Elizabeth Butler

From 'Lady Eleanor Talbot's Other Husband: Sir Thomas Butler, Heir of Sudeley, and his Family' (The Ricardian, Volume XIV, 2004, pp. 62-81): by John Ashdown-Hill

"Thomas' mother was Ralph's first wife. Her name has been given by most earlier writers as Elizabeth Hende [footnote: 'Complete Peerage', vol. 12 part 1, London 1953, p. 421.] but, like Alice Lovel, Elizabeth had also had a previous husband, and Hende was not her maiden name, but rather the surname which she had acquired by that previous marriage ... Elizabeth's maiden name was Norbury, which is a toponym. Her family had for several generations held the manor of Norbury in Cheshire, and under the earlier surname of Bulkeley, had been domiciled in that county for even longer ... Sir Thomas's mother was the daughter of the wealthy Sir John Norbury I of Norbury, Cheshire, Treasurer of England. The career of Sir John Norbury I is well documented, although the fact that he was Sir Thomas Butler's grandfather has not previously been

recognised.

from the Barber article on John Norbury in HER

The proof that Lord Sudeley's wife Elizabeth was daughter of Sir John Norbury seems to be through the coat of arms.

Ashdown-Hill: "Elizabeth's Norbury arms can be clearly seen, impaled by the arms of Butler of Sudeley, on the Sudeley pedigree roll which was made in 1449 to elebrate Sir Thomas Butler's forthcoming marriage to Lady Eleanor Talbot. [footnote: New York City Library, Spencer MS. 193.]"

Complete Peerage 12 Pt. 1 (1953): 419-421

"He married, 1stly, before 6 July 1419, Elizabeth, widow of John Hende; she died 28 August 1462."

"Elizabeth Norbury had at least one sister and two half-brothers. Her father married twice. His first wife, the mother, if chronology is any guide, of both Elizabeth and her sister, Joan, was called Petronilla, but her maiden surname I have not discovered. Petronilla was still living in August 1401, when she is named with her husband as the recipient of Henry IV's grant of the manor of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, but by 1412 Sir John [Norbury] was married to Lord Sudeley's sister, Elizabeth Butler, and they already had two sons. Probably Petronilla died in about 1404 and Sir John's marriage with the widowed Elizabeth Butler, Lady Say, took place in about 1405. [footnote: 'CPR 1399-1401',p. 541; 'CPR 1408-13', p. 404.] ... As we have seen, thanks to her father's business connections, in about 1408, Elizabeth [Norbury], who was then probably about fifteen years of age, was married to the much older but very wealthy widower, John Hende II, draper and past mayor (1391-92 and 1404-05). John was probably aged about fifty-eight at the time of marriage ... John Hende II died in 1418 ... About a year later, Elizabeth married Ralph Butler, who, on the death of an elder brother, had recently inherited the title of Lord Sudeley."

References

• 'Lady Eleanor Talbot's Other Husband: Sir Thomas Butler, Heir of Sudeley, and his Family' (The Ricardian, Volume XIV, 2004, pp. 62-81): by John Ashdown-Hill PDF