The Cousins' War

A blog dedicated to the War of the Roses, also known as the Cousins' War. To me, It is one of the most fascinating times in history. 

[thecousinswar]

Today in history, September 13, 1409: the birth of Isabella of Valois:

"Isabella of France (9 November 1389 – 13 September 1409) was Queen consort of England as the second spouse of King Richard II. Her parents were King Charles VI of France and Isabeau of Bavaria. She married the king at the age of seven and was widowed three years later. She later married Charles, Duke of Orléans, dying in childbirth at the age of nineteen.

Isabella's younger sister, Catherine, was Queen of England from 1420 until 1422, married to Henry V and mother of Henry VI. Catherine was also a grandmother of Henry VII.

Isabella lived during a period of political tension between France and England known as the Hundred Years War, the situation made worse by the mental instability of her father.

On 31 October 1396, almost the age of seven, Isabella married the widower King Richard II of England in a move for peace with France. The fact that she was a child was discussed during the negotiations, but Richard replied that each day would rectify that problem, that it was an advantage as he would then be able to shape her in accordance with his ideal, and that he was young enough to wait. Isabella herself told the English envoys, that she was happy to be Queen of England, because she had been told that this would make her a great lady. She is described as pretty, and reportedly practiced in order to be able to perform her role as queen. King Richard traveled to Paris to fetch her, where the wedding was celebrated with grand festivities at the French royal court, before they continued to the English enclave of Calais, where the formal wedding ceremony was performed on 31 October.

After the wedding, Queen Isabella followed Richard to England, where she was placed in Windsor Castle with her own court under the supervision of her appointed governess and chief lady-in-waiting Lady de Courcy (later replaced by Lady Mortimer). She was formally crowned Queen of England in Westminster in London the following year, 1397.

Although the union was political and an arranged marriage, Richard II and the child Isabella developed a mutually respectful relationship: Richard regularly visited her in Windsor, where he treated her with respect and entertained her and her ladies-in-waiting with humorous conversation, and Isabella reportedly enjoyed and looked forward to his visits.

By May 1399, the Queen had been moved to Portchester Castle for protection while Richard went on a military campaign in Ireland. During the following rebellion against Richard, Isabella was moved by the Duke of York first to Wallingford Castle and then to Leeds Castle. When on his return to England Richard II was imprisoned and died in custody, Queen Isabella was ordered by the new King Henry IV to move out of Windsor Castle and to settle in the Bishop of Salisbury's Thamesside palace at Sonning in formal house arrest.

In 1400, the deposed king was killed, and the French court requested that Isabella return to France. King Henry IV initially refused, deciding Queen Isabella should marry his son, the future Henry V of England, but she refused. Knowing her spouse was dead, she went into mourning, ignoring Henry IV's demands. In June 1400, he let her go back to France, but kept her dowry."

[thecousinswar]

On this Day in  History, September 12, 1368: death of Blanche of Lancaster 

“Blanche was born on 25 March 1345, although the year 1347 has also been suggested.

She was the younger daughter of Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster and his wife Isabel de Beaumont. She and her elder sister Maud, Countess of Leicester, were born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lindsey. Maud married Ralph de Stafford and then William I, Duke of Bavaria; however, Maud did not have children so her younger sister inherited their father’s titles and estate

Blanche died at Tutbury Castle, Staffordshire, on 12 September 1368 while her husband was overseas. She was 23 years of age at the time of her death, although Froissart reported that she died aged about 22.

It is believed that she may have died after contracting the Black Death which was rife in Europe at that time. Her funeral at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London was preceded by a magnificent cortege attended by most of the upper nobility and clergy. John of Gaunt held annual commemorations of her death for the rest of his life and established a joint chantry foundation on his own death.”

[thecousinswar]

Today in history, September 8, 1397: the death of Thomas of Woodstock:

“Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester, 1st Earl of Buckingham, 1st Earl of Essex, KG (7 January 1355 – 8 or 9 September 1397) was the fourteenth and youngest child of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. He was the youngest of the five sons of Edward III who survived to adulthood.

Thomas was born 7 January 1355 at Woodstock Palace in Oxfordshire after two short-lived brothers, one of whom had also been baptised Thomas.[2] He married Eleanor de Bohun by 1376, was given Pleshey castle in Essex, and was appointed Constable of the Realm. The younger sister of Woodstock’s wife, Mary de Bohun, was subsequently married to Henry of Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby, who later became King Henry IV of England.

