THOMAS OF BROTHERTON, EARL OF NORFOLK and MARSHAL OF ENGLAND (1300-1338), was the eldest child of Edward I
by his second wife, Margaret, the sister of Philip the Fair. Edward II was his
half-brother. He was born on 1 June 1300 at Brotherton near Pontefract, where his parents were halting on their
way to Scotland.1 He was called Thomas because of the successful invocation of St. Thomas of Canterbury
by his mother during the pains of labour. A story is told that the life of the child was despaired of in his
infancy, but that his health was restored by the substitution of an English nurse for the Frenchwoman to whom his
mother had entrusted him.2 Edward I destined for Thomas the earldom of Cornwall which escheated to the
crown on 1 Oct 1300, on the death, without heirs, of Earl Edmund, the son of Richard, king of the Romans,3
and some of the chroniclers say that the grant was actually made.4
On his deathbed Edward specially urged upon his eldest son [i.e., Edward II] the obligation of caring for his two half-brothers.
Edward II, however, soon conferred Cornwall on his favourite,
Piers Gaveston. Nevertheless he made handsome provision for Thomas. In September 1310
he granted to Thomas and his brother Edmund of Woodstock jointly the castle and
honour of Strigul (Chepstow) for their maintenance,5 and in October 1311 he granted Thomas seisin of
the honour.6 Larger provision followed. The earldom of Norfolk and the dignity of earl marshal, which
Roger Bigod, fifth earl of Norfolk, had surrendered to the crown and had received back entailed on the heirs of
his body, had recently escheated to the king on Roger's death without children. On 16 Dec. 1312 Edward II created
Thomas Earl of Norfolk, with remainder to the heirs of his body, and on 18 March the boy of twelve received a
summons to parliament, which was repeated in January and May 1313.7 He also obtained the grant of all
the lands in England, Wales, and Ireland that had escheated on Roger Bigod's death, and on 10 Feb. 1316 he was
further created marshal of England, thus being precisely invested with the dignities and estates of the previous
earl. He got the last fragment of the estate in 1317, when Alice, the dowager countess, died.8 On 20 May
1317 Thomas received his first summons to meet at Newcastle in July to serve against 'Scotch rebels.'9
In the early part of 1319 Thomas acted as warden of England during Edward II's absence in the field against the
Scots, holding on 24 March of that year a session along with the chief ministers in the chapter-house of St. Paul's,
where they summoned before them J. de Wengrave, the mayor; Wengrave was engaged in a controversy with the community
with regard to municipal elections, which was appeased at Thomas's intervention.10 After being knighted,
on 15 July, Thomas proceeded to Newcastle, where a great army was mustering against Scotland. He crossed the border
on 29 Aug., but nothing resulted from the invasion save the vain siege of Berwick.11
In 1321 Thomas, being summoned with his brother Edmund to the siege of Leeds Castle in Kent,12 adhered
to the king's side, and is described as 'strenuous for his age.'13 He took a prominent part in
persuading Mortimer to submit.14 Yet in September 1326 he was one of
the first to join Queen Isabella on her landing at Orwell. The landing-place
was within his estates.15 On 27 Oct. he was one of the peers who condemned the elder Despenser at
Bristol16 In May 1327 he was ordered to raise troops against the Scots. He was chief of a royal
commission sent to Bury St. Edmunds to appease one of the constant quarrels between the abbey and the
townsmen.17 He was bribed to accept the rule of Isabella and Mortimer by lavish grants of the
forfeited estates of the Despensers and others, and was so closely attached to Mortimer that he married his son
Edward to Beatrice, Mortimer's daughter, and attended the solemn tournament at Hereford with which they
celebrated the match.18
But he soon became discontented with the rule of Isabella and Mortimer, and joined the conference of magnates
which met on 2 Jan. 1329 at St Paul's;19 he acted with his brother Edmund, the archbishop of
Canterbury, and the bishop of London as envoys from the barons to the government; but the defection of
Henry of Lancaster broke up the combination.20 On 17 Feb. 1330 Thomas
and Edmund escorted the young queen Philippa on her solemn entry into London the
day before her coronation.21 Luckier than Edmund, Thomas gave no opportunity to the jealousy of
Mortimer, and survived to welcome Edward III's attainment of power. On 17-19 June l331
he fought along with the king on the side of Sir Robert de Morley in a famous tournament at Stepney, riding,
gorgeously attired, through London on 16 June, and making an offering at St. Paul's.22 In 1337 he was
employed in arraying Welsh soldiers for the king's wars.23 Knighton says24 that he was one
of the lords who accompanied Edward III to Antwerp in July 1338, but the other chroniclers do not seem to
substantiate this. Thomas died next month (August 1338) and was buried in the choir of the abbey church, where a
monument was erected to him that perished after the dissolution at Bury St. Edmunds.
In September Edward, at Antwerp, appointed William de Montacute, first earl of Salisbury,
his successor as marshal.25
Thomas married, first, Alice, daughter of Sir Roger Hales of Harwich; and, secondly, Mary, daughter of William,
lord Roos, and widow of Sir William de Braose. Mary Roos survived her husband, married Ralph, lord Cobham, and
died in 1362. Thomas's only son, Edward, was born of his first wife, and married Beatrice, daughter of
Roger Mortimer, first earl of March, but died without issue in his father's
lifetime.
—T.F.T
1. Chronicon de Lanercost, Maitland Club, 1839, p. 193.
2. Annales Edwardi I in Rishanger, Chronica, 1865, pp. 438-9, Rolls Series.
link.
3. Willelmi Monachi Malmesbiriensis (Monk of Malmesbury), De Gestis Regum Anglorum, ed. Stubbs, p. 169.
4. Worcester Annals (Annales Wigornenses), p. 547; Trokelowe, Annales, p. 74.
5. Calendar of Close Rolls, 1307-13, p. 279.
6. Flores Historiae, iii. 334.
7. Cal. Close Rolls, 1307-13, pp. 564, 584.
8. ib. 1313-1318 p. 504.
9. ib. 1313-18 p. 473.
10. Annales Paulini in Stubbs' Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II, pp 285-6.
11. Malmesbury, pp. 241-2; Ann. Paulini, p. 286.
12. Flores Historiae, iii. 199.
13. Malmesbury, p. 263.
14. Continuation of Adam of Murimuth's Chronicle, Adae Murimuth Continuatio Chronicarum, 1889 ed., p. 35.
15. Murimuth, p. 46.
16. Annales Paulini, p. 317.
17. ib. p. 334.
18. Murimuth, p. 578; Chronicon Galfridi Le Baker, ed. Thompson, p. 42.
19. cf. details in Knighton's Chronicon as published in Twysden's Decem Scriptores, and in the notes
to G. Le Baker, pp. 217-20, ed. Thompson, from MS Brut Chron.
20. Annales Paulini, p. 344.
21. ib. p. 349.
22. ib. pp. 353-354.
23. Rymer's Fœdera, iii. 980.
24. Knighton, ii. 4.
25. Fœdera, iii. 1060.
Excerpted from:
Tout, T. F. "Thomas of Brotherton."
Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. LVI.
Sidney Lee, Ed.
New York: The Macmillan Company, 1898. 152-3.
Other Local Resources:
Thomas of Brotherton on the Web:
- Genealogy - ThePeerage.com
- Thomas of Brotherton: A Study in Early Fourteenth-Century Aristocracy - Alison Marshall
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