August 10, 1439: Birth of Anne of York, Duchess of Exeter

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1st Duke of Clarence, Anne of York, Duchess of Burgundy; and George Plantagenet, Duchess of Exeter, Duchess of Suffolk; Margaret, Earl of Rutland; Elizabeth of York, Edmund, Edward III of England, Edward IV of England, House of Anjou, House of Lancaster, House of York, Plantagenet Dynasty, Wars of the Roses

Anne of York, Duchess of Exeter, (August 10, 1439 – 14 January 1476), was the first child of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville.

Cecily Neville was the youngest of the 22 children of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, in this case born to his second wife Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland. Her paternal grandparents were John Neville, 3rd Baron Neville de Raby, and Maud Percy, daughter of Henry de Percy, 2nd Baron Percy.

Her maternal grandparents were John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, and his third wife Katherine Swynford. John of Gaunt was the third surviving son of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault.

This meant that Anne of York, Duchess of Exeter was descendant of King Edward III of England through both of her parents.

Anne of York was thus the eldest sister of kings Edward IV (1461–1483) and Richard III (1483–1485).

Her other siblings were:

Edmund, Earl of Rutland (1443 – 1460). He was killed at the age of 17 either during or shortly after the Battle of Wakefield, during the Wars of the Roses.

Elizabeth of York, Duchess of Suffolk (1444 – c.1503). She was married to John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk. John was the eldest son of William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk and Alice Chaucer. His maternal grandparents were Thomas Chaucer and Maud Burghersh.

Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy (1446 – 1503)—also by marriage known as Margaret of Burgundy—was Duchess of Burgundy as the third wife of Charles I the Bold and acted as a protector of the Burgundian State after his death.

George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence (1449 — 1478). He played an important role in the dynastic struggle between rival factions of the Plantagenets now known as the Wars of the Roses.

Though a member of the House of York, he switched sides to support the Lancastrians, before reverting to the Yorkists. He was later convicted of treason against his brother, Edward IV, and was executed.

First Marriage

In 1447, aged eight years old, Anne was married to Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter (1430–1475). During the Wars of the Roses, Exeter sided with the House of Lancaster against his wife’s family the House of York.

Exeter was a commander at the great Lancastrian victories at the Battle of Wakefield and Second Battle of St Albans. He was also a commander at the Lancastrian defeat at the Battle of Towton. He fled to the Kingdom of Scotland after the battle, then joined Margaret of Anjou, queen consort of the Lancastrian King Henry VI, in her exile to France.

On March 4, 1461, Anne’s younger brother Edward, Duke of York, was declared in London as King Edward IV. Exeter was attainted but the new king gave his estates to Anne, with remainder to their daughter Anne Holland.

Anne and Exeter separated in 1464 and divorced in 1472. During the restoration of Henry VI, Anne remained loyal to her brother Edward, and, in what seems to have been her only intervention in politics, worked hard to persuade her brother George, Duke of Clarence, to abandon the Lancastrian cause. If not decisive, her arguments certainly had some effect and thus she played some part in Edward’s restoration.

By the Duke of Exeter, Anne had one daughter, Anne Holland (1461 – 1474), who was married in October 1466 at Greenwich Palace to Thomas Grey, Lord Astley, son of Edward IV’s queen Elizabeth Woodville by her first husband.

Lady Astley died sometime between August 26, 1467 and June 6, 1474 without children. Grey subsequently married Cecily Bonville, 7th Baroness Harington, another rich young heiress, by whom he had issue.

Second Marriage

Anne married secondly in about 1474 to Thomas St. Leger (c. 1440 – 1483), a loyal follower of her brother, King Edward IV (1461–1483). He took part in the Duke of Buckingham’s attempted rebellion against King Edward’s younger brother and eventual successor King Richard III (1483–1485), on the failure of which he was executed in 1483.

In 1476, King Edward IV had, however, extended the remainder of most of the former Duke of Exeter’s lands to the King’s sister, Anne, and to any heirs of her body. Thus, if she remarried, any future children could inherit them.

Anne died giving birth to her only daughter by Thomas, Anne St. Leger (1476 – 1526), who due to the special remainder was heiress to the estates of her mother’s first husband Henry Holland. She married George Manners, 11th Baron de Ros, and was mother of the royal favourite Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland.

June 5, 1341: Birth of Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York.

