308 Broughton Gifford. 
the feast of St. Nicholas, 6th Dec., 1878. She died the wife of 
Thomas Mowbray Earl of Nottingham, in her tenth year. Nor is 
this the only instance in our parochial annals of the youthfulness 
of brides who are great heiresses. Alice Lacy, it will be remem- 
bered, conveyed at her marriage, when nine years old, the vast 
estates of the two great houses of Salisbury and Lincoln to her 
husband Thomas Earl of Lancaster.1 There were now no more 
males of the le Strange family. It is a singular coincidence that 
the male descendants of the two sisters, Catherine and Alianora 
Gifford, should have ceased in both the families of Audley and 
le Strange within a few years of each other. 
Ancaret, the daughter of Fulk le Strange and aunt of the 
Countess of Nottingham, had married Richard Baron Talbot. 
She thus brought our half manor into the Shrewsbury family. 
Her husband attended John of Gaunt into Spain 13886. He died 
in possession of the half manor 1396. She herself held it till 
her death in her 53rd year, on Ascension day 1413. Her eldest 
son, Gilbert, had it after her, till his death in his 31st year, 
1419. He married twice, first Joan, daughter of Thomas of 
Woodstock Duke of Gloucester, and grand daughter of Edward 
III., and secondly, Beatrix, natural daughter of John I. King of 
Portugal. This lady was thrice married, first to Thomas Earl of 
Arundel, next to Gilbert Lord Talbot, and lastly to William 
Fityplace, Esq.2 She died on Christmas day 1447. She had in 
dower one-third of half of the manor. Her daughter, Ancaret, 
1In English history no match maker was more unscrupulous, and in his 
infantine alliances more unsuccessful than Edward IV. He married for love 
himself, but took care that nobody belonging to him should imitate his example, 
possibly because he got into trouble thereby. The Queen’s five sisters (daugh- 
ters of a simple Knight) he married to great noblemen, her younger brother in 
his 20th year to the rich Dowager Duchess of Norfolk in her 80th (maritagium 
diabolicum the Chronicler calls it), his second son Richard to Anne daughter 
and heiress of the Duke of Norfolk, and his four daughters, Elizabeth, Cecily, 
Anne, and Catharine, to the Dauphin of France, the eldest son of King James 
of Scotland, Philip of Burgundy, and the infant of Spain, respectively, all in 
their infancy, some in their cradles (the Chronicler does not find any fault). 
None of these last matches were consummated. 
2 Their descendant, John Fettiplace, was M.P. for Berks in the Long Parlia- 
ment. 
