Was He A Usurper? King Richard III. Part I.

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Anne Neville, Cecily Neville, Duke of Gloucester, Duke of York, Fotheringhay Castle, House of York, King Edward IV of England, King Henry VI of England, King Richard III of England and Lord of Ireland, Richard Plantagenet, Wars of the Roses

From the Emperor’s Desk: I would like to get back to the series on examining who was or was not a usurper to the English or British throne. The next person to focus on is King Richard III. This should be a no-brainer because he is famously known for usurping the throne from his 12-year-old nephew. However, I would like to focus on some evidence and information that may cast a little doubt on this. First I would like to provide a little background information on Richard.

Richard III (October 2, 1452 – August 22,1485) was King of England from June 26, 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battle of Bosworth Field, the last decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses, marked the end of the Middle Ages in England.

Richard was born on October 2, 1452, at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire, the eleventh of the twelve children of Richard, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville, and the youngest to survive infancy.

King Richard III of England and Lord of Ireland

Like his father and brother, King Edward IV, Richard was born with a strong claim to the throne. Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York (also named Richard Plantagenet) was a leading English magnate and claimant to the throne during the Wars of the Roses. He was a member of the ruling House of Plantagenet by virtue of being a direct male-line descendant of Edmund of Langley, King Edward III’s fourth surviving son.

However, it was through his mother, Anne Mortimer, a descendant of Edward III’s second surviving son, Lionel of Antwerp, that Richard inherited his strongest claim to the throne, as the opposing House of Lancaster was descended from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the third surviving son of Edward III.

Richard’s mother, Cecily Neville, also strengthened the House of York’s claim to the English throne. 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

The future King Richard III’s childhood coincided with the beginning of the ‘Wars of the Roses’, a period of political instability and periodic open civil war in England during the second half of the fifteenth century, between the Yorkists, who supported Richard’s father (a potential claimant to the throne of King Henry VI from birth), and opposed the regime of Henry VI and his wife, Margaret of Anjou, and the Lancastrians, who were loyal to the crown.

Crown of Richard III (made for his funeral)

In 1459, his father and the Yorkists were forced to flee England, whereupon Richard and his older brother George were placed in the custody of their aunt Anne Neville, Duchess of Buckingham, and possibly of Cardinal Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury.

His eldest brother Edward inherited the Yorkist claim when his father, Richard, Duke of York, died at the Battle of Wakefield on December 30, 1460. After defeating Lancastrian armies at Mortimer’s Cross and Towton in early 1461, Edward deposed King Henry VI and took the throne as King Edward IV of England.

His marriage to Elizabeth Woodville in 1464 led to conflict with his chief advisor, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, known as the “Kingmaker”. In 1470, a revolt led by Warwick and Edward’s brother George, Duke of Clarence, briefly re-installed Henry VI.

When their father and elder brother Edmund, Earl of Rutland, were killed at the Battle of Wakefield, Richard and George were sent by their mother to the Low Countries. They returned to England following the defeat of the Lancastrians at the Battle of Towton.

Richard and George participated in the coronation of their eldest brother King Edward IV on June 28, 1461, when Richard was named Duke of Gloucester and made both a Knight of the Garter and a Knight of the Bath. Edward appointed him the sole Commissioner of Array for the Western Counties in 1464 when he was 11. By the age of 17, he had an independent command.

Richard married Anne Neville on July 12, 1472. Anne had previously been wedded to Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales and only son of Henry VI, to seal her father’s allegiance to the Lancastrian party, Edward died at the Battle of Tewkesbury on May 4, 1471, while Warwick had died at the Battle of Barnet on 14 April 1471.

Richard’s marriage plans brought him into conflict with his brother George. John Paston’s letter of February 17, 1472 makes it clear that George was not happy about the marriage but grudgingly accepted it on the basis that “he may well have my Lady his sister-in-law, but they shall part no livelihood”.

The reason for George not supporting the marriage was the inheritance Anne shared with her elder sister Isabel, whom George had married in 1469. It was not only the earldom of Warwick that was at stake; Richard Neville had inherited it as a result of his marriage to Anne Beauchamp, 16th Countess of Warwick. The Countess, who was still alive, was technically the owner of the substantial Beauchamp estates, her father having left no male heirs.

The Croyland Chronicle records that Richard agreed to a prenuptial contract in the following terms: “the marriage of the Duke of Gloucester with Anne before-named was to take place, and he was to have such and so much of the earl’s lands as should be agreed upon between them through the mediation of arbitrators; while all the rest were to remain in the possession of the Duke of Clarence”.

The date of Paston’s letter suggests the marriage was still being negotiated in February 1472. In order to win George’s final consent to the marriage, Richard renounced most of the Earl of Warwick’s land and property including the earldoms of Warwick (which the Kingmaker had held in his wife’s right) and Salisbury and surrendered to George the office of Great Chamberlain of England. Richard retained Neville’s forfeit estates he had already been granted in the summer of 1471: Penrith, Sheriff Hutton and Middleham, where he later established his marital household.

Michael Hicks has suggested that the terms of the dispensation deliberately understated the degrees of consanguinity between the couple, and the marriage was therefore illegal on the ground of first degree consanguinity following George’s marriage to Anne’s sister Isabel.

There would have been first-degree consanguinity if Richard had sought to marry Isabel (in case of widowhood) after she had married his brother George, but no such consanguinity applied for Anne and Richard. Richard’s marriage to Anne was never declared null, and it was public to everyone including secular and canon lawyers for 13 years.

In 1482, King Edward IV backed an attempt to usurp the Scottish throne by Alexander Stewart, 1st Duke of Albany, brother of James III of Scotland. Gloucester invaded Scotland and took the town of Edinburgh, but not the far more formidable castle, where James was being held by his own nobles. Albany switched sides and without siege equipment, the English army was forced to withdraw, with little to show for an expensive campaign, apart from the capture of Berwick Castle.