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1st Duke of Clarence, 1st Duke of York, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, Anne de Mortime, Edmund of Langley, Edward III of England, John of Gaunt, Lionel of Antwerp, Pedro of Castile, Philippa of Hainault, Queen Philippa, Richard of Conisburgh, Wars of the Roses

Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, KG (June 5, 1341 – August 1, 1402) was the fourth surviving son of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. Philippa of Hainault daughter of Willem I, Count of Hainaut, and Jeanne de Valois, Countess of Hainaut, granddaughter of Philippe III of France. She was one of eight children and the second of five daughters. Her eldest sister Margaret married Ludwig IV, Holy Roman Emperor in 1324.

Like many medieval English princes, Edmund gained his nickname from his birthplace: Kings Langley Palace in Hertfordshire. He was the founder of the House of York, but it was through the marriage of his younger son, Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, to Anne de Mortimer, great-granddaughter of Edmund’s elder brother Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, that the House of York made its claim to the English throne in the Wars of the Roses. The other party in the Wars of the Roses, the incumbent House of Lancaster, was formed from descendants of Edmund’s elder brother John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, Edward III’s third son.

Early years

On the death of his godfather, the Earl of Surrey, Edmund was granted the earl’s lands north of the Trent, primarily in Yorkshire. In 1359, he joined his father King Edward III on an unsuccessful military expedition to France and was made a knight of the Garter in 1361. In 1362, at the age of twenty-one, he was created Earl of Cambridge by his father.

Queen Philippa interceding for the Burghers of Calais by J.D. Penrose

Edmund took part in several military expeditions to France in the 1370s. In 1369, he brought a retinue of 400 men-at-arms and 400 archers to serve with John Hastings, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, on campaigns in Brittany and Angoulême. The following year, he first joined Pembroke again on an expedition.

In the 1370s, English envoys entered into an alliance with King Fernando I of Portugal, where Portugal promised to attack Castile with the Lancastrian army. As a consequence of the Caroline War in France, John of Gaunt was forced to postpone the invasion of Castile. In 1381, Edmund finally led an abortive expedition to press John’s claim to Castile, joining with King Fernando in attacking Castile as part of the Fernandine Wars.

Edward III, King of England and Lord of Ireland

On August 6, 1385, Edmund of Langley was elevated to Duke of York. Edmund acted as Keeper of the Realm in 1394/95 when his nephew, King Richard II of England, campaigned in Ireland and presided over Parliament in 1395. He was also keeper of the realm in 1396 during the king’s brief visit to France to collect his child-bride Isabella of Valois.

The duke was left as Custodian of the Realm in the summer of 1399 when Richard II departed for another extended campaign in Ireland. In late June of that year, the exiled Henry Bolingbroke landed at Bridlington in Yorkshire. He raised an army to resist Bolingbroke, then decided instead to join him, for which he was well rewarded. He thereafter remained loyal to the new Lancastrian regime as Bolingbroke overthrew Richard II to become King Henry IV.

Later life

In Richard II’s will, Edmund was highly emphasised as the king’s heir despite the stronger claims of Henry of Bolingbroke and Edmund Mortimer. This was not due to any preference Richard had for Edmund, but rather a desire the king had to set Edmund’s son, Edward, on the throne. Towards the end of his life, in 1399, he was appointed Warden of the West March for a short period. Otherwise, from 1399 onward he retired from public life.

Edmund of Langley died in his birthplace and was interred at King’s Langley Priory; however, his tomb was relocated to the nearby All Saints’ Church, Kings Langley in 1575 after the priory had been dissolved. When the tomb was moved again during church restoration work in 1877, three bodies, one male and two female, were found inside. His dukedom passed to his eldest son, Edward. He was the last of his siblings to die, and lived the longest out of all of them.

The tomb of Edmund of Langley in All Saints’ Church, Kings Langley. The tomb was brought to the church in 1575 after the nearby King’s Langley Priory had been dissolved.

Marriage

Langley’s first wife, Infanta Isabella of Castile, was a daughter of King Pedro of Castile and María de Padilla. She was also the sister of the Infanta Constance of Castile, the second wife of Langley’s brother John of Gaunt.

They had two sons and a daughter:

* Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York (c. 1373-1415), killed in action at the Battle of Agincourt.
* Constance of York (c. 1374-1416), great-grandmother of Queen Anne Neville.
* Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge (c. 1385-1415), executed for treason by Henry V. Ancestor of Kings Edward IV, Edward V, and Richard III of the House of York, and all succeeding monarchs of England beginning with King Henry VIII, whose mother Elizabeth of York was his great-granddaughter.

After Isabella’s death in 1392, Langley married his second cousin once removed Joan Holland, whose great-grandfather Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, was the half-brother of Langley’s grandfather Edward II; she and Langley were thus both descended from King Edward I. The young Joan was the granddaughter of his late sister-in-law Joan of Kent. The marriage produced no children.