The New Murrey and Blue blog

Elizabeth Arundel (or FitzAlan as we now say, though her father didn’t) was the daughter of Richard, Earl of Arundel (executed 1397) and Elizabeth de Bohun. She was born about 1371 and was the sister of (among others) the formidable Joanna, Lady of Abergavenny, subject of an earlier post.

Elizabeth’s first husband was William Montagu, son and heir of the Earl of Salisbury. This was a child marriage and certainly not consummated because of her youth. William was killed on 6 August 1382 in a tragic jousting accident involving his own father. (This was not a one-off. A few years later, the last Hastings Earl of Pembroke, while still a youth, was killed in an accident while practising.) Salisbury had no other living children, and the title eventually passed to his nephew.

Elizabeth’s next husband was Thomas Mowbray. Mowbray was wealthy in his own right and was the heir apparent of his grandmother, Margaret Marshal, who was enormously rich. He was both Earl of Nottingham and Earl Marshal and was one of a group of young men associated with Richard II.

After his marriage, Mowbray drifted away from the King’s circle and became associated with his father-in-law. Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, was so highly favoured that others, including Mowbray, resented it. So Thomas Mowbray became a junior member of the clique known as the Lords Appellant, who opposed the King and were eventually successful in executing or banishing most of those involved in his regime.

Whether Mowbray or the other junior Appellant, Henry of Lancaster, Earl of Derby, fully grasped the implications of their actions is open to question. What is clear is that these two were forgiven by Richard II far more quickly than their three seniors, Gloucester, Arundel and Warwick. While Richard and his cousin Henry Bolingbroke never achieved anything much closer than politeness, it was not so long before Mowbray (on the face of it) was entirely restored to favour and once again part of Richard’s inner circle.

Richard regained power quite swiftly, and bloodlessly, but for some time he had to rule within various tramlines the Appellants had imposed. As his position strengthened, aided by the support of his uncle, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, he decided to take out the three senior Appellants.

Mowbray, remarkably, was to be an Appellant for a second time, but on this occasion, it was his former colleagues he prosecuted. Henry of Lancaster was not an Appellant this time but gave evidence against Arundel in Parliament. Gloucester (who had been in Mowbray’s custody) died in Calais. Many thought he had been murdered, and perhaps he had. Arundel was beheaded, and Warwick was sentenced to life imprisonment.

As a reward for his support, Richard II made Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norfolk.

What Elizabeth thought about her husband bringing about the death of her father, and even being among those who escorted him to the block, is not recorded. There was also the little matter that she might be married to the murderer of the King’s uncle. Oh, well! These things happen. And she got to be a duchess.

They had two sons together. Thomas, who was fated to be executed in 1405 for his part in Scrope’s rebellion; and John, who was to regain the dukedom of Norfolk in the fullness of time as a reward for his services to Henry V in France. There were three daughters. Elizabeth, who married the Earl of Suffolk. Isabel, who married first Henry Ferrers, Lord Ferrers of Groby, and secondly, James, Lord Berkeley. Then there was Margaret, who married Sir Robert Howard. She is the ancestress of all the later Howard dukes, down to the present day. After Howard’s death, she married Sir John Grey KG of Ruthin, who, confusingly, had a brother also called John. The one with the KG was Margaret’s.

The quarrel between Mowbray and his former ally, Henry Bolingbroke, is too well known to be enlarged upon. One point seems to be that Bolingbroke thought Mowbray had murdered Gloucester, Henry’s uncle. (Henry conveniently forgot that he and his father had both accepted Gloucester’s arrest, at the very least.)

To cut a long story short, Norfolk was banished and died in exile in Italy in 1399. While Henry Bolingbroke came home from his banishment and became King Henry IV.

Elizabeth, now a widow, was stripped of her title Duchess of Norfolk by Henry’s first Parliament, which apparently decided her husband’s advancement had been unjustified. I am uncertain whether she now called herself Countess of Norfolk, Countess of Nottingham or the Countess Marshal. She was all three.

Love now came along in the shape of Robert Goushill, Esquire. It is not clear exactly how old he was – estimations of his date of birth vary from 1350 to 1368 – but he was heir to a knightly line that went back some generations. He was the lord of Hoveringham , Nottinghamshire, but so relatively obscure that we do not know his mother’s name. He had been a member of the Mowbray retinue and it’s reasonable to assume that this is how Elizabeth met him.

Anyway, before August 1401, Elizabeth married him. They did not bother to ask Henry IV’s permission and consequently all their lands were forfeited. However, after a few months, they were pardoned and the lands restored, no doubt at a price.

Elizabeth and Goushill had two – some say three – daughters in short order. One daughter, Joan, was to marry Thomas Stanley KG (1405-1459) and become the ancestress of the future earls of Derby. Another, Elizabeth, married Sir Robert Wingfield.

Elizabeth Arundel’s happiness was not to last, as, in 1403, her husband was killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury. To make matters worse, Robert was not killed in the fighting but wounded, and then murdered by his servant, who stabbed him and then stole his purse and rings. It would have been scant consolation that Robert was knighted by Henry IV before the battle.

As mentioned above, in 1405 Elizabeth’s eldest son, Thomas, the Earl Marshal, was executed for his involvement in Archbishop Scrope‘s abortive rebellion. He was only 19.

At some time before 1408, Elizabeth took another husband. This was Sir Gerard Usflete, a Yorkshireman. No children are recorded of this marriage. However, the marriage lasted until Gerard died in 1420. Elizabeth herself passed over in 1425 but decided to be buried with Robert Goushill in Nottinghamshire. It seems likely Robert was the love of her life.

Elizabeth’s descendants are legion, and if you are English there is a fair chance you are one of them.