by Brad Kidd ^[1]

Abstract

In 1355 Sir John Bret alleged that his wife Joan had been abducted by Sir Thomas de Furnival of Sheffield. The evidence, including some impressive surviving representations of medieval heraldry, shows that the first husband of Joan de Mounteney, the second wife of Thomas V de Furnival, was John II Bret of Wiverton, Nottinghamshire. The backgrounds of the Furnival, Mounteney and Bret families are reviewed. It is established that the marriage of Thomas de Furnival and Joan de Mounteney followed an annulment of Joan’s previous marriage to John Bret. The probable identity of the biological father of Joan de Mounteney’s son John, born during Joan’s marriage to John Bret but delegitimised by the annulment and progenitor of the subsequent Mounteney family of Yorkshire, is examined.

Foundations (2020) 12: 31-54                                 © Copyright FMG and the author

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