The Mowbrays had been the holders of the coveted title Duke of Norfolk[A] from the year 1396 down to 1475, when John de Mowbray Earl of Warren and Surrey, the fourth of the Mowbray Dukes of Norfolk, died leaving no son but only a daughter, Anne, in her own right Baroness Mowbray and Segrave, and also in her own right Countess of Norfolk. This lady was contracted in marriage to Richard, afterwards created Duke of Norfolk, a son of King Edward IV., but they had no issue.
[A] The first Earl of Norfolk was Thomas of Brotherton, a brother of King Edward II. The date of this ancient Earldom was 1312. It fell into abeyance on the death of Richard Duke of Norfolk and his wife Anne Lady Mowbray.
Thomas Howard Earl of Arundel and Surrey (the half-cousin of Lord Mounteagle) was created Earl of Norfolk by a patent of King Charles I. (formerly Duke of York) in 1644. At the present date (25th June, 1901) the House of Lords has under consideration a claim by Lord Mowbray Segrave and Stourton that he be declared senior co-heir to the Earldom of Norfolk created in 1312. (A case of great historic interest.)
The second of the Howard Dukes of Norfolk, the hero of Flodden Field, was the father of Thomas third Duke of Norfolk, commonly called the “old Duke of Norfolk.”
He was that Duke of Norfolk, under Henry VIII., who opposed the insurgent Yorkshire and Lancashire “Pilgrims of Grace” (1536) led by the gallant Robert Aske,[A] of Aughton, on the banks of the Yorkshire Derwent, when in the event Aske was hanged from one of the towers of the ancient City of York — probably Clifford’s Tower — and many of his followers tasted of Tudor vengeance.
[A] Representatives of the family of Robert Aske are still to be found at Bubwith, near Aughton, and, I believe, at Hull. Aughton is reached from the station called High Field on the Selby and Market Weighton line. Aughton Parish Church is a fine mediæval structure. Hard-by is Castle Hill, the site of the ancient castle of the Askes, showing also evident traces of two large moats which had surrounded the fortified buildings on the hill which constituted the Aughton Hall of days gone by.
“The old Duke of Norfolk” was the father of that illustrious scion of the house of Howard who, under the name Earl of Surrey, has left a deathless memory alike as warrior, statesman, and poet.
The Earl of Surrey’s son was Thomas Howard fourth Duke of Norfolk, who is the common ancestor of the present Duke of Norfolk and the present Earl of Carlisle.
The fourth Duke of Norfolk’s head fell on the scaffold, by reason of the Duke’s aspiring to the Royal hand of Mary Queen of Scots.[B]
[B] Slingsby Castle, 28 miles north-east of York (now dismantled), is associated with the Mowbrays Dukes of Norfolk, they giving the Vale near the Howardian Hills and Rydale the title, Vale of Mowbray. While Sheriff Hutton Castle, 10 miles north-east of York (rebuilt by the first Earl of Westmoreland), is associated with the Howards Dukes of Norfolk; for the “old Duke” lived there for 10 years during the reign of Henry VIII. (The occupier of part of Sheriff Hutton Castle now (1901) is Joseph Suggitt, Esq., J.P.)