Edward’s health began to fail, and he became subject to an increasing number of ailments; his physicians attributed this in part to a habitual use of emetics, which allowed him to gorge himself at meals, then return after vomiting to start again. He fell fatally ill at Easter 1483, but survived long enough to add codicils to his will, the most important naming his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, as Protector after his death. King Edward IV died on April 9, 1483 and was buried in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. His twelve-year-old son succeeded him as King Edward V of England and Lord of Ireland.

Was He A Usurper? King Edward IV: Conclusion.

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Duke of Lancaster, Duke of York, Edmund Crouchback, Henry Bolingbroke, House of Lancaster, House of York, King Edward IV of England and Lord of Ireland, King Henry IV of England, King Henry VI of England, Usurper, Wars of the Roses

This is the concluding post to whether or not King Edward IV of England, Lord of Ireland was a usurper. I took the long and winding road through many posts to demonstrate that King Edward IV had a much more superior claim to the throne than King Henry VI.

For a long time I did not consider King Edward IV a usurper. However, over the last several years I have run into many other historians who do consider King Edward IV a usurper and I have changed my mind.

The main reasons why I did not consider Edward IV a usurper for many years was because his assuming the crown restored the superior claim to the throne via primogenitor that was broken when Henry Bolingbroke usurped the throne.

In other words, I viewed that when Edward IV became king he restored the line of hereditary succession to how it would have been had Henry IV never usurped the throne. For myself there was a sense of justice with the superior claim of Edward IV being restored which negated any claim of illegality

Or so I thought.

Edward IV took the throne during the Wars of the Roses which is generally considered the conflict for the crown that began with the reign of Henry VI and concluded with Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond becoming King Henry VII after defeating King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth field in August of 1485.

We have seen however, that the seeds for the War of the Roses were actually sown a few generations prior with the usurpation of Henry Bolingbroke as King Henry IV who stole the crown from King Richard II.

It is clear that Henry IV was a usurper. The definition of a usurper being someone who does not have the legal right to the throne. King Henry IV tried to legitimize his succession by outrageously claiming that Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster and Earl of Leicester (1245 – 1296) the second son of King Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence, was actually the eldest son of King Henry III and that King Edward I was, in reality, a younger son of King Henry III and therefore all Kings of England from Edward I to Richard II were usurpers.

In this scenario Henry Bolingbroke claimed that his right to the throne stemmed from his descent from his mother and not his father.

Henry Bolingbrook descended twice from King Henry III. The first line of descent was through the male line from King Edward I through to Edward III who was Henry Bolingbrook’s grandfather via his father, John of Gaunt fourth son of King Edward III of England.

The second line of descent was through the female line from King Henry III through to Bolingbrook’s mother, Blanche of Lancaster, a great-great granddaughter of King Henry III via Henry III’s second son Edmund Crouchback Earl of Lancaster.

This is the line which Henry Bolingbroke asserted gave him hereditary right to the throne. Again, Bolingbroke, erroneously claimed that Edmund Crouchback was the eldest son of King Henry III and not King Edward I.

The usurpation of the throne by Henry Bolingbrook raises an interesting question for the House of Lancaster. Namely, when a king clearly usurps the throne how does that illegal reign affect the next king, the son and heir?

In other words, since Henry IV was a usurper shouldn’t that technically bar or disqualify his son, in this case King Henry V, from legally assuming the throne when it came his time to succeed?

Apparently not. As they say, when there is a revolution or a war, those that win are able to rewrite the rules. When Henry IV died on March 20, 1413 his eldest son succeeded to the throne is King Henry V despite the fact that there were others who had the superior hereditary claim.

When the young King Henry VI succeeded to the throne 9 years later upon the death of his father in 1422 he was regarded as the legal King of England.

Therefore, despite Edward IV and his father Richard, 3rd Duke of York, having had the superior hereditary claim to the throne; this fact was irrelevant because King Henry VI was the legal monarch of England.

So when Edward, 4th Duke of York, took the throne from King Henry VI basically by force, without any intervention of Parliament to legalize an altered succession, his assumption of the throne as King Edward IV of England was indeed a userpation.

Was He A Usurper? King Edward IV of England. Part VI.

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3rd Duke of Somerset, 3rd Duke of York, 3rd Earl of Northumberland, 9th Baron de Clifford, Battle of Saint Albans, Battle of Wakefield, Henry Beaufort, Henry Percy, House of Lancaster, House of York, John Clifford, King Henry VI of England, Margaret of Anjou, Richard Plantagenet, Wars of the Roses

On June 26, the Earl of Warwick and Salisbury landed at Sandwich. The men of Kent rose to join them. London opened its gates to the Nevilles on July 2. They marched north into the Midlands, and on July 10, they defeated the royal army at the Battle of Northampton (through treachery among the king’s troops), and captured King Henry VI whom they brought back to London.

The Duke of York remained in Ireland. He did not set foot in England until September 9 and when he did, he acted as a king. Marching under the arms of his maternal great-great-grandfather Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, he displayed a banner of the coat of arms of England as he approached London.

A Parliament was called to meet on October 7, and it repealed all the previous legislation of the Coventry parliament. On October 10, Richard, Duke of York arrived in London and took residence in the royal palace. Entering Parliament with his sword borne upright before him, he made for the empty throne and placed his hand upon it, as if to occupy it.

Richard, Duke of York may have expected the assembled peers to acclaim him as king, as they had acclaimed Henry Bolingbroke in 1399. Instead, there was silence. Thomas Bourchier, the Archbishop of Canterbury, asked whether he wished to see the king. York replied, “I know of no person in this realm the which oweth not to wait on me, rather than I of him.” This high-handed reply did not impress the Lords.