In 1377, at the age of 22, Woodstock was knighted and created Earl of Buckingham. In 1385 he received the title Duke of Aumale and at about the same time was created Duke of Gloucester.

Thomas of Woodstock was the leader of the Lords Appellant, a group of powerful nobles whose ambition to wrest power from Thomas’s nephew, King Richard II of England, culminated in a successful rebellion in 1388 that significantly weakened the king’s power. Richard II managed to dispose of the Lords Appellant in 1397, and Thomas was imprisoned in Calais to await trial for treason.

During that time he was murdered, probably by a group of men led by Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, and the knight Sir Nicholas Colfox, presumably on behalf of Richard II. This caused an outcry among the nobility of England that is considered by many to have added to Richard’s unpopularity.”

[thecousinswar]

Today in history, September 5, 1451: the birth of Isabelle Neville:

"Lady Isabel Neville (5 September 1451 – 22 December 1476) was the elder daughter of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick (the Kingmaker of the Wars of the Roses), and Anne de Beauchamp, 16th Countess of Warwick. She was the wife of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence. She was also the elder sister of Anne Neville, who was Princess of Wales, by her first marriage and Queen consort of England by her second.

Isabel Neville was born at Warwick Castle, the seat of the Earls of Warwick. In 1469, her ambitious father betrothed her to England's heir presumptive, George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, the brother of both King Edward IVand Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III). The king opposed the marriage as it would bring the already powerful Earl of Warwick too close to the throne. The ceremony however took place in secret at Calais on 11 July 1469, conducted by Isabel Neville's Uncle George Neville, archbishop of York. Following their marriage Clarence joined forces with Warwick and allied with the Lancastrians led by Margaret of Anjou, queen consort to Henry VI. After Isabel Neville's sister Anne was married to Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, the son and heir of Henry VI, Clarence rejoined his brother, realizing that it was now unlikely that he would become king."

[thecousinswar]

Today in history, September 4, 1455: The birth of Henry Stafford,Second Duke of Buckingham.

 "Henry Stafford was born on 4 September 1455, the son of Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Stafford, and Margaret Beaufort. His father, Humphrey Stafford had been a Lancstrian supporter in the early stages of the Wars of the Roses and had died in 1458 of wounds acquired at the First Battle of St Albans, whilst fighting for the cause of King Henry VI .

Henry inherited the title of Duke of Buckingham from his paternal grandfather, Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, another staunch Lancastrian, who was killed at the Battle of Northampton on 10 July 1460. The Yorkist King Edward IV made the young Henry, then aged four, a ward of his Queen, Elizabeth Woodville, who married him, while still a child, to her sister Catherine Woodville. Buckingham and his wife were then brought up in the Queen’s household, apart from the exception of the brief Lancastrian readeption of 1470-71, when he lived with his grandmother. When Edward IV returned from exile to regain the throne, Buckingham was with him after the Yorkist victories at Barnet and Tewksbury and was given a number of posts in reward for his loyalty.“

[thecousinswar]

Today in history, August 31, 1422: The death Henry V:

“While he was in England, Henry’s brother Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence, led the English forces in France. In March 1421, Thomas led the English to a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Baugé against an army of mainly Scottish allies of the Dauphin. The Duke himself was killed in the battle. On 10 June 1421, Henry sailed back to France to retrieve the situation. It would be his last military campaign. From July to August, Henry’s forces besieged and captured Dreux, thus relieving allied forces at Chartres. That October, his forces lay siege to Meaux, capturing it on 2 May 1422.

Henry V died suddenly on 31 August 1422 at the Château de Vincennes, apparently from dysentery, which he had contracted during the siege of Meaux. He was only 36 years old and had reigned for nine years.

Shortly before his death, Henry V named his brother John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, regent of France in the name of his son Henry VI of England, then only a few months old. Henry V did not live to be crowned King of France himself, as he might confidently have expected after the Treaty of Troyes, because the sickly Charles VI, to whom he had been named heir, survived him by two months. Henry’s comrade-in-arms and Lord Steward John Sutton, 1st Baron Dudley, brought his body back to England and bore the royal standardat his funeral. Henry V was buried in Westminster Abbey on 7 November 1422.”

