C.P. Addition: Revised Marriage Date of Thomas Mowbray and Constance Holand
Douglas Richardson
As part of the discussion this past week regarding the three marriages
of Hawise de London, the issue of Hawise's age at her first marriage
came up. Reviewing the evidence, it is clear that Hawise de London
was at best ten or eleven years old when her mother married her off to
her first husband, Walter de Brewes.
There are, however, examples of even earlier ages at marriage in
contemporary medieval records. Thomas Mowbray the younger, son and
heir of Thomas Mowbray, Earl Marshal and of Nottingham, was born 17
September 1385. On 18 September 1391, when he had just turned six, a
papal dispensation was obtained for him to marry Constance Holand,
daughter of John Holand, Duke of Exeter. The intended bride was then
only four years old.
Complete Peerage, 9 (1936): 604–605 (sub Norfolk) states that Thomas
Mowbray and Constance Holand were married before 1 June 1402, citing
as its source, Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1401-1405, pg. 111. The
correct page references are actually pages 110-111. These Patent
Rolls items can be viewed at the following weblink:
pg. 110: http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/patentrolls/h4v2/body/Henry4vol2page0110.pdf
pg. 111: http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/patentrolls/h4v2/body/Henry4vol2page0111.pdf
If Complete Peerage is to be followed, it implies that Thomas and
Constance were married as late as 11 years after the dispensation was
obtained for their marriage. However, my research indicates that
Thomas Mowbray and Constance Holand were actually married some years
previous to 1402, in fact about 12 September 1392, when the following
item was recorded:
Issue Roll, 16 Richard II [1392].
"12th September. To Thomas, Earl Marshal and of Nottingham, the
King's kinsman. In money paid to him in discharge of 200l., which the
Lord the King commanded to be paid to the same Earl to celebrate a
marriage between the son of the same Earl and the daughter of the Earl
of Huntyngdon, also a kinsman of the Lord the King aforesaid. By writ
of privy seal. - 200l." END OF QUOTE. [Reference: Frederick Devon,
Issues of the Exchequer (1837): 252].
The above item may be viewed at the following weblink:
http://books.google.com/books?id=pDNnAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA37&dq=%22Adam+de+la+Ford%22&lr=#PPA252,M1
So, it would seem that young Thomas Mowbray was age seven and his
bride, Constance Holand, was at age five when they were married
sometime about 12 September 1396. Almost like robbing the cradle,
isn't it?
Best always, Douglas Richardson, Salt Lake City, Utah