Friday, October 20, 2006

Thomas de Mowbray was the first Duke of Norfolk. His mother, Elizabeth de Mowbray, Baroness Mowbray and suo jure 5th Baroness Segrave, was the eldest daughter of Margaret Plantagenet, Duchess of Norfolk (and being the eldest daughter of someone who died 1399 makes you one old lady!) who was in turn the eldest daughter of Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk, was the seventeenthish1 child of Edward I, [former as of 1307] King of England. Mr. Edward was a tall bloke. Actually, only 6'2", but they called him 'Longshanks' anyway.

Anyway, Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk got in an argument with Henry of Bolingbroke, 1st Duke of Hereford (who's most famous for usurping the throne to become King Henry IV and a title for a couple plays by that English playwrite.) So, Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk got banished (along with the future king). He's featured in aforementioned playwrite's play named after the guy who banished him.

But I'm not here to tell you about Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk. My point is the other Thomas de Mowbray, this one being the fourth Earl of Norfolk. And he's the son of the guy I just rambled on and on and on about. Thomas de Mowbray, 4th Earl of Norfolk was beheaded, by which I mean deheaded.

Now, the point is, this headless man, Thomas de Mowbray, 4th Earl of Norfolk, had both a brother named John de Mowbray, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and a son named John de Mowbray, who just so happened to be (after Thomas quit due to nonheadedness), the second Duke of Norfolk. (What a numbering system they had in those days! Brits. I tell you.) And he had a grandson, John de Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, whose only son was John de Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk. And Thomas de Mowbray, 4th Earl of Norfolk's grandfather was John de Mowbray, 4th Baron Mowbray.

So, in chronological order or something like that:
Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk
Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk
Thomas de Mowbray, 4th Earl of Norfolk
John de Mowbray, 2nd Duke of Norfolk
John de Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk
John de Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk

Now, my actual point--and I know I keep saying 'my point is' when it really isn't, but I'm telling the truth this time--is that when I was fairly young, I memorised all the presidents of the US2 in order. And I could recognise their portraits.
The closest thing we had to duplicate names were John Adams and his grandson John Quincy Adams.

Yay for living in a young country! (Too bad it behaves immaturely as well.)

1 Wikipedia lists only five children for Edward I, probably because most died in infancy. One of the survivors (until 1284), Alphonso, Earl of Chester died at age ten, but was still apparently Earl of Chester, except maybe he wasn't actual and is only considered so retroactively. Alphonso's mother, by the way, was considered a 'greedy foreigner' by the general public, but she bore sixteen children and didn't eat any of them, which makes her better than Britain's own Johnathan Swift. But she's not Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk's mother. Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk's mother was Marguerite of France.

2 Yes, I know Dukes and Earls and junk aren't analogous to presidents. Shut up. I needed something to post, and this is it. It's also the longest, most boringest post in the history of this blog. Gosh golly gee whiz, who the heck will want to read this mess?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I guess the most striking thing about Longshanks was that he was nothing but a head perched on two very long.. shanks. That sort of arrangement attracts a lot of attention, even to a 6'2" shorty.