[thecousinswar]

Today in history, August 29, 1475: the signing of the Treaty of Picquigny:

“The Treaty of Picquigny was a peace treaty negotiated on 29 August 1475 between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of France. It followed from an invasion of France by Edward IV of England in alliance with Burgundyand Brittany. It left Louis XI of France free to deal with the threat posed by Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy.

Edward IV had invaded France in alliance with Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, landing with a force of around 16,000 troops in June. The plan was to march through Burgundian territory to Reims. However Charles failed to provide the support he had promised, and refused to allow the English to enter Burgundian-controlled towns. Edward also received little support from his other ally Francis II, Duke of Brittany.

Louis then sent Edward word that he was willing to offer more than Edward's allies could. He induced Edward to negotiate a settlement. The two negotiated by meeting on a specially-made bridge with a wooden grill-barrier between the sides, at Picquigny, just outside Amiens.

The negotiations led to an agreement signed on 29 August 1475. The two kings agreed to a seven-year truce and free-trade between the two countries. Louis XI was to pay Edward IV 75,000 crowns upfront, essentially a bribe to return to England and not take up arms to pursue his claim to the French throne. He would then receive a yearly pension thereafter of 50,000 crowns. Also the King of France was to ransom the deposed Queen Margaret of Anjou, who was in Edward's custody, with 50,000 crowns. It also included pensions to many of Edward's lords.

Other provisions of the treaty were that if either king experienced a rebellion, the other would provide military support to defeat it. Edward's daughter Elizabeth of York was to marry the Dauphin Charles when she came of age. The English claim to the French throne was to be subject to arbitration along with other disagreements between the monarchs. A committee should meet annually to discuss the issues and their conclusions should be binding. It was to comprise the archbishops of Canterbury and Lyons, Edward's brother George, the Duke of Clarence, and Louis, Count of Dunois.

In addition to the king, his leading advisors also received pensions from the French. Thomas Rotherham the chancellor had 1,000 crowns a year. John Morton had 600 crowns, and Sir John Howard and Sir Thomas Montgomery 1,200 each. William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings, who had been the chief advocate for the treaty, was to receive 2,000 crowns a year.”

[thecousinswar]

Today in history, August 25, 1482: the death of Margaret of Anjou:

"Margaret of Anjou (French: Marguerite; 23 March 1430 – 25 August 1482) was the Queen of England by marriage to King Henry VI of England from 1445 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471. Born in the Duchy of Lorraine into the House of Valois-Anjou, Margaret was the second eldest daughter of René of Anjou and Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine.

She was one of the principal figures in the series of dynastic civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses and at times personally led the Lancastrian faction. Owing to her husband's frequent bouts of insanity, Margaret ruled the kingdom in his place. It was she who called for a Great Council in May 1455 that excluded the Yorkist faction headed by Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York, and thus provided the spark that ignited a civil conflict that lasted for more than 30 years, decimated the old nobility of England, and caused the deaths of thousands of men, including her only son Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471.

Margaret was taken prisoner by the victorious Yorkists after the Lancastrian defeat at Tewkesbury. In 1475, she was ransomed by her cousin, King Louis XI of France. She went to live in France as a poor relation of the French king, and she died there at the age of 52.

Margaret lived in France for the next seven years as a poor relation of the king. Margaret typically headed her letters with the words "By the Quene". She was hosted by Francis de Vignolles and died in his castle of Dampierre-sur-Loire, near Saumur (Anjou) on 25 August 1482 at the age of 52. She was entombed next to her parents in Angers Cathedral, but her remains were removed and scattered by revolutionaries who ransacked the cathedral during the French Revolution.

Many letters, written by Margaret during her tenure as queen consort, still exist. One was written to the Corporation of London regarding injuries inflicted on her tenants at the manor of Enfield, which comprised part of her dower lands. Another letter was written to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Margaret's letters, which were typically headed with the words "By the Quene", are compiled in a book edited by Cecil Monro, which was published for the Camden Society in 1863."

[thecousinswar]

Today in history, August 24, 1507, the death of Cecily of York:

"Cecily of York, Viscountess Welles (20 March 1469 – 24 August 1507) was an English princess and the third, but eventual second surviving, daughter of Edward IV, King of England and his queen consort Elizabeth Woodville, daughter of Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers and Jacquetta of Luxembourg.