The next day, Richard advanced his claim to the crown by hereditary right in proper form. However, his narrow support among his peers led to failure once again. After weeks of negotiation, the best that could be achieved was the Act of Accord, by which the Duke of York and his heirs were recognised as King Henry VI’s successors.

However, in October 1460 Parliament did grant the Duke of York extraordinary executive powers to protect the realm, and made him Lord Protector of England. He was also given the lands and income of the Prince of Wales, but was not granted the title itself or made Earl of Chester or Duke of Cornwall. With the king effectively in custody, the Duke of York and the Earl of Warwick were the de facto rulers of the country.

Final campaign and death

While this was happening, the Lancastrian loyalists were rallying and arming in the north of England. Faced with the threat of attack from the Percys, and with Margaret of Anjou trying to gain the support of the new King of Scotland, James III, York, Salisbury and York’s second son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, headed north on December 2.

They arrived at York’s stronghold of Sandal Castle on December 21 to find the situation bad and getting worse. Forces loyal to King Henry VI controlled the city of York, and nearby Pontefract Castle was also in hostile hands.

The Lancastrian armies were commanded by some of York’s implacable enemies such as Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland and John Clifford, 9th Baron de Clifford, whose fathers had been killed at the Battle of Saint Albans, and included several northern lords who were jealous of York’s and Salisbury’s wealth and influence in the North.

On December 30, the Duke of York and his forces sortied from Sandal Castle. Their reasons for doing so are not clear; they were variously claimed to be a result of deception by the Lancastrian forces, or treachery by northern lords who York mistakenly believed to be his allies, or simple rashness on York’s part.

The larger Lancastrian force destroyed York’s army in the resulting Battle of Wakefield. Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York was killed in the battle. The precise nature of his end was variously reported; he was either unhorsed, wounded and overcome fighting to the death or captured, given a mocking crown of bulrushes and then beheaded.

Edmund of Rutland was intercepted as he tried to flee and was executed, possibly by Clifford in revenge for the death of his own father at the First Battle of St Albans. Salisbury escaped, but was captured and executed the following night.

The Duke of York was buried at Pontefract, but his severed head was put on a pike by the victorious Lancastrian armies and displayed over Micklegate Bar at York, wearing a paper crown. His remains were later moved to Church of St Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay.

Was He A Usurper? King Edward IV of England. Part V

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2nd Duke of Somerset, 3rd Duke of York, 5th Earl of Salisbury, Chancellor of England, Edmund Beaufort, House of York, King Henry VI of England, Lord Protector of the Realm, Princess Margaret of Anjou, Richard Neville, Richard Plantagenet, Wars of the Roses

The Duke of York and his ally, the Duke of Norfolk, returned to London in November with large and threatening retinues. The London mob was mobilised to put pressure on parliament itself. However, although granted another office, that of Justice of the Forest south of the Trent, the Duke of York still lacked any real support outside Parliament and his own retainers. In December Parliament elected York’s chamberlain, Sir William Oldhall, as speaker.

In April 1451, Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset
was released from the Tower and appointed Captain of Calais.

Edmund Beaufort was the fourth surviving son of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset, the eldest of the four legitimised children of John of Gaunt (1340-1399) (third surviving son of King Edward III) by his mistress Katherine Swynford. Edmund’s mother was Margaret Holland, a daughter of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent by his wife Alice FitzAlan, a daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel by his wife Eleanor of Lancaster, 5th daughter of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster, a grandson of King Henry III. Edmund was thus a cousin of both Richard, Duke of York, and the Lancastrian King Henry VI.

One of York’s councillors, Thomas Young, the MP for Bristol, was sent to the Tower when he proposed that York be recognised as heir to the throne, and Parliament was dissolved. King Henry VI was prompted into belated reforms, which went some way to restore public order and improve the royal finances. Frustrated by his lack of political power, the Duke of York retired to Ludlow.

In 1452, York made another bid for power, but not to become king himself. Protesting his loyalty, he aimed to be recognised as King Henry VI’s heir to the throne (Henry was childless after seven years of marriage), while also continuing to try to destroy the Duke of Somerset. Henry may have preferred Somerset to succeed him over York, as Somerset was a Beaufort descendant.

Gathering men on the march from Ludlow, York headed for London, only to find the city gates barred against him on Henry’s orders. At Dartford in Kent, with his army outnumbered, and the support of only two of the nobility (the Earl of Devon and Lord Cobham), the Duke of York was forced to come to an agreement with King Henry VI.

He was allowed to present his complaints against Somerset to the king, but was then taken to London and after two weeks of virtual house arrest, was forced to swear an oath of allegiance to King Henry VI at St Paul’s Cathedral.

Protector of the Realm, 1453–1455

By the summer of 1453, York seemed to have lost his power struggle. King Henry VI embarked on a series of judicial tours, punishing York’s tenants who had been involved in the debacle at Dartford. The queen consort, Margaret of Anjou, was pregnant, and even if she should miscarry, the marriage of the newly ennobled Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, to Margaret Beaufort provided for an alternative line of succession. By July, York had lost both of his offices, Lieutenant of Ireland and Justice of the Forest south of the Trent.

Then, in August 1453, Henry VI suffered a catastrophic mental breakdown, perhaps brought on by the news of the defeat at the Battle of Castillon in Gascony, which finally drove English forces from France. He became completely unresponsive, unable to speak, and had to be led from room to room.

The Council tried to carry on as though the king’s disability would be brief, but they had to admit eventually that something had to be done. In October, invitations for a Great Council were issued, and although Somerset tried to have him excluded, the Duke of York (the premier duke of the realm) was included. Somerset’s fears were to prove well grounded, for in November he was committed to the Tower.

On March 23, 1454, Cardinal John Kemp, the Chancellor, died, making continued government in the King’s name constitutionally impossible. King Henry VI could not be induced to respond to any suggestion as to who might replace Kemp.

