Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk

Infobox British Royalty|royalty
name = Anne de Mowbray


imgw =
title = Duchess of York; Duchess of Norfolk
Countess of Norfolk
succession = Countess of Norfolk
predecessor = John Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk
spouse = Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York
royal house = House of York
father = John Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk
mother = Elizabeth Talbot
date of birth = birth date|1472|12|10|df=yes
place of birth = Framlingham Castle
date of death = death date and age|1481|11|19|1472|12|10|df=yes
place of death = Greenwich
place of burial = Westminster Abbey|

Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk, later Duchess of York and Duchess of Norfolk (10 December 1472–19 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.

She was born at Framlingham Castle in Suffolk, the only (surviving) child of John de Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk and 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. On 15 January 1478, she was married in St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, to Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, the 4-year-old son of Edward IV of England and Queen consort Elizabeth Woodville. Anne died at Greenwich in London, nearly two years before her husband disappeared into the Tower of London with his older brother Edward V of England, and she was entombed in a lead coffin in the Chapel of St. Erasmus of Formiae in Westminster Abbey. 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, run by nuns of the Order of Poor Ladies. 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 analyzed by scientists and then entombed in Westminster Abbey in May 1965. Her red hair was still on her skull and her shroud still wrapped around her. Westminster Abbey is also the alleged resting place of her husband Richard Duke of York.

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 King Edward. [Ross 248] This action may be a motivation for Lord Howard's support of the accession of Richard III. He was created Duke of Norfolk and given his half of the Mowbray estates after Richard's coronation.

See also

*Dukes of Norfolk family tree

References

* Stephen, Leslie. "Mowbray, John (VI)" "Dictionary of National Biography." London: Smith, Elder, & Co, 1885. (p. 225) [http://books.google.com/books?id=xyUJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA225&dq=Anne+Mowbray googlebooks] Accessed December16, 2007
*P. M. Kendall, The World of Anne Mowbray, Observer Colour Magazine, issued May 23, 1965
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*M. A. Rushton, The Teeth of Anne Mowbray, British Dental Journal, issued October 19, 1965
*Stepney Child Burial, Joint press release from the London Museum and Westminster Abbey, issued January 15, 1965
*Roger Warwick, Skeletal Remains of a Medieval Child, London Archaeologist, Vol. 5 No. 7, issued summer 1986

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