Nigel d'Aubigny

Nigel de Daubeney, 3rd Baron of Thirsk, 1st Baron of Mowbray (1070-1129), also known inaccurately as Nigel d'Aubigny, was a Norman Lord and English Baron who was the son of Roger d’Aubigny (1036-1104) and Alice de Grandmesnil (1055-1100). His father was a avid supporter of Henry I of England. He was born at Thirsk Castle in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, Kingdom of England. He was the founder of the noble House of Mowbray.

Life

He is described as "one of the most favoured of Henry’s 'new men'".^[2] While he entered the king's service as a household knight and brother of the king's butler, William d'Aubigny, in the years following the Battle of Tinchebrai in 1106 Nigel was rewarded by Henry with marriage to an heiress who brought him lordship in Normandy and with the lands of several men, primarily that of Robert de Stuteville, 2nd Baron of Thirsk.^[1] The Mowbray honour became one of the wealthiest estates in Norman England. From 1107 to about 1118, Nigel served as a royal official in Yorkshire and Northumberland. In the last decade of his life he was frequently traveling with Henry I, most likely as one of the king's trusted military and administrative advisors . He died in Normandy, possibly at the abbey of Bec.^[3]

Family

He married twice. His first marriage was in 1107 to Matilda de L'aigle (1075-1129), daughter of Richer de L'aigle, Lord of L'aigle (1041-1085), who had divorced the disgraced and imprisoned Robert de Mowbray, 14th Earl of Northumbria (1059-1125). She brought to the marriage with Nigel her ex-husband's Lordship of Mowbray in western Normandy. They had no children. His second marriage was to Gundred de Gournay (1097-1155), daughter of Gerard de Gournay, Baron Of Gournay (1066-1104) in 1118 and had one son by that marriage. Cousin of Robert de Mowbray.

Notes

1. 1 2 King, E. (1974). King Stephen and the Anglo-Norman Aristocracy. History, 59(195), 180-194.
2. ↑ Frank Barlow, William Rufus (1983) p.145.
3. ↑ Greenway, pp. xvii-xviii.