Despite the opposition of Margaret of Anjou, Prince Richard the Duke of York was appointed Protector of the Realm and Chief Councillor on March 27, 1454. York’s appointment of his brother-in-law, Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, as Chancellor was significant.

Was He A Usurper? King Edward IV of England. Part II.

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3rd Earl of Cambridge, Anne Mortimer, Duke of York, Edmund of Langley, House of Plantagenet, House of York, King Edward IV of England, King Henry V of England, King Henry VI of England, Richard of Conisburgh, Wars of the Roses

With the death of the childless Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, his nephew, Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York became the heir-general of King Edward III of England.

Richard Plantagenet’s mother was Anne Mortimer (born on December 27, 1388) the eldest of the four children of Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March (1374–1398), and Eleanor Holland (1370–1405).

Anne’s father was a grandson of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, second surviving son of King Edward III of England, an ancestry which made her father Roger Mortimer a potential heir to the throne during the reign of the childless King Richard II.

Upon Roger Mortimer’s death in 1398, his claim to the throne passed to his son and heir, Anne’s brother, Edmund, 5th Earl of March. In 1399, Richard II was deposed by Henry IV of the House of Lancaster, making Edmund Mortimer a dynastic threat to the new king, Henry IV, who in turn placed both Edmund and his brother Roger under royal custody. All of this was dealt with in my previous entry.

Anne and her sister Eleanor remained in the care of their mother, Countess Eleanor, who, not long after her first husband’s death, married Lord Edward Charleton of Powys. Following their mother’s death in 1405, the sisters fared less well than their brothers and were described as “destitute”, needing £100 per annum for themselves and their servants.

Marriage

Around early 1408 (probably after January 8), Anne married Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge (1385–1415), the second son of Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York (fourth son of King Edward III) and his first wife, Isabella of Castile. Edmund of Langley the founder of the House of York.

On his father’s side, the Earl of Cambridge was the grandson of King Edward III and Philippa of Hainault, and on his mother’s side, he was the grandson of Pedro the Cruel, King of Castile and León, and his favourite mistress, María de Padilla (died 1361). His godfather was King Richard II.

The marriage between Anne Mortimer and Richard, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, was undertaken secretly and probably with haste, without the knowledge of her nearest relatives, and was validated on May 23, 1408 by papal dispensation from Pope Gregory XII.

This marriage would merge the Mortimer claim with the Yorkist claim to the English throne in the person of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York.

Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge was a grandson of King Edward III through his father, Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, while his wife, Anne Mortimer, was a great-great-granddaughter of King Edward III through Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, the third son, but second surviving son of the English king Edward III.

What may seem like a large generational gap, it wasn’t actually; Richard was born in 1385 and Anne was only 3 years younger being born in 1388.

Anne Mortimer and Richard of Conisburgh had two sons and a daughter:

1. Isabel of York (1409 – 2 October 1484), who in 1412, at three years of age, was betrothed to Sir Thomas Grey, son and heir of Sir Thomas Grey of Heaton (1384–1415), by whom she had one son. Isabel married secondly, before April 25, 1426 (the marriage being later validated by papal dispensation by Pope Martin V), Henry Bourchier, 1st Earl of Essex, by whom she had issue.

2. Henry of York (died young)

3. Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York (22 September 1411 – 30 December 1460), Yorkist claimant to the English throne, and father of kings Edward IV and Richard III

Anne Mortimer died soon after the birth of her son Richard on September 22, 1411. She was buried at Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, once the site of Kings Langley Palace, which also housed the tombs of her husband’s parents Edmund of Langley and Isabella of Castile.

After the dissolution of the monasteries, all three were reburied at the Church of All Saints’, Kings Langley.

Was He A Usurper? King Edward IV of England. Part I.

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5th Earl of March, Anne Mortimer, Edmund Mortimer, House of Lancaster, House of York, Joan of Kent, King Edward IV of England and Lord of Ireland, King Henry IV of England, King Henry V of England, King Henry VI of England, King Richard II of England, Usurper, Wars of the Roses

With the usurpation of the throne of England by Henry Bolingbroke as King Henry IV of England and Lord of Ireland this event brought instability to the Monarchy and planted the seeds for further usurpations during the period of the Wars of the Roses.

To get to the reign of King Edward IV of England we need to examine the complex genealogy of the descendants of King Edward III of England and the ancestry of King Edward IV.

The heir presumptive to childless King Richard II of England was Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, a great-grandson of King Edward III’s second surviving son, Lionel, Duke of Clarence.

Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March

Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, was born at New Forest, Westmeath, one of his family’s Irish estates, on November 6, 1391, the son of Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, and Eleanor Holland. He had a younger brother, Roger (1393 – c. 1413), and two sisters: Anne Mortimer; and Eleanor, who married Sir Edward de Courtenay (d. 1418), and had no issue.

Edmund Mortimer’s mother was Alianore Holland, born October 13, 1370 in Upholland, Lancashire, as the eldest child of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent, and Lady Alice FitzAlan, who herself was the daughter of Richard de Arundel, 10th Earl of Arundel, and his second wife, Eleanor of Lancaster, daughter of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster, grandson of King Henry III.

Alianore Holland’s paternal grandparents were Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent, and Joan of Kent, mother of King Richard II by her third marriage to Edward, the Black Prince. As such, Alianore’s father was a maternal half-brother to King Richard II.

Incidentally, Joan of Kent, was the daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent (1301-1330), by his wife, Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell. Edmund of Woodstock was the sixth son of King Edward I of England by his second wife, Margaret of France, daughter of King Philippe III of France.

Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March was thus a descendant of King Henry III and King Edward I and a half-great-nephew of Richard II through his mother, and more importantly a direct descendant of King Edward III through his paternal grandmother Philippa of Clarence, the only child of King Edward III’s second surviving son, Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence.

