Occurrences

Other Names

Variant names

Norberi
Northbury

Notes

Norbury is a particularly interesting and important individual. Coming from a minor gentry family from Norbury near Marbury in Cheshire, he was to become a successful soldier and administrator, serving in many theatres in the Hundred Years War, and ultimately becoming treasurer under Henry IV. Norbuy had a reputation as a freebooter and made considerable profits as a soldier. In 1377 when he was assigned with the constable of Bordeaux by Edward III to see to it that numbers of men-at-arms and archers were garrisoned in the major cities and towns of the duchy, he was also captain of the strategically important town of Libourne (appointed 12 March 1377). He seems to have owed this appointment to John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster. He was later to become much more closely connected with the house of Lancaster, accompanying Henry of Bolingbroke on crusade to Prussia, and being retained by both Bolingbroke and John of Gaunt his father. He later accompanied Bolingbroke into exile before Bolingbroke's usurpation of Richard II's throne in 1399. Norbury profited from this loyal service to the house of Lancaster, and died in 1414 a rich man with estates in Hertfordshire. For fuller details see the biography of Norbury by Philip Morgan in the ODNB.

View as RDF/XML