Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk

Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk, later Duchess of York and Duchess of Norfolk (10 December 1472 – c. 19 November 1481) was the child bride of Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, one of the Princes in the Tower. She died at the age of eight.

Anne de Mowbray
Duchess of York; Duchess of Norfolk
The marriage of Lady Anne Mowbray with Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, by James Northcote
Duchess of Norfolk
Predecessor	John Mowbray, 4th Duke, 7th Earl
Born	10 December 1472 Framlingham Castle, Suffolk
Died	c. 19 November 1481 (aged 8) Greenwich, London
Burial	Westminster Abbey
Spouse	Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York ​ ​ (m. 1478)​
House	York (by marriage)
Father	John Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk
Mother	Elizabeth Talbot

Heiress

She was born at Framlingham Castle in Suffolk, the only (surviving) child of John de Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk and Lady Elizabeth Talbot. Her maternal grandparents were John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury and his second wife Lady Margaret Beauchamp. The death of her father in 1476 left Anne a wealthy heiress.

Marriage

On 15 January 1478, aged 5, she was married in St Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, to Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, the 4-year-old younger son of Edward IV and his queen, Elizabeth Woodville.

Death and heirs

Anne died at Greenwich in London, nearly two years before her husband disappeared into the Tower of London with his older brother, Edward V. Upon her death, her heirs normally would have been her cousins, William, Viscount Berkeley and John, Lord Howard, but by an act of Parliament in January 1483 the rights were given to her husband Richard, with reversion to his descendants, and, failing that, to the descendants of his father Edward IV.[1]

Burial

Anne was buried in a lead coffin in the Chapel of St. Erasmus of Formiae in Westminster Abbey.[2] When that chapel was demolished in about 1502 to make way for the Henry VII Lady Chapel, Anne's coffin was moved to a vault under the Abbey of the Minoresses of St. Clare without Aldgate, run by nuns of the Order of Poor Clares Franciscans. Her coffin eventually disappeared.

In December 1964, construction workers in Stepney accidentally dug into the vault and found Anne's coffin. It was opened, and her remains were analysed by scientists and then entombed in Westminster Abbey in May 1965.[3] Her red hair was still on her skull and her shroud still wrapped around her. Westminster Abbey is the presumed resting place of her husband, Richard Duke of York, and his brother Edward V, in the Henry VII Chapel.

Ancestors

Ancestors of Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk

Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk John de Mowbray, 2nd Duke of Norfolk Elizabeth FitzAlan John de Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk Ralph de Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland Katherine Neville Joan Beaufort John de Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk Sir William Bourchier William Bourchier, 1st Count of Eu Alianore de Lovayne Eleanor Bourchier Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester Anne of Gloucester Eleanor de Bohun Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk Gilbert Talbot, 3rd Lord Talbot Richard Talbot, 4th Baron Talbot Petronilla Butler John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury John Lestrange, 4th Lord Strange Ankaret Lestrange Mary FitzAlan Elizabeth Talbot Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick Margaret Ferrers Margaret Beauchamp Thomas de Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley Elizabeth de Berkeley Margaret de Lisle

See also

• Dukes of Norfolk family tree

Notes

1. Ross, Charles (1997). Edward IV (second ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. p. 248. ISBN 0-300-07372-0. OCLC 38886953.
2. "Anne Mowbray, Duchess of York". Westminster Abbey. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
3. "Anne Mowbray, Duchess of York". Retrieved on 3 March 2017.

References

• Lee, Sidney, ed. (1894). "Mowbray, John (1415-1461)" . Dictionary of National Biography. 39. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 225.
• P. M. Kendall, The World of Anne Mowbray, Observer Colour Magazine, issued 23 May 1965
• Moorhen, Wendy (2005). "Anne Mowbray: In Life and Death" (PDF). The Ricardian Bulletin (Spring). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 November 2010.

Sources

• M. A. Rushton, The Teeth of Anne Mowbray, British Dental Journal, issued 19 October 1965
• Stepney Child Burial, Joint press release from the London Museum and Westminster Abbey, issued 15 January 1965
• Roger Warwick, Skeletal Remains of a Medieval Child, London Archaeologist, Vol. 5 No. 7, issued summer 1986