John Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk was an important actor in the Wars of the Roses.
He was born in 1415 and died in 1461. He held the office of Earl Marshal from 1432 when he inherited the title of 3rd Duke of Norfolk.
He was the son of John Mowbray, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and Lady Katherine Neville.
He married Eleanor Bourchier, daughter of the Comte d’Eu and the Countess of Buckingham. They had one child, John Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk.
At the beginning of the War of the Roses in 1450 he supported Richard, Duke of York, the leader of the Yorkist faction.
However in 1459 he swore allegiance to the Lancastrian Henry VI. He then quickly changed sides back to the Yorkists. This sort of treachery was by no means unusual during the Wars of the Roses.
In February 1461 he fought for the defeated Yorkists in the Second Battle of St Albans.
In March 1461 (Richard, Duke of York now being dead) he was one of those who asked the Duke’s son the Earl of March to become Edward IV.
On 29 March, 1461 his intervention at the Battle of Towton was decisive. The battle took place in a snow storm between 80,000 men. Neither side could get an advantage until about midday Norfolk entered the battle on the Yorkist’s right flank. The Lancastrians then began to slowly fall back.
As Earl Marshal Mowbray officiated at Edward IV’s coronation.
Bibliography
Weir, Alison. Britain's Royal Family: A Complete Genealogy. London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999.