THE CAREER OF SIR THOMAS TRIVET (1330-88)

Turning to his family, his wife Elizabeth, was also present at court as a Lady of the Garter.²⁹ However there is no evidence stating when she was actually rewarded with such an honour. There is also no evidence of her at court while her husband was still alive, but according to Mitchell, she received a grant from the King sometime after Thomas's death.³⁰ In the 1390s, she seems to ha~ been quite active as a pacifying figure, obtaining pardons for a number of people,³¹ the most interesting being a pardon to Joan Richmond, who broke into the Chamber at Lincoln in June 1393 and stole a blue cloth. Both Elizabeth Trivet and the King's sister (the Countess of Huntingdon) supplicated successfully for her pardon.³²

Thomas’s two daughters by Elizabeth must have predeceased their mother, for they are not mentioned in her will³³ Since their first daughter, Anne, was born in 1381 it can be assumed that they married in the late 1370s, although this cannot be proved.³⁴

All in all, an incomplete picture emerges from the evidence of trivet's actvities in these early years. There is no record of his early career before the 1360s, but it is hard to believe that he didn't follow the part of a soldier until he was into his late thirties given his father's military abilities as well as his connection to the great fourteenth century knight, Matthew Gournay. With such connections and an advantageous second marriage which would bring him wealth and a handsome number of estates in the near future. Trivet's status and military career were fast developing.

29 G.E. Cokayne et al.,The Complete Peerage, vol.II, p.594 (she received the robes as Lady of The Garter in 1390 and 1399)

30 In email from Dr -------- 11^th April 2000

31 CPR 1391-9, pp. 288, 369 & 387 (in 1393 and 1394)

32 Ibid. p.286

33 E.F.Jacob ed., The Register of Henry Chichelle, Arcbishop of Canterbury, 1414-1443, vol.II, (1937),

pp.495-7

34 IMP7-15 Richard ,II vol. XVI, p.297 (no. 764)