Cecily was born in Westminster Palace, Ossulstone Hundred, Middlesex. (For centuries Westminster and the City of London were geographically quite distinct.) She was a younger sister of Elizabeth of York and Mary of York, and an older sister of Edward V of England; Margaret of York; Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York; Anne of York; George Plantagenet, Duke of Bedford; Catherine of York; and Bridget of York. She was a niece of Richard III of England, senior sister-in-law of Henry VII of England, an aunt of Henry VIII of England, and a great-aunt of Edward VI of England, Mary I of England, and Elizabeth I of England.

Cecily was married to Ralph Scrope of Upsall, a younger brother of Thomas Scrope, 6th Baron Scrope of Masham, and a supporter of Richard III, but the marriage was annulled on the accession of her future brother-in-law, Henry Tudor, as King Henry VII of England. Many published works fail to note this earlier, nullified, marriage. Years later, Cecily's discarded first husband succeeded another elder brother to the family barony, becoming Ralph Scrope, 9th Baron Scrope of Masham. He died circa 1515.

The Lancastrian claimant, Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, had announced at Rennes, France that he intended to unite the rival royal houses of Lancaster and York, by marrying a daughter of Edward IV, and thus bring to an end the conflicts of generations of descendants of Edward III now known as the Wars of the Roses. His first choice was Elizabeth of York, the eldest of the late king's daughters, but had she died, Henry's marital intentions would have turned to Cecily herself, as he stated explicitly in his declaration.

In 1487, after the accession of Henry VII and his marriage to her older sister Elizabeth, Cecily was married to a staunch Lancastrian nobleman, John Welles, 1st Viscount Welles, the son of Lionel Welles, 6th Lord Welles and Margaret Beauchamp of Bletso. Her new husband was a maternal half-brother of Lady Margaret Beaufort, and thus an uncle of the half-blood of Henry VII, and a royal favourite by both politics and blood.

Cecily had two children: Elizabeth and Anne Welles, who both died young and unmarried. Upon the death of Viscount Welles on 9 February 1499, Cecily's grief is said to have been considerable. A portion of the Viscount's will shows the relationship between the two:

Also I geve and bequethe to my dere beloved lady and wife Cecille, for terme of her lif, all my castelles, manors, landes and tenements, aswell suche as I have purchased as all odre during only her life, whome I trust above all oder, that if my goodes and catallis wilnot suffice for the performance of this my laste will, that she will thenne of the revenues of the profittes of my inheritance perform this my laste will. Also I will that a preste be founde for ever after my said wifes decease to sey masse daily for my sowle and all Cristen sowles at the said aulter of the yerely revenues of my purchased landes, and oder which my saide lady hath promised me faithfully to purchase to the same entent if my saide purchased landes suffice not therto. And I will yt suche residue as shall fortune to be of my goodes that my saide dere beloved lady and wife have theym to her owne use. And I make executors the saide Cecill, my dere beloved wife, and Sr Raynold Bray, knyght. . . 

Cecily played a role in various major royal ceremonies during the earlier years of Henry VII's reign, as befitted her position in the Royal Family, as sister of a queen consort and sister-in-law of a king regnant. She carried her nephew Arthur, Prince of Wales, at his christening; attended her sister Elizabeth of York at her coronation as queen consort; and bore the train of Catherine of Aragon at her wedding to Prince Arthur. There is also a record of her lending money to her sister, the queen, in 1502. Though the king banned Cecily from court after her third marriage to Thomas Kyne, a man of low degree, she found comfort in the assistance of Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond (Henry's mother).

Despite her apparent mourning, some three years into her first widowhood, and having lost two of the children by her late husband, she contracted a marriage which has been described as being "rather for comfort than credit" (see Fuller's Worthies, vol. 2, p. 165). Cecily's third and final marriage, to Thomas Kyme, Kymbe, or Keme, an obscure Lincolnshire squire, otherwise called Sir John Keme or Kene, of the Isle of Wight, took place sometime between May 1502 and January 1504. It is thought to have been a love match, entered into entirely from the princess' own liking.

