Margaret Brotherton

c.1320-1399 Framlingham Castle, Suffolk

Margaret Brotherton spent the later part of her days living out that old adage ‘if you’ve got it, flaunt it’. The first woman to be made a duchess in her own right, Margaret enjoyed all the extravagances of nobility at Framlingham Castle. The keeper of the accounts recorded in 1385 that Margaret splurged on 70,321 loaves of bread, over half a ton of Spanish almonds and 40 casks of red herrings, plus gallons of red and white wine from France.

Around 1350 Margaret – who later styled herself ‘Countess Marshal’ despite her father’s hereditary position of Marshal of England going to the Earl of Salisbury – ignored a royal ban on her travelling to plead with the Pope for a divorce from John, Lord Segrave. She was unsuccessful and arrested on Edward III’S orders and tried for violating his ban. Segrave died three years later and soon after Margaret married Walter, Lord Mauny. But she attracted the king’s displeasure again for marrying Mauny without a licence, and he seized her lands. Margaret was detained following her trial, but her estates were restored to her by May 1354, and in 1355 she was pardoned for both her remarriage and her illegal travel.

Her prominent position in high society is clear when examining the company she kept. She exchanged new year’s presents with Henry Bolingbroke (the future Henry IV) – who sent his son John to be educated at Framlingham – and Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel (a nonrelation) described Margaret in his will as “my mother of Norfolk”. The countess was elevated to Duchess of Norfolk in September 1397, and died two years later aged almost 80.