On this day, 1^st June 1300, Margaret of France gave birth to a baby boy - Thomas of Brotherton. Margaret was the second wife of King Edward I of England. Edward had been unlucky when it came to his sons. His first wife, Eleanor of Castile, had given birth to around sixteen children, including at least four sons, but many of their children had died in childhood. When Eleanor passed away her only surviving son was Edward of Caernarfon, and with such a rate of infant mortality in the family there was no guarantee that this little boy would survive to become King.

Edward’s marriage to Margaret of France was partly out of necessity at needing another wife, and partly a political move to seal a treaty with Margaret’s half-brother, King Philip. They seem to have been happy though, despite the huge age difference (Edward was sixty and Margaret was around twenty), and baby Thomas was the first of what would be three children born to the couple.

Thomas actually appears to have come early, his mother was out hunting when she went in to labour, and she was rushed to the nearby manor house at Brotherton in Yorkshire, hence his name. His brother Edmund joined him a year later, and a little sister named Eleanor came along after a few years, but died very young.

Childhood

Edward and Margaret appear to have been devoted parents. When he heard the news of Thomas’ birth, Edward (whose supposed portrait is shown on the right) raced to be with his wife and see the new baby. He took a personal interest in the decoration of Thomas’ rooms, ordering particular materials to be used and paying for two cradles to be furnished in rich cloth. There was good reason to be so particular, while the younger Edward was sixteen and past the dangers of childhood, there was still a possibility that Thomas could become King of England, he was his older brother’s heir for the time being.

When Edmund came along they spent their childhood in a combined household, with a large number of servants and attendants. Their education was the same as other boys at the time, although probably heightened in terms of skilled teachers. Along with the basic skills expected from schooling they were also given religious instruction, were taught to ride and learned to play chess. Their mother hired musicians to play for them, and when she was away with their father she appears to have kept a close eye on her boys, albeit from a distance. For Thomas it must have been an idyllic childhood.

Edward I died when Thomas was just seven years old. It couldn’t have come as a great shock to some in his household, the King had been an old man when he had married Thomas’ mother, but it must have been a great blow to the little boy. Margaret fought for her son’s rights, but she was up against her step-son, the new Edward II, and that meant she was also against his favourite, Piers Gaveston. Perhaps the first sign to Thomas that his life was going to be one of occasional difficulty, was when his promised title of “Earl of Cornwall” was given to Piers Gaveston. Perhaps the best known man to hold the title had been Richard of Cornwall, the younger brother of Henry III, who had been on crusade, travelled widely across Europe and been crowned King of the Romans. Although Thomas may have struggled to follow in such illustrious footsteps in the same way, the lands that came with it would at least have made him a wealthy man, as was suitable for the son and brother of kings. When Edward went to France to marry Princess Isabella, Thomas was further slighted. As a younger son of the late king, and a younger (albeit half) brother of the current king, he should have been given the honour of being the nominal regent during Edward’s absence (nominal as he would have been left strict instructions, Edward wouldn’t have been particularly far away, and he would have been assisted by a committee of experienced, high ranking nobles). Instead, once again, that honour went to Piers Gaveston.

At the age of twelve, and after Gaveston’s death, Thomas was awarded the Earldom of Norfolk by King Edward. Edward’s reign had already seen some serious problems, but Thomas had remained loyal to his brother throughout (although since he wasn’t even a teenager there would have been a limit to how much trouble he could have caused). Even as civil war descended in the early 1320’s Thomas remained loyal, as did his younger brother Edmund, who was now the Earl of Kent.

Rebellion

But Thomas’s loyalty would only go so far, and eventually like many other English noblemen he was pushed in to opposition against his half-brother and king. When Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer landed in England with a small invasion force in September 1326 they were accompanied by Edmund, Earl of Kent. Following his younger brother, Thomas quickly allied himself with them. In time he would sit as one of the judges at the “trials” of the Despensers, and was one of the signatories of the document that declared his brother had forfeited the right to remain king after he abandoned the country, fleeing from the Queen and Roger Mortimer. He appears to have had a good relationship with his nephew, as he became one of Edward III’s main advisors.

Sadly though his brother Edmund was less lucky. Both of the new king’s uncles had angered Roger Mortimer. Both were close to their nephew and therefore posed a threat to Mortimer’s influence. In March 1330 Edmund was arrested for treason, tried before a court that had no real legal authority, and then beheaded. Edward had wanted to spare his uncle, but had been overruled by Mortimer.

Thomas managed to escape such savagery. After Mortimer’s death he was safe, and spent the rest of his life advising and assisting his nephew. In 1333 he was part of Edward’s campaign against Scotland, leading the right hand division in the Battle of Hallidon Hill, a battle won by the English and which saw the slaughter of a large number of Scottish nobles and infantry.

Death

Thomas wouldn’t be with his nephew during his greatest battles in France, he died in 1338, two years before the start of what would become known as The Hundred Years War.

By the time Thomas of Brotherton died he had been married twice and had just two surviving children. He married Alice de Hales and with her had three children; Edward, Margaret and Alice. Sadly Edward predeceased his father by four years. Alice had died by 1330, and so Thomas married for a second time, to Mary de Brewes. They had no surviving children. This meant that on Thomas’ death his heir was his eldest daughter Margaret, who would go on to have a far more scandalous life than her father.