Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk

Thomas Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, KG was an English landowner and peer. His family was a venerable one, and by the time Thomas reached adulthood, they were extremely influential in national politics. He claimed a direct bloodline from King Edward I. His father died when Thomas and his elder brother were young. John soon died, and Thomas inherited the Earldom of Nottingham. He had probably been friends with the king, Richard II, since he was young, and as a result, he was a royal favourite, a role he greatly profited from. He accompanied Richard on his travels around the kingdom and was elected to the Order of the Garter. Richard's lavish dispersal of his patronage made him unpopular with parliament and other members of the English nobility, and Mowbray fell out badly with the king's uncle, John of Gaunt.