Because King Richard II had no issue, initially Edmund’s father, Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, was heir presumptive during his lifetime, and at his death in Ireland on July 20, 1398 his claim to the throne passed to his eldest son, Edmund, 5th Earl of March.

Thus in terms of male primogeniture, Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March was heir to the throne over and above the House of Lancaster, including the children of Edward III’s third son John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.

However, on September 30, 1399, when Edmund Mortimer was not yet eight years of age, his fortunes changed entirely. King Richard II was deposed by Henry Bolingbroke, the new Duke of Lancaster, who became King Henry IV and had his own son, the future King Henry V, recognized as heir apparent at his first Parliament.

The King put the young Edmund, 5th Earl of March and his brother Roger into the custody of Sir Hugh Waterton at Windsor and Berkhamsted castles, but they were treated honourably, and for part of the time brought up with the King Henry IV’s own children, John and Philippa.

The White Rose, Symbol of the House of York

Edmund Mortimer’s claim to the throne was the basis of rebellions and plots against Henry IV and his son Henry V, and was later taken up by the House of York in the Wars of the Roses, though Edmund Mortimer himself was an important and loyal vassal of Henry V and Henry VI.

Edmund Mortimer’s sisters, Anne and Eleanor, who were in the care of their mother until her death in 1405, were not well treated by Henry IV, and were described as ‘destitute’ after her death.

On his accession in 1413, King Henry V set Edmund Mortimer at liberty, and on April 8, 1413, the day before the new King’s coronation, Edmund Mortimer and his brother Roger were made Knights of the Bath.

King Henry V was succeeded by his nine-month-old son, King Henry VI, and on December 9, 1422 Edmund Mortimer was appointed to the Regency Council of the regency government, 1422–1437.

On May 9, 1423 he was appointed the King’s lieutenant in Ireland for nine years, but at first exercised his authority through a deputy, Edward Dantsey, Bishop of Meath, and remained in England.

However, after a violent quarrel with the King’s uncle Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and the execution of his kinsman, Sir John Mortimer, Edmund Mortimer was “sent out of the way to Ireland”. He arrived there in the autumn of 1424, and on January 18 or 19, 1425 died of plague at Trim Castle.

Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March left no issue and his nephew, Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, the eldest surviving son of his sister, Anne Mortimer and her husband, Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, had a better claim to the throne of the English kings of the House of Lancaster.

It was her line of descent which gave the Yorkist dynasty its claim to the throne. Anne was grandmother of kings Edward IV and Richard III.

Her dynastic marriage with Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, another descendant of King Edward III, increased her family’s claim to the throne of England. That will be addressed in the next entry.

December 6, 1421: Birth of Henry VI, King of England and Lord of Ireland

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16th Earl of Warwick, Charles VI of France, Isabeau of Bavaria, King Edward IV of England, King Henry VI of England, Lord of Ireland, Margaret of Anjou, War of the Roses

Henry VI (December 6, 1421 – May 21, 1471) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. The only child of Henry V, and Catherine of Valois was the youngest daughter of King Charles VI of France and his wife Isabeau of Bavaria.

Henry succeeded to the English throne at the age of nine months upon his father’s death, and succeeded to the French throne on the death of his maternal grandfather, Charles VI, shortly afterwards.

Henry inherited the long-running Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453), in which his uncle Charles VII contested his claim to the French throne. He is the only English monarch to have been also crowned King of France, in 1431. His early reign, when several people were ruling for him, saw the pinnacle of English power in France, but subsequent military, diplomatic, and economic problems had seriously endangered the English cause by the time Henry was declared fit to rule in 1437.

Henry VI found his realm in a difficult position, faced with setbacks in France and divisions among the nobility at home. Unlike his father, Henry is described as timid, shy, passive, well intentioned and averse to warfare and violence; he was also at times mentally unstable. His ineffective reign saw the gradual loss of the English lands in France.

Partially in the hope of achieving peace, in 1445 Henry married Charles VII’s niece, the ambitious and strong-willed Margaret of Anjou, the second eldest daughter of René, King of Naples, and Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine.

The peace policy failed, leading to the murder of one of Henry’s key advisers, William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, and the war recommenced, with France taking the upper hand; by 1453, Calais was Henry’s only remaining territory on the continent.

As the situation in France worsened, there was a related increase in political instability in England. With Henry effectively unfit to rule, power was exercised by quarrelsome nobles, while factions and favourites encouraged the rise of disorder in the country.

Regional magnates and soldiers returning from France formed and maintained increasing numbers of private armed retainers, with whom they fought one another, terrorised their neighbours, paralysed the courts, and dominated the government. Queen Margaret did not remain unpartisan and took advantage of the situation to make herself an effective power behind the throne.

Amidst military disasters in France and a collapse of law and order in England, the Queen and her clique came under accusations, especially from Henry VI’s increasingly popular cousin Richard, Duke of York, of misconduct of the war in France and misrule of the country. Starting in 1453, Henry had a series of mental breakdowns, and tensions mounted between Margaret and Richard of York over control of the incapacitated King’s government and over the question of succession to the English throne.

Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England

Civil war broke out in 1455, leading to a long period of dynastic conflict known as the Wars of the Roses. Henry was deposed on 4 March 1461 by Richard’s son, who took the throne as Edward IV. Despite Margaret continuing to lead a resistance to Edward, Henry was captured by Edward’s forces in 1465 and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Henry was restored to the throne in 1470 but Edward retook power in 1471, killing Henry’s only son and heir, Edward of Westminster, in battle and imprisoning Henry once again.

Having “lost his wits, his two kingdoms and his only son”, Henry died in the Tower during the night of May 21, possibly killed on the orders of King Edward. Miracles were attributed to Henry after his death and he was informally regarded as a saint and martyr until the 16th century. He left a legacy of educational institutions, having founded Eton College, King’s College, Cambridge, and (together with Henry Chichele) All Souls College, Oxford. Shakespeare wrote a trilogy of plays about his life, depicting him as weak-willed and easily influenced by his wife, Margaret.

