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

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

Earl Rivers (brother of Elizabeth Woodville), Sir Richard Grey (son from Elizabeth Woodville’s first marriage) and Sir Thomas Vaughan (chamberlain of Prince Edward) were arrested after the failed meeting in Northampton.

Tags: Elizabeth Woodville, Woodville Family

Date for agreed rendezvous of Edward V’s (eldest son of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville) entourage coming from Wales to meet at Northampton with Richard, Duke of Gloucester, coming from Yorkshire.  By the time Richard arrives, Edward’s party has moved on to Stony Stratford, 14 miles closer to London.

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

Birth of Cecily of York

Cecily of York

Birth of Cecily of York, third daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, at Westminster Palace on 20 March 1469.

Married (1) 1484 to Ralph Scrope of Upsall, union annulled  in 1486, after accession of Henry VII.

Married (2) before New Year’s Day 1488 to John Welles, 1st Viscount Welles, half-brother of Henry VII’s mother Margaret Beaufort.  They had two daughters, Elizabeth and Anne.  Welles died on 9 February 1499.

Married (3) to Sir Thomas Kyme of Friskney (in Lincolnshire) in 1502 without Henry VII’s permission and she was banished from court and all her estates were confiscated, though some were returned later.  It is not clear whether they had any children.

Cecily died on 24 August 1507 at Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

References:

ODNB ‘Cecily, Viscountess Welles (1469–1507)’ [last accessed online 2 March 2020]

Dorothea Preis

Tags: Edward IV, Elizabeth Woodville

Birth of Eleanor Talbot, daughter of John Talbot, 1st earl of Shrewsbury, and Margaret Beauchamp at Blakemere, Shropshire.  She is said to have entered probably some time after March 1461 into a clandestine marriage with Edward IV, which made his subsequent, also clandestine, marriage to Elizabeth Woodville bigamous.

More on Eleanor:

John Ashdown-Hill,  Eleanor – The Secret Queen, The History Press.  ISBN 978-0752448664

Tags: Edward IV, Eleanor Talbot, Elizabeth Woodville

Death of Anne of York, the seventh child and fifth daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville.  She shares her death date with her aunt Margaret, duchess of Burgundy, and – if Perkin Warbeck was indeed Richard of York – her brother.

Anne was born on 2 November 1475.  At not quite four years of age, she was betrothed to Philip (“the Handsome”),  the son of Mary of Burgundy (her aunt’s step-daughter) and Maximilian of Austria.  However, the plan was abandoned in 1482.  Richard III undertook to find a suitable marriage for her (and her sisters) and after Richard’s death she took part in ceremonies at Henry VII court, whose queen was her sister Elizabeth.

On 4 February 1495 she married Thomas Howard, who would eventually become the third duke of Norfolk.  He was the grandson of John Howard, an important supporter of Richard III.  John fell at the battle of Bosworth, fighting for Richard.  His son, Thomas (the father of Anne’s Thomas), had also fought for Richard, had been attainted, but managed to be restored to his title.  His son’s marriage to a sister-in-law of Henry Tudor was obviously a great achievement in his family’s rehabilitation.  Anne and Thomas had no children.

Reference: ODNB on ‘Howard, Thomas, third duke of Norfolk (1473–1554)’

The above picture shows the daughters of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville in a window in Canterbury Cathedral.  Anne is the third from left. (picture obtained through Wikimedia Commons)

Dorothea Preis

Tags: Edward IV, Elizabeth Woodville, John Howard

Death of Katherine of York at Tiverton Castle, Devon.   Katherine was the 9th child and 6th daughter of King Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, born in 1479, probably at Eltham Palace. She was married in 1495 to Sir William Courtenay.

Though a staunch supporter of Henry VII, William was suspected of being involved in the conspiracy of the Yorkist claimant Edmund de la Pole.   He was attainted and spent the rest of Henry VII’s reign in prison.  He was released after the accession of Henry VIII in 1509 and was created earl of Devon on 10 May 1511.  However, he had not long to enjoy his new status and died a month later on 9 June 1511.

The couple had three children, including Henry Courtenay who was executed by orders of Henry VIII in 1539

After her husband’s death, Katherine took a vow of chastity and enjoyed a life of luxury and hunting, but also religious devotion.  On surviving documents she called herself ‘the excellent Princess Katherine, Countess of Devon, daughter, sister and aunt of kings’.

She was buried at St Peter’s Church, Tiverton.

Source:  ODNB on ‘Katherine, countess of Devon (1479–1527)’ by Margaret R. Westcott.

(Picture of Katherine of York obtained through Wikimedia Commons)

Dorothea Preis

Tags: Edward IV, Elizabeth Woodville, Henry Tudor, Henry VIII