Sir Thomas Mallory (1260-1317)

from Brief History of Knights


In the forum post, "Senior medieval Mallory family Line (12th to mid-16th centuries)" on the Mallory surname forum, the author, Hikaru Kitabayashi, stated, "My basic list of heads of Mallory lineages differs very little from what I interpret as P.J.C. Field's modifications of S.V. Mallory Smith's earlier published work. Where I might have something to add is in the frills that make it more in the nature of a gentry history of medieval England rather than a more narrowly focused genealogical work. I have uncovered more names of spouses, children, closely allied families, property transfers, court cases, etc. and have been able to create a tentative chronology of the various heads of households covering roughly a five hundred year period."
 
 

 
Under "Generation-8," Kitabayashi recorded, "Sir Thomas Mallory (or Mallore as he and most Mallorys appear in the records of the time) was the first lord of Kirkby Mallory to be knighted in four generations. Not only that, he was made a knight of the Bath at the installation of the future Edward II as Prince of Wales and was in the same company of men knighted as the last Lord la Zouche [Alan] of the first creation...."

(This Thomas Mallory was the father of Christopher Mallory, where the Mallory line began in the previous post of 26 Nov 2023.)

Thomas was married to a "daughter of a Baron la Zouche" but her first name is still unknown.  The author of the forum post reasoned, "If Thomas's father [Henry, d. bef. 1261] had died before becoming Lord of Kirkby Mallory, Thomas would have been in the custody of his Uncle Ralph who, judging from the fact that Thomas names his oldest surviving son Ralph, was the likely main father figure of Thomas's life. If so, it would have been the elder Ralph who would would have made arrangements with Lord la Zouche (or, if Lord la Zouche had died, with his heirs)...."

In addition, Kitabayashi stated that "Sir Thomas and the last baron la Zouche are not only knighted at the same time, but also become companions in arms in the wars of King Edward II."
 
According to Dr. Charles Kightly on the English Heritage website A Brief History of Knights, "Candidates were prepared for knighthood by taking a bath - something people didn't often do in those times."
 
Sir Thomas Mallory and the future Baron, Alan la Zouche (who likely became Thomas' brother-in-law), participated in a mass knighting: 
 
Among the most spectacular was the party thrown in May 1306 for the knighting of Edward Prince of Wales, later the ill-fated King Edward II. Three hundred young men were knighted with him, and each was given free armour, weapons, gold-embroidered robes and even a bed by the prince's father, King Edward I. Thousands of their friends and relations camped out in the fields round Westminster Abbey, where the poshest of the knights-to-be kept their all-night 'vigil'.

Next morning the prince (who'd just been knighted by his father) knighted all his companions in the abbey. Some guests rode their horses into the church, where the crush was so great that several knights fainted and two were squashed to death. Finally everyone sat down to a massive feast, eating swans, peacocks and 5000 salted eels and entertained by a 'multitude of minstrels', including the acrobat Matilda Makejoy.

The Mallory forum post traces the genealogy back several more generations beyond Christopher.  As Hitabayashi stated, "The ordinary medieval Mallory life strategy was to mate, whenever possible, a woman with substantial resources (=land) that could eventually be brought into the family; and, then producing a family as quickly as possible, charge forward full speed in their attack on life, irregardless of the consequences, something which makes for endlessly fascinating history."
 
Here it is:
 
Christopher Mallory (b. abt. 1310, m. Joan de Melton), son of
 
Thomas Mallory (b. abt. 1260, m. dau of la Zouche), son of
 
Henry Mallory (b. abt. 1230, m. Matilda), son of
 
Thomas Mallory (b. abt. 1203, m. Christiana Segrave), son of
 
Richard Mallory (b. abt. 1175, m. Cecilia Segrave), son of 
 
William Mallory (b. abt. 1150, m. Alice), son of 
 
Richard Mallory (b. abt. 1125, m. Agnes de Novo Mercato (Newmarket), son of
 
Robert Mallory (b. abt. 1100, m. ? Turville?, granddaughter or great-granddaughter of Ralph Carnot)

And there it ends, for now.
 


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