October 13, 1453: Birth of Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales

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3rd Duke of York, Battle of Tewkesbury, Edward of Westminster, King Edward IV of England, King Henry VI of England, King Louis XI of France, Margaret of Anjou, Prince George Duke of Clarence, Prince of Wales, Richard of York, The Earl of Warwick

Edward of Westminster (October 13, 1453 – May 4, 1471), also known as Edward of Lancaster, was the only son of King Henry VI of England and Margaret of Anjou. He was killed aged seventeen at the Battle of Tewkesbury.

Early life

Edward was born at the Palace of Westminster, London, the only son of King Henry VI of England, Lord of Ireland and his wife, Margaret of Anjou. Margaret was born at Pont-à-Mousson in Lorraine, a fief of the Holy Roman Empire, east of France ruled by a cadet branch of the Capetian French kings, the House of Valois-Anjou. Margaret was the second daughter of René, King of Naples, and of Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine.

At the time of Edward’s birth, there was strife between Henry’s supporters and those of Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York, who had a superior claim to the throne and challenged the authority of Henry’s officers of state. Henry was suffering from mental illness, and there were widespread rumours that the prince was the result of an affair between his mother and one of her loyal supporters.

Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset and James Butler, 5th Earl of Ormond, were both suspected of fathering Prince Edward; however, there is no firm evidence to support the rumours, and King Henry himself never doubted the boy’s legitimacy and publicly acknowledged paternity. Edward was invested as Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle in 1454.

War over the English throne

In 1460, King Henry was captured by the supporters of the Duke of York at the Battle of Northampton and taken to London. The Duke of York was dissuaded from claiming the throne immediately, but he induced Parliament to pass the Act of Accord, by which Henry was allowed to reign but Edward was disinherited, as York or his heirs would become king on Henry’s death.

Queen Margaret and Edward had meanwhile fled through Cheshire. By Margaret’s later account, she induced outlaws and pillagers to aid her by pledging them to recognise the seven-year-old Edward as rightful heir to the crown. They subsequently reached safety in Wales and journeyed to Scotland, where Margaret raised support, while the Duke of York’s enemies gathered in the north of England.

After the Duke of York was killed at the Battle of Wakefield, the large army which Margaret had gathered advanced south. They defeated the army of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, one of York’s most prominent supporters, at the Second Battle of St Albans.

Warwick had brought the captive King Henry VI in the train of his army, and he was found abandoned on the battlefield. Two of Warwick’s knights, William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville, and Sir Thomas Kyriell, who had agreed to remain with Henry VI and see that he came to no harm, were captured. The day after the battle, Margaret asked Edward what death the two knights should suffer. Edward readily replied that their heads should be cut off.

Exile in France

Margaret hesitated to advance on London with her unruly army, and subsequently retreated. They were routed at the Battle of Towton a few weeks later. Margaret and Edward fled once again, to Scotland. For the next three years, Margaret inspired several revolts in the northernmost counties of England, but was eventually forced to sail to France, where she and Edward maintained a court in exile. (Henry VI had once again been captured and was a prisoner in the Tower of London.)

In 1467 the ambassador of the Duchy of Milan to the court of France wrote that Edward “already talks of nothing but cutting off heads or making war, as if he had everything in his hands or was the god of battle or the peaceful occupant of that throne.”

After several years in exile, Margaret took the best opportunity that presented itself and allied herself with the renegade Earl of Warwick. King Louis XI of France wanted to start a war with Burgundy, allies of the Yorkist King Edward IV. He believed if he allied himself to restoring Lancastrian rule they would help him conquer Burgundy.

As a compliment to his new allies Louis XI made young Edward godfather to his son Charles. Prince Edward was married to Anne Neville, Warwick’s younger daughter, in December 1470, though there is some doubt as to whether the marriage was ever consummated.

Battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury

The Earl of Warwick returned to England and deposed Edward IV, with the help of Edward IV’s younger brother, George, Duke of Clarence. Edward IV fled into exile to Burgundy with his youngest brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, while the Earl of Warwick restored Henry VI to the throne.

Prince Edward and Margaret lingered behind in France until April 1471. However, Edward IV had already raised an army, returned to England, and reconciled with his brother George, Duke of Clarence. On the same day Margaret and Edward landed in England (April 14), Edward IV defeated and killed the Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Barnet.

With little real hope of success, the inexperienced Prince Edward and his mother led the remnant of their forces to meet Edward IV in the Battle of Tewkesbury. They were defeated and Prince Edward of Westminster was killed.

According to contemporary sources, Edward was overtaken and slain in the battle during the rout of the Lancastrians, with some accounts attributing the deed to George, Duke of Clarence, to whom the prince appealed to for help. Paul Murray Kendall, a biographer of Richard III, accepts this version of events. Another version states that Clarence and his men found the grieving prince near a grove following the battle, and immediately beheaded him on a makeshift block, despite his pleas.

Another account of Edward’s death is given by three Tudor sources: The Grand Chronicle of London, Polydore Vergil, and Edward Hall. It was later dramatised by William Shakespeare in Henry VI, Part 3, Act V, scene v.

Their story is that Edward was captured and brought before the victorious Edward IV and his brothers and followers. The king received the prince graciously, and asked him why he had taken up arms against him. The prince replied defiantly, “I came to recover my father’s heritage.” The king then struck the prince across his face with his gauntlet hand, and his brothers killed the prince with their swords.

However, none of these accounts appear in any of the contemporaneous sources, which all report that Edward died in battle.

Edward’s body is buried at Tewkesbury Abbey. His widow, Anne Neville, married the Duke of Gloucester, who eventually succeeded as King Richard III in 1483.

