11
Apr
Posts Tagged ‘Edward IV’
14
Apr
14 APRIL 1471
Battle of Barnet, Hertfordshire, defeat of Warwick and his brother Montagu, who both fell in the battle. Richard is said to have been in command of the vanguard.
Read more about a possible different location for the battle here.
Tags: Barnet, Battles, Edward IV, Hertfordshire, Richard III
9
Apr
9 APRIL 1483
Edward IV dies at Westminster, buried at St Georges Chapel, Windsor. It is assumed that he named his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, as Lord Protector of England during his son Edward’s minority.
Tags: Edward IV, Richard III
29
Mar
Battle of Towton
Towton Cross
Battle of Towton – the bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil
The Battle of Towton , regarded as “the largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil”, was fought in a snow storm on Palm Sunday, 29 March 1461, between the Lancastrian forces of King Henry VI and the Yorkist forces led by Edward, Earl of March. It has been said that 28,000 men died that day, out of 50,000 to 100,000 soldiers. The result was a Yorkist victory and Edward became king as Edward IV.
In 1996 a mass grave of fallen soldiers was found at Towton Hall. Their remains have been studied by the University of Bradford.
Edward IV had planned to build a memorial chapel at Towton, but it was Richard III, who put this plan into action. The chapel was nearly finished, when he was killed at Bosworth, and the chapel had been lost. Or so it was thought. In October 2013 it was revealed that scientists had found strong evidence of remains of the chapel.
In 2010 fragments of hand held guns and lead shot were found at the battle site, the earliest ever to be found.
References:
James Clark, ‘The Medieval Somme: forgotten battle that was the bloodiest fought on British soil’, The Conversation (13 July 2016). URL: https://theconversation.com/the-medieval-somme-forgotten-battle-that-was-the-bloodiest-fought-on-british-soil-62129 [last accessed 2 March 2020]
Helen Cox, ‘The Battle of Towton is alive and well in Yorkshire’, Herstory Writing & Interpretation.. Link “Towton” on URL: http://helencox-herstorywriting.co.uk/articles/4539783477 [last accessed 2 March 2020]
T. Sutherland & A. Schmidt,’The Towton Battlefield Archaeological Survey Project: An Integrated Approach to Battlefield Archaeology’, Landscapes, Vol.4, Issue 2 (October 2003), pp.15-25. Available at URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/238691750_The_Towton_Battlefield_Archaeological_Survey_Project_An_Integrated_Approach_to_Battlefield_Archaeology [last accessed 2 March 2020]
‘Richard III Towton chapel remains are ‘found’’, BBC News York & North Yorkshire (7 Oct 2013). URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-24434795 [last accessed 2 March 2020]
A short description of the various battles of the Wars of the Roses can be found on the website of the Richard III Society.
Dorothea Preis
Tags: Battles, Edward IV, Richard III, Towton, Wars of the Roses, Yorkshire
20
Mar
Birth of Cecily of York
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
14
Mar
14 MARCH 1471
Edward IV and his brother Richard (later Richard III) arrive back in England on their return from exile in Burgundy, landing at Ravenspur.
Tags: Edward IV, Richard III
11
Mar
11 MARCH 1471
Edward IV leaves Burgundy to return to England and win back his throne. He is accompanied by his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III)
Tags: Burgundy, Edward IV, Richard III
4
Mar
4 MARCH 1461
Investiture of Edward, Earl of March (eldest son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville) as King Edward IV of England. Edward seized the crown on three counts: descent from Edward III through the male line, descent from Edward III through the female line and the nomination of the childless Richard II’s of his Mortimer cousins as his heirs.
Tags: Edward IV
26
Feb
LATE FEBRUARY 1436
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
Marriage of Richard of Shrewsbury and Anne Mowbray, by James Northcote
Marriage of Richard of Shrewsbury and Anne Mowbray
On 15 January 1478, Edward IV’s younger son Richard of Shrewsbury was married to Anne Mowbray, the only child of John de Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk (died 17 January 1476) and Elizabeth Talbot (sister of Eleanor Talbot). The wedding took place in St. Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster. The bride was 5 years old, the groom 4. She died on 19 November 1481. Her heirs would normally have been her cousins William, Viscount Berkeley, and John, Lord Howard, but by an act of Parliament in January 1483 the rights were given to her husband Richard, with reversion to his descendants, and, failing that, to the descendants of his father Edward IV.
Tags: Edward IV, John Howard, Princes
