newburgh Priory founded by his grandfather near Coxwold in Yorkshire, where he was also buried.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Matthew Strickland, 'Enforcers of Magna Carta (act. 1215-1216)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/theme/93691 , accessed April 30, 2015
personal data
SURNAME De Mowbray, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English nobleman and rebel
DATE OF BIRTH 1173
DATE OF DEATH before March 1224
Place of death Axholme Castle