Titles of Royalty and Nobility within the British Monarchy: Viscount

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7th Marquess of Salisbury, British Peerage, courtesy title, House of Commons, House of Lords, King Henry VI of England, Lord of Parliament in Scotland, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Viscount, Viscount Cranborne

A viscount or viscountess is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status.

In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial position, and did not develop into a hereditary title until much later. In the case of French viscounts, it is customary to leave the title untranslated as vicomte

Etymology

The word viscount comes from Old French visconte (Modern French: vicomte), itself from Medieval Latin vicecomitem, accusative of vicecomes, from Late Latin vice- “deputy” + Latin comes (originally “companion”; later Roman imperial courtier or trusted appointee, ultimately count).

History

During the Carolingian Empire, the kings appointed counts to administer provinces and other smaller regions, as governors and military commanders. Viscounts were appointed to assist the counts in their running of the province, and often took on judicial responsibility. The kings strictly prevented the offices of their counts and viscounts from becoming hereditary, in order to consolidate their position and limit chance of rebellion.

The title was in use in Normandy by at least the early 11th century. Similar to the Carolingian use of the title, the Norman viscounts were local administrators, working on behalf of the Duke. Their role was to administer justice and to collect taxes and revenues, often being castellan of the local castle. Under the Normans, the position developed into a hereditary one, an example of such being the viscounts in Bessin. The viscount was eventually replaced by bailiffs, and provosts.

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury … represented South Dorset in the House of Commons, and in the 1990s he was Leader of the House of Lords under his courtesy title of Viscount Cranborne.

As a rank in British peerage, it was first recorded in 1440, when John Beaumont was created Viscount Beaumont by King Henry VI. The word viscount corresponds in the UK to the Anglo-Saxon shire reeve (root of the non-nobiliary, royal-appointed office of sheriff).

Thus early viscounts were originally normally given their titles by the monarch, not hereditarily; but soon they too tended to establish hereditary principalities in the wider sense. They were a relatively late introduction to the British peerage, and on the evening of the Coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838, the Prime Minister Lord Melbourne explained to her why (from her journals):

“I spoke to Ld M. about the numbers of Peers present at the Coronation, & he said it was quite unprecedented. I observed that there were very few Viscounts, to which he replied “There are very few Viscounts,” that they were an old sort of title & not really English; that they came from Vice-Comites; that Dukes & Barons were the only real English titles;—that Marquises were likewise not English, & that people were mere made Marquises, when it was not wished that they should be made Dukes.”

United Kingdom

A viscount is the fourth rank in the British peerage system, standing directly below an earl and above a baron (Lord of Parliament in Scotland). There are approximately 270 viscountcies currently extant in the peerages of the British Isles, though most are secondary titles.

In British practice, the title of a viscount may be either a place name, a surname, or a combination thereof: examples include the Viscount Falmouth, the Viscount Hardinge and the Viscount Colville of Culross, respectively.

An exception exists for Viscounts in the peerage of Scotland, who were traditionally styled “The Viscount of [X]”, such as the Viscount of Arbuthnott. In practice, however, very few maintain this style, instead using the more common version “The Viscount [X]” in general parlance, for example Viscount of Falkland who is referred to as Viscount Falkland.

A British viscount is addressed in speech as Lord [X], while his wife is Lady [X], and he is formally styled “The Right Honourable The Viscount [X]”. The children of a viscount are known as The Honourable [Forename] [Surname], with the exception of a Scottish viscount, whose eldest child may be styled as “The Honourable Master of [X]”.

Ireland

The title of viscount (Irish: bíocunta) was introduced to the Peerage of Ireland in 1478 with the creation of the title of Viscount Gormanston, the premier viscountcy of Britain and Ireland, held today by Nicholas Preston, 17th Viscount Gormanston. Other early Irish viscountcies were Viscount Baltinglass (1541), Viscount Clontarf (1541), Viscount Mountgarret (1550) and Viscount Decies (1569).

Use as a courtesy title

A specifically British custom is the use of viscount as a courtesy title for the heir of an earl or marquess. The peer’s heir apparent will sometimes be referred to as a viscount, if the second most senior title held by the head of the family is a viscountcy. For example, the eldest son of the Earl Howe is Viscount Curzon, because this is the second most senior title held by the Earl.

However, the son of a marquess or an earl can be referred to as a viscount when the title of viscount is not the second most senior if those above it share their name with the substantive title. For example, the second most senior title of the Marquess of Salisbury is the Earl of Salisbury, so his heir uses the lower title of Viscount Cranborne.

Sometimes the son of a peer can be referred to as a viscount even when he could use a more senior courtesy title which differs in name from the substantive title. Family tradition plays a role in this. For example, the eldest son of the Marquess of Londonderry is Viscount Castlereagh, even though the Marquess is also the Earl Vane.

On occasion, the title of viscount may be the courtesy title used for the grandson of a duke, provided that he is the eldest son of the duke’s eldest son. This is because the eldest son of the duke will be given the second highest title of his father (marquess or earl), and so the third-highest is left for his eldest son. It is possible for the great-grandson of a duke to hold the courtesy title of viscount if the duke’s eldest son has the courtesy title marquess and his eldest son, in turn, uses the title of earl.

September 21, 1411: Birth of Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

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3rd Duke of York, Battle of Wakefield, Edward III of England, Edward IV of England, House of Anjou, House of Plantagenet, James III of Scotland, King Henry VI of England, Margaret of Anjou, Richard III of England, Richard of York

Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York (September 21, 1411 – December 30, 1460), also named Richard Plantagenet, was a leading English magnate and claimant to the throne during the Wars of the Roses. He was a member of the ruling House of Plantagenet.

Richard of York was born on September 21, 1411, the son of Richard, Earl of Cambridge (1385–1415), and his wife Anne Mortimer (1388–1411). Both his parents were descended from King Edward III of England (1312–1377): his father was son of Edmund, 1st Duke of York (founder of the House of York), fourth surviving son of Edward III, whereas his mother Anne Mortimer was a great-granddaughter of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, Edward’s second son.

