Roger de Mowbray was the son of Nigel d’Aubigny,
one of Henry I’s leading men, and Gundreda de Gournay. Roger
took his surname from Robert de Mowbray, earl of Northumberland.
Robert had been married to Roger’s stepmother, Maud de Laigle,
and Robert’s Norman estate of Montbray had been passed to
Roger through this connection.(1) Roger
came out of his minority in 1138, shortly before the Battle of
the Standard that was fought
between the English and Scots. The young Roger joined the English
troops and according to an account of the battle by Aelred
of Rievaulx,
he acquitted himself honourably against the Scots.(2) Indeed,
Roger gained and sustained a high reputation for his prowess on
the battlefield,
attaining great honour on the Second
Crusade, when he successfully
defeated a Muslim in one-to-one combat.(3)
The mystery of the Mowbray
grave
According to contemporary accounts, Roger de Mowbray died in Palestine
shortly after his capture in 1188, and was buried at Sures. By the late
thirteenth century, however, the monks of Byland believed that Roger had
been buried in their chapter-house and indeed the royal commissioners recorded
that they had seen his grave here when visiting the abbey in 1535. In the
nineteenth century a search was made to recover Roger’s tomb.
[Read more about the mystery of the Mowbray grave]
Roger was a keen crusader,
but it is rather remarkable that the Augustinian writer, William
of Newburgh, makes no mention of his
founder’s crusading exploits.(4) Roger
was one of the few great men of the kingdom to join the king of
France on the Second Crusade
in 1147.(5) It was on
this occasion that he successfully recouped the fortune he had
lost
during the anarchic years of King Stephen’s
reign (1135-1154). This recovery was short-lived, for Roger’s
support of the rebellion against Henry II in 1173-4 by the king’s
eldest son, cost him dearly. Roger left for the Holy Land again
in 1186, when he was in his sixties. According to contemporary
accounts he was never to return to England, for he was captured
at the Battle of Hattin in 1187 and died soon after in Palestine,
where he was buried.(6)
In addition to his military pursuits, Roger
was a generous supporter of the religious orders. He was the
founder of Byland Abbey, and
provided the monks with four sites; he also founded the Augustinian
priory at Newburgh and was an important patron of Fountains and
other religious houses in the North.