Thomas de Mowbray - 4th Earl of Norfolk

Thomas de Mowbray was the 4th Earl of Norfolk and an English Nobleman and rebel who played a central role in the northern uprisings against King Henry IV and was executed for treason.

Thomas was born on September 17th, 1385, in Norfolk and was the son of Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, and Elizabeth FitzAlan, daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 4th Earl of Arundel.

His father died of the plague in Venice in 1399, and Thomas succeeded him as the 4th Earl of Norfolk and the 2nd Earl of Nottingham, but not as the Duke of Norfolk. He also received his father's title of Earl Marshal, but on an honorary basis, with the military rank going to Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmoreland, as the Marshal of England.

Thomas was betrothed to Constance Holland, daughter of John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter. But she was just a child at the time of betrothal, and the marriage was never consummated.

Thomas de Mowbray became involved with the Northern Rising in 1405 with Henry Percy 1st Earl of Northumberland, against King Henry IV, and raised an army with Richard le Scrope, Archbishop of York. They were confronted by a large royal force led by John of Lancaster and the Earl of Westmorland. After le Scrope failed to negotiate a parley, their troops were disbanded, and Mowbray and le Scrope were arrested by Westmorland and taken to Pontefract Castle to await the King.

A commission led by the Earl of Arundel and Thomas Beaufort sat in judgment on Mowbray, le Scrope, and le Scrope's nephew William Plumpton, at le Scrope's own Manor of Bishopthorpe, about three miles south of York. They were found guilty and taken to a field belonging to the nunnery of Clementhorpe, just under the city walls of York, where they were beheaded in front of a large crowd on June 8th, 1405.

Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2, describes the execution with the words "Some guard these traitors to the block of death ... Treason's true bed and yielder up of breath."

Thomas de Mowbray's head was displayed on a pike for two months on Bootham Bar before it was taken down and reunited with his body. He was buried in the Church of the Greyfriars in York. He was succeeded by his younger brother John de Mowbray as 2nd Duke of Norfolk.