After the death in 1425 of Anne’s childless brother Edmund, Earl of March, this ancestry supplied her son Richard, of the House of York, with a claim to the English throne that was arguably superior to that of the reigning House of Lancaster, descended from John of Gaunt, the third son of Edward III.

Richard had an only sister, Isabel. Richard’s mother, Anne Mortimer, died during or shortly after his birth, and his father the Earl of Cambridge was beheaded in 1415 for his part in the Southampton Plot against the Lancastrian King Henry V.

Within a few months of his father’s death, Richard’s childless uncle, Edward, 2nd Duke of York, was slain at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, and so Richard inherited Edward’s title and lands, becoming 3rd Duke of York. The lesser title but greater estates of the Mortimer family, along with their claim to the throne, also descended to him on the death of his maternal uncle Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, in 1425.

Richard of York already held a strong claim to the English throne, being the heir general of Edward III while also related to the same king in a direct male line of descent. Once he inherited the vast Mortimer estates, he also became the wealthiest and most powerful noble in England, second only to the king himself. An account shows that York’s net income from Welsh and marcher lands alone was £3,430 (about £350,000 today) in the year 1443–44.

London.

In December 1459 the Duke York, the Earls of Warwick and Salisbury suffered attainder. Their lives were forfeit, and their lands reverted to the king; their heirs would not inherit. This was the most extreme punishment a member of the nobility could suffer, and the Duke of York was now in the same situation as Henry of Bolingbroke (the future King Henry IV) in 1398.

Only a successful invasion of England would restore his fortune. Assuming the invasion was successful, the Duke of York had three options: become Protector of England again, disinherit the king’s son so that York would succeed, or claim the throne for himself.

On June 26, Warwick and Salisbury landed at Sandwich. The men of Kent rose to join them. London opened its gates to the Nevilles on July 2. They marched north into the Midlands, and on July 10, they defeated the royal army at the Battle of Northampton (through treachery among the king’s troops), and captured Henry, whom they brought back to London.

The Duke of York remained in Ireland. He did not set foot in England until September 9 and when he did, he acted as a king. Marching under the arms of his maternal great-great-grandfather Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, he displayed a banner of the coat of arms of England as he approached London.

A Parliament called to meet on October 7, repealed all the legislation of the Coventry parliament the previous year. On October 10, the Duke of York arrived in London and took residence in the royal palace. Entering Parliament with his sword borne upright before him, he made for the empty throne and placed his hand upon it, as if to occupy it.

He may have expected the assembled peers to acclaim him as king, as they had acclaimed Henry Bolingbroke in 1399. Instead, there was silence. Thomas Bourchier, the Archbishop of Canterbury, asked whether he wished to see the king. York replied, “I know of no person in this realm the which oweth not to wait on me, rather than I of him.” This high-handed reply did not impress the Lords.

The next day, Richard advanced his claim to the crown by hereditary right in proper form. However, his narrow support among his peers led to failure once again. After weeks of negotiation, the best that could be achieved was the Act of Accord, by which York and his heirs were recognised as Henry’s successors.

However, in October 1460 Parliament did grant York extraordinary executive powers to protect the realm, and made him Lord Protector of England. He was also given the lands and income of the Prince of Wales, but was not granted the title itself or made Earl of Chester or Duke of Cornwall. With the king effectively in custody, York and Warwick were the de facto rulers of the country.

Final campaign and death

While this was happening, the Lancastrian loyalists were rallying and arming in the north of England. Faced with the threat of attack from the Percys, and with Margaret of Anjou, wife of King Henry VI, trying to gain the support of the new King of Scotland, James III, York, Salisbury and York’s second son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, headed north on December 2.

They arrived at York’s stronghold of Sandal Castle on December 21, to find the situation bad and getting worse. Forces loyal to Henry VI controlled the city of York, and nearby Pontefract Castle was also in hostile hands. The Lancastrian armies were commanded by some of York’s implacable enemies such as Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland and John Clifford, 9th Baron de Clifford, whose fathers had been killed at the Battle of Saint Albans, and included several northern lords who were jealous of York’s and Salisbury’s wealth and influence in the North.

On December 30, York and his forces sortied from Sandal Castle. Their reasons for doing so are not clear; they were variously claimed to be a result of deception by the Lancastrian forces, or treachery by northern lords who York mistakenly believed to be his allies, or simple rashness on York’s part.

The larger Lancastrian force destroyed York’s army in the resulting Battle of Wakefield. The Duke of York was killed in the battle. The precise nature of his end was variously reported; he was either unhorsed, wounded and overcome fighting to the death or captured, given a mocking crown of bulrushes and then beheaded.

Edmund of Rutland was intercepted as he tried to flee and was executed, possibly by Clifford in revenge for the death of his own father at the First Battle of St Albans. Salisbury escaped, but was captured and executed the following night.

York was buried at Pontefract, but his head was put on a pike by the victorious Lancastrian armies and displayed over Micklegate Bar at York, wearing a paper crown. His remains were later moved to Church of St Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay.

Legacy

Within a few weeks of Richard of York’s death, his eldest surviving son was acclaimed King Edward IV and finally established the House of York on the throne following a decisive victory over the Lancastrians at the Battle of Towton. After an occasionally tumultuous reign, he died in 1483 and was succeeded by his twelve-year-old son, Edward V, who was himself succeeded after 86 days by his uncle, York’s youngest son, Richard III.

Richard of York’s grandchildren included Edward V and Elizabeth of York. Elizabeth married Henry VII, founder of the Tudor dynasty, and became the mother of Henry VIII, Margaret Tudor and Mary Tudor. All future English monarchs would come from the line of Henry VII and Elizabeth, and therefore from Richard of York himself.