Margaret, George and Richard, the three youngest children of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville, stay for a few weeks at the house, which had belonged to Sir John Fastolf, in Southwark, where they are visited every day by their eldest brother Edward, Earl of March (later Edward IV).

Bibliography:  Christine Weightman, Margaret of York:  The Diabolical Duchess.  Amberley Publishing, Chalford, 2009.  ISBN 978 1 84868 099 9 (paperback)

Illustration:  Old London Bridge in 1616 with Southwark Priory, now Cathedral, in the foreground, by Claes van Visscher

Tags: Edward IV, Family, Richard III

Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, his son Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, and Edward Earl of March (son of the Duke of York, later Edward IV) return from Calais, where they had fled after the Battle of Ludford Bridge (12 October 1459) to invade England in June 1460.  On 2 July they are in control of London, except for the Tower.

The illustration on the left shows Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, as depicted in the Rous Roll.

Tags: Edward IV, Nevilles

Edward IV (stained glass at St Laurence, Ludlow)

Coronation of Edward IV

After winning the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross (2 February 1461), Edward, Earl of March, became King Edward IV on 4 March 1461.  He defended his claim in the Battle of Towton (29 March 1461), which he won decisively.  He then went on a progress of the northern counties and returned to London on 26 June 1461.

On 28 June 1461, Edward IV was crowned in a splendid ceremony in Westminster Abbey by Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury. His younger brothers George and Richard were made Duke of Clarence and Duke of Gloucester respectively.

Edward IV’s coronation is described in detail in Michael D. Miller’s Wars of the Roses.

Tags: Edward IV, George of Clarence

Public statement outside St Paul’s Cathedral that Edward IV had been married to Eleanor Talbot when he married Elizabeth Woodville, declaring the children of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville illegitimate.  This meant that Richard was the next legitimate heir to the throne.  He was offered the crown by the Commons and became King Richard III.

Tags: Edward IV, Eleanor Talbot, Elizabeth Woodville, Princes, Richard III

Death of Elizabeth Woodville at Bermondsey Abbey.  Her will indicates that during her last years she lived in relative poverty.  For her funeral she was accompanied by four people, one of them Edward IV’s illegitimate daughter Grace.  Her coffin was taken quietly from Bermondsey to Windsor Castle, where she arrived in the middle of the night by just a single priest and a clerk without any formalities.  She seems to have been interred virtually immediately next to Edward IV.

Bibliography: David Baldwin, Elizabeth Woodville:  Mother of the Princes in the Tower.  Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2002.  ISBN 0 7509 3886 2, pp. 123-125

Tags: Edward IV, Elizabeth Woodville

Coronation of Elizabeth Woodville, wife of Edward IV.

Tags: Edward IV, Elizabeth Woodville

Death of Mary of York, second daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, at Greenwich Palace, London, buried at St Georges Chapel, Windsor

Tags: Edward IV, Elizabeth Woodville, Family

Battle of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, defeat of Lancastrian army, Henry VI’s son Edward killed in battle, Henry VI dies soon after.

Illustration: The Battle of Tewkesbury from a Ghent manuscript

Tags: Battles, Edward IV, Henry VI

Possible date for Edward IVs secret marriage Elizabeth Woodville (born 1437), daughter of Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers, the widow of a Lancastrian.  It was later claimed that he was at that time already – also secretly – married to Eleanor Talbot, who was still alive at this time.  Therefore the marriage to Elizabeth Woodville would be bigamous.

Tags: Edward IV, Elizabeth Woodville