Green states that she chose a partner to suit herself who was also someone so unthreatening as to be beneath the notice of the king or likely to arouse his jealousy. This wedding took place without the king's approval or permission. The princess appears to have miscalculated her brother-in-law's attitude. The king banished Cecily from court and all her estates were confiscated.

After the intervention of the king's mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, who is known to have aided Cecily when she fell out of favour with the king, some of Cecily’s lands were restored. She was to enjoy only a lifetime interest in those remaining to her, and to have nothing to pass on to her husband, or to any children of their union.

Cecily lived out the balance of her life quietly, far from court. In the royal account books, there is a gap in the record of her final years. Existing details about her final years in this last marriage are scanty and conflicting. Two children, Richard and Margaret (or Margery) are mentioned in the enhanced copy, dated 1602, of the heraldic Visitation of Hampshire (1576) made by Smythe, Rouge Dragon pursuivant at the College of Arms, indicating that they lived, married, and had offspring. The children of the princess and her last husband were granted no royal titles or styles, nor did they enjoy any royal favours, lands, or positions at court, nor, indeed, any public recognition whatsoever. Over the centuries any memory of them has been obscured, and thus the veracity of their historical existence is now difficult to substantiate.

Princess Cecily died in 1507, at the age of 38, only a few years after contracting her last marriage. She lived at East Standen in the Isle of Wight, not in great wealth.

According to Edward Hall's Chronicle, she was buried in relative obscurity in Quarr Abbey, Isle of Wight. Horrox disputes this pointing to evidence from the Beaufort account books that states she died at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, after a three-week sojourn there, and was buried at a place that must have been local, known as "the friars" (perhaps the friary at Kings Langley, associated with the House of York and where Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York was buried). The writ of diem clausit extremum, which supplies her death date, styles her as "late wife of John, late Viscount Wells", omitting any reference to her last husband or their children. If she was indeed buried in the precincts of Quarr Abbey, near her last home, then Cecily's tomb and any record of its precise location was lost when Quarr Abbey was destroyed during Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries. Quarr's building materials were reused.

A stained glass portrait of Cecily, originally from a larger "royal window" depicting Edward IV's family, is now in Glasgow's Burrell Collection. A modern copy has been placed in the much restored original group in the north transept of Canterbury Cathedral. These are, along with another window in the parish church of Little Malvern, Worcestershire, her only surviving memorials."

[thecousinswar]

On this day in history: August 22,1485: The Battle of Bosworth Field

     "Richard divided his army, which outnumbered Henry’s, into three groups (or “battles”). One was assigned to the Duke of Norfolk and another to the Earl of Northumberland. Henry kept most of his force together and placed it under the command of the experienced Earl of Oxford. Richard’s vanguard, commanded by Norfolk, attacked but struggled against Oxford’s men, and some of Norfolk’s troops fled the field. Northumberland took no action when signalled to assist his king, so Richard gambled everything on a charge across the battlefield to kill Henry and end the fight. Seeing the king’s knights separated from his army, the Stanleys intervened; Sir William led his men to Henry’s aid, surrounding and killing Richard. After the battle, Henry was crowned king below an oak tree in nearby Stoke Golding, now a residential garden.“

Loyaulte Me Lie 

[thecousinswar]

He was thirty-two years old, had reigned two years, one month, twenty-eight days. The only language, it turned out, in which he had been able to communicate himself successfully to the world was the terse idiom of courage, and the chief subject he had been given to express was violence. It had begun for him as a child in violence and it had ended in violence; the brief span between had been a tale of action and hard service with small joy and much affliction of spirit. If he had committed a grievous wrong, he had sought earnestly to do great good. And through his darkening days he had kept to the end a golden touch of magnanimity. Men did not forget how the last of the Plantagenets had died. Polydore Vergil, Henry Tudor’s official historian, felt compelled to record; “King Richard, alone, was killed fighting manfully in the thickest press of his enemies.”

Paul Murray Kendall (via thecousinswar)

[thecousinswar]

If I may speak the truth to his honour, although small of body and weak in strength, he most valiantly defended himself as a noble knight to his last breath, often exclaiming as he was betrayed, and saying Treason! Treason! Treason!

The Chronicler Rous (via thecousinswar)

[thecousinswar]

King Richard late mercifully reigning upon us was thrugh grete treason…was pitiously slane and murdred.

