Marilyn Roberts is one of the foremost experts on the Mowbray family and her poignant rendering of the short life – and afterlife – of Anne Mowbray, last of her line and child bride of the younger of the Princes in the Tower, is as riveting as it is brilliantly researched. The author’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the geography of her story brings it all the more vividly to life. This is history at its forensic best. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
ALISON WEIR, author
I can remember reading about it in the papers all those years ago, but I had no idea about the rows in Parliament over her reburial. Tony Fryer, purchased at Westminster Abbey Bookshop
Lady Anne Mowbray the High and Excellent Princess
John Mowbray 4th Duke of Norfolk’s only child, a daughter, was born approximately half way through that period of just over thirty years known today as The Wars of the Roses. However, there was a lull in the murderous proceedings throughout Lady Anne’s lifetime, and by the time the death of Edward IV reignited hostilities she was already in her shroud.
In December 1964 a workman on a demolition site not far from the Tower of London came across what appeared to be the burial of a medieval child. The inscription on its lead wrappings revealed the remains were those of 8-year-old Lady Anne Mowbray, who had died in 1481.
It was a mystery. As the child bride of one of the later ill-fated Princes in the Tower, himself even younger than she was, ‘the High and Excellent Princess’ had been laid to rest in Westminster Abbey, where it was believed she still remained. So what was she doing in an ancient vault lying under what had been part of a Victorian railway goods yard? And why did the discovery become so bitterly controversial?
P 130
Family trees 5
Photographs 16
Maps and plans 5
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COVER STORY
THE LADY ANNE MOWBRAY COVER.
The only images of Lady Anne available are those of her remains exhumed in 1964, so it was decided to use an image of her dynasty’s heraldic shield, the Mowbray lion rampant depicted in white, or sometimes silver, on a red background. This lovely medieval example can be found in The Holy Trinity Church on Goodramgate, York.
Although only eight at her time of death Lady Anne had for some time been married to the younger son of Edward IV and so was given an elaborate and expensive royal interment in Westminster Abbey. At a later date her remains were moved to the Convent of the Poor Clares near the Tower, which gradually fell into disrepair; the move was not intended to be permanent. The Victorian era saw a massive development of the area and it was while redevelopment was taking place in the early 1960’s her remains were found deep underground.
Part of the Convent of the Poor Clares, Aldgate, in 1797 after neglect and fire. Lady Anne’s coffin was still here although it was generally thought it had been returned to Westminster Abbey in the reign of Henry VIII. Image by T.J. Smith, 1797. Image Public Domain