John de Mowbray (1310-1361)

Early life
John De Mowbray Knt., 3rd Lord Mowbray,Baron of Axholme, Lincolnshire, Baron of Bramber, Sussex, lord of Gower in Wales, Keeper of Berwick-on-Tweed, son and heir, born at Hovingham, Yorkshire 29 Nov 1310 and baptized there. He was the son of John De Mowbay and Aveline De Broase. He was still a minor at the death of his father in 1322, was imprisoned in the Tower of London for five years. His mother was also imprisoned. In January 1327, on the deposition of Edward II, he was released and given livery of his father's lands, and was summoned to parliament from10 December 1327 to 20 November 1360. The lands of the Templars were not returned to him. They had been let to the Templars for 15 ½ marks before 1184, by his grandfather Roger De Mowbray. His grandfather had disputed with them for other lands in 1185. When he gave up his claim, he was received into the order.

His father had been given lands by his father-in-law, William De Brewes, (or De Broase)of the baronies of Bramber and Gower. This was done without the king's permission. When he moved to take possession of this property, Hugh le De Spenser convinced the king to dispossess him. In order to keep what he believed to be rightfully his, he and a confederation of the Marcher lords fought with the De Spensers. John De Mowbray Sr. had taken part in a siege against the king's castle of Tickhill. The king issued orders for the seizure of his lands and his arrest. He was taken prisoner at the Battle of Boroughbidge and hanged in March of 1321/2. These forfeited estates were what John De Mowbray, the younger was granted livery of after being released from prison.

Military Political Life
Much of his life was during the attempt of Edward Balliol and the Disinherited to overthrow the Bruce dynasty in Scotland and the beginnings of the Hundred Years War with France. Edward III came to the throne in 1327 following the barbarous murder of Edward II in Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire. John de Mowbray was a member of the new king's council from 1328. In 1327, 1333,1335 and again in 1337, he served in the north, with Edward Balliol, against the Scots. The year 1333 Berwick was seized by the English. It had previously been in the hands of the Scots.

In 1337, with war against France impending, John was ordered to arm his tenants in his lordship of Gower. While he was away that year, in the king's service, intruder invaded his land and laid it to waste. In 1338 he had to provide ships for the king's passage to the continent and was sent down to his Sussex estates to counter the treat of a French landing. In view of continuing Scottish troubles. In 1340 he was back in Scotland again and was appointed Justiciar of Lothian, (which Edward Balliol had ceded to Edward III in 1334, temporarily reversing three centuries of Scottish control of that district) and governor of Berwick-on-Tweed. He was commanded to furnish Balliol with men from his Yorkshire estates in in September 1341.

In the September of 1341 he was busy raising troops for Balliol from his Yorkshire estates, but by this time David Bruce, son and successor of the famous Robert the Bruce, had returned from exile and gradually exerted his authority at the expense of Balliol's. In 1346 David sought to take advantage of Edward II's absence on the continent, and came south with an army of invasion. John was among the many northern landowners who raised troops to counter the Scots and was prominent at the resulting battle of Neville's Cross fought near Durham in 1346 which resulted in the defeat and capture of David II. At Neville's Cross, Durham in 1346 there was a great battle where King David II was captured, and also John's Scottish cousin William de Moubray. At this battle John fought in the third line, and one of the chroniclers of the times loudly sang his praises: "He was full of grace and kindness - the conduct both of himself and his men was such as to resound to their perpetual honour." He was present at the Seige of Calais in 1347. He is said to have taken part in the naval defeat of the Spaniards off Winchelsea in 1350.

A truce had begun in 1347, but when it expired in 1352, John was appointed chief of the commissioners charged with the defense of the Yorkshire coast against the French, and had to furnish thirty men from Wales. In December 1359 he was made a justice of the peace in the Holland district of Lincolnshire and in February of the next year, he became a commissioner of array at Leicester for the counties of Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Rutland. His last recorded duty as the king's servant was his summons to parliament in May 1360. On the 4th. October 1361.

In the September of 1341 he was busy raising troops for Balliol from his Yorkshire estates, but by this time David Bruce, son and successor of the famous Robert the Bruce, had returned from exile and gradually exerted his authority at the expense of Balliol's. In 1346 David sought to take advantage of Edward II's absence on the continent, and came south with an army of invasion. John was among the many northern landowners who raised troops to counter the Scots and was prominent at the resulting battle of Neville's Cross fought near Durham in 1346 which resulted in the defeat and capture of David II. He was present at the Seige of Calais in 1347. He is said to have taken part in the naval defeat of the Spaniards off Winchelsea in 1350.

In 1352, he was appointed as chief of the commissioners who had been given the task of defending the Yorkshire coast against possible French attacks, for which purpose he provided thirty men from Wales. In 1356 he witnessed the surrender of Balliol of his claim to the Scottish crown in favor of Edward. Seven years later he was appointed justice of the peace for Holland in Lincolnshire and in February 1360 he was commissioner of array for the counties of Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Rutland. His last public act was to attend the Parliament of May 1360.

John was involved in protracted litigation from 1338 to 1347 with his cousin Thomas de Braose concerning the great estates in Wales and Sussex which had come to him through his mother, Alice De Brewes (de Braose). Although John successfully concluded the dispute with his cousin, in 1354 the Earl of Warwick stepped forward and claimed the Gower for himself. Although John had the support of Edward, the Black Prince in this argument, the king Edward III ultimately ruled in favor of the Earl of Warwick. John therefore lost control of the lordship of Gower although his descendants secured a reversal of the decision in 1396 and regained the lordship which they held until 1489 when they exchanged it for lands in England with the Earl of Pembroke. He also had a dispute, prior to his mother's death in 1322, with her second husband Sir Richard Peshall, regarding certain manors in Bedfordshire which he and his mother had granted Peshall for life, and in 1329 he forcibly entered them.

Death and Burial
He died at Hoveringham, York in the second plague outbreak, having lived through the first in 1348. He was buried in the Franciscan church at Bedford. John was succeeded by his son, also John.

Character
Some idea of what his character was like can be determined by a deed he granted in 1359. The North West of Lincolnshire is known as the Isle of Axholme and was a swampy low-lying area. In order to put an end to the disputes between his steward and tenants in the area, he reserved a small part of his extensive holdings for himself, and grated the remainder to his tenants 'in perpetuum'. This deed was jealously preserved in Haxey church "in a chest bound with iron, whose key was kept by some of the chiefest freeholders, under a window wherein was a portraiture of Mowbray, set in an ancient stained glass, holding in his hand a writing, commonly reported to be an emblem of the deed". The window was broken down in the "rebellious times", when the rights of the commoners under the deed were in large measures overridden, despite their protests, by the drainage scheme begun by Cornelius Vermuyden in 1626.

Family
Henry Plantagenet., Earl of Lancaster, for services to Queen Isabella, was granted rights over the marriage of John, and married him to his fifth daughter Joan, 28 Feb 1326/27. In 1342, he and his wife Joan, received a papal indult for plenary remission. His first wife pre-deceased him 7 July (1349?) and was buried before the high alter at Byland. John then married Elizabeth de Vere, (they being related in the 4th and 3rd degrees of kindred and I have not determined whether or not they received a papal dispensation for this marriage) There was no issue from this second marriage.

After his death, his widow Elizabeth, married 3rd before 18 Jan 1368/9 William de Cossington, Knt. (living 6 July 1380), son and heir of Stephen de Cossington of Cosynton(in Aylesford) and Acrise, Kent. She died 16 August 1375.


 * Children of John De Mowbray and Joan Plantagenet
 * Children of John De Mowbray and Joan Plantagenet