♀Margaret of Norfolk

Margaret of Norfolk^W was an English noblewoman, Countess of Norfolk in her own right, who outlived two husbands and in old age was made Duchess of Norfolk for her lifetime. She was the twentieth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through her daughter Elizabeth de Segrave (born 1338).

Early life and marriages

Margaret is said to have been born about 1320, the eldest daughter and a coheir of Thomas of Brotherton, Earl of Norfolk^W, a younger son of King Edward I. John de Segrave and Margaret of Norfolk married before 15 December 1338. Their daughter and heir, Elizabeth de Segrave, was born on 25 October 1338 and baptized the same day at Croxton Abbey^W. A papal dispensation dated 25 March 1349 allowed Elizabeth, then ten, to marry John de Mowbray, then eight.

John died on 1 April 1353, leaving no son. In or shortly before 1354 Margaret married Walter Manny^W, Lord Manny. He died in London on 13 January 1371/2 and was buried in the Charterhouse.

Countess and duchess

In 1375 her niece Joan, Countess of Suffolk, died without children, and Margaret became the sole heir to her father’s earldom; from 15 March 1377 she was styled “Margaret Marshal, Countess of Norfolk”. At the coronation of Richard II she petitioned to be admitted to the office of the Marshalsea, the marshal’s office her father had held, as her right of inheritance after his death.

The Complete Peerage records that in the twenty-fifth year of her widowhood, on 29 September 1397, she was created Duchess of Norfolk for her life, on the same day that her grandson Thomas Mowbray was created Duke of Norfolk. She died on 24 March 1399/1400, aged about eighty, and was buried in the Grey Friars^W in London. The dukedom, granted to her for her life only, ended with her.

Notes

Sources

Margaret’s title of Duchess and Countess of Norfolk, her first marriage, her father and her daughter’s birth, baptism and marriage are from Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry (2005), pp. 601–602, a printed genealogy of the medieval nobility. Her birth about 1320, her place as eldest daughter and coheir, her succession in 1375, her style as “Margaret Marshal”, both marriages, Walter Manny’s death and burial, her creation as duchess, her death “24 March (1399/400) … aged about 80” and her burial in the Grey Friars are from the Complete Peerage (1st edition, vol. 6, 1895, p. 41). The petition at the coronation is quoted there at p. 197, from a note by G. W. Watson: she asked “destre accept al office de Marshalsey ore al coroument nostre seignior le Roy [Richard II.]”, by right of inheritance after the death of her father, “Marshal of England”.

Her first husband’s death

Richardson dates John de Segrave’s death 1 April 1353; the Complete Peerage gives “Easter Tuesday, 1353, aged 38”.

Her name

The Complete Peerage styles her “Margaret Marshal” from 1377, and its first volume calls her “Margaret of Brotherton (wife of John, Lord Segrave)”.