The City of York (via thecousinswar)

[thecousinswar]

Today in history, August 17, 1473: the birth of Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York:

“Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York (born 17 August 1473), was the sixth child and second son of King Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville, born in Shrewsbury. Richard and his older brother, who briefly reigned as King Edward V of England, mysteriously disappeared shortly after Richard IIIusurped the throne of England in 1483.

Prince Richard was created Duke of York in May 1474 and made a Knight of the Garter the following year. From this time on, it became a tradition for the second son of the English sovereign to be Duke of York. He was created Earl of Nottingham on 12 June 1476. On 15 January 1478, in St Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster, when he was about 4 years old, he married the 5-year-old Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk, who had inherited the vast Mowbray estates in 1476. Because York’s father’s-in-law dukedom had become extinct when Anne could not inherit it, he was created Duke of Norfolk and Earl Warenne on 7 February 1477.When Anne de Mowbray died in November 1481 her estates should have passed to William, Viscount Berkeley and to John, Lord Howard. In January 1483 Parliament passed an act that gave the Mowbray estates to Richard, Duke of York and Norfolk, for his lifetime, and at his death to his heirs, if he had any. The rights of the two co-heirs at law were extinguished; Viscount Berkeley had financial difficulties and King Edward IV paid off those debts. Berkeley then renounced his claims to the Mowbray estate before parliament in 1483. Nothing was done for Lord Howard.

His father died on 9 April 1483. Thus his brother Edward, Prince of Wales, became King of England and was acclaimed as such, and Richard his Heir Presumptive. This was not to last. A priest, now generally believed to have been Robert Stillington, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, testified that Edward IV had agreed to marry Lady Eleanor Talbot in 1461. Lady Eleanor was still alive when Edward married Elizabeth Woodville in 1464. The Regency council under the late King’s brother Richard Duke of Gloucester, concluded that this was a case of bigamy, invalidating the second marriage and the legitimacy of all children of Edward IV by this marriage. Under Gloucester’s influence, both Edward and Richard were declared illegitimate and removed from the line of succession on 25 June 1483. The Duke of Gloucester, as the only surviving brother of Edward IV, became King Richard III.”

[thecousinswar]

Today in history, August 16, 1355, the birth of Philippa of Clarence, Fifth Countess of Ulster:

"Philippa of Clarence (16 August 1355 – 5 January 1382) was the suo jure Countess of Ulster.

She was born at Eltham Palace in Kent on 16 August 1355, the only child of Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, and Elizabeth de Burgh, 4th Countess of Ulster. Her father was the third son, but second son to survive infancy, of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault.

Philippa married Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March, in 1368 at the age of thirteen in the Queen's Chapel at Reading Abbey, an alliance that would have far-reaching consequences in English history. Her cousin, King Richard II remained childless, making Philippa and her descendants next in line to the throne until his deposition. In the Wars of the Roses the Yorkist claim to the crown based its descent from Edward III through his granddaughter Philippa of Clarence. Philippa was Anne Mortimer's grandmother.

Philippa died in 1378, and was buried at Wigmore Abbey, Herefordshire."

[thecousinswar]

Today in history, August 14, 1479, the birth of Catherine of York:

"Catherine or Katherine of York (14 August 1479 – 15 November 1527) was the ninth child and sixth daughter of King Edward IV by his wife Elizabeth Woodville. From birth to death, she was daughter to Edward IV, sister to Edward V, niece to Richard III, sister-in-law to Henry VII and aunt to Henry VIII.

The daughter of King Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, Catherine of York was born at Eltham Palace in 1479.

During her early years, one potential husband for Catherine was John, Prince of Asturias, eldest son of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile.

According to an agreement drawn up in 1487, Catherine would marry James Stewart, Duke of Ross, second son of James III. This agreement was nullified with the death of James III in 1488."

[thecousinswar]

Today in history, August 14, 1473: the birth of Margaret Pole:

"Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (14 August 1473 – 27 May 1541), was an English peeress. She was the daughter of George, Duke of Clarence, the brother of kings Edward IV and Richard III. Margaret was one of two women in 16th century England to be a peeress in her own right with no titled husband. One of the few surviving members of the Plantagenet dynasty after the Wars of the Roses, she was executed in 1541 at the command of Henry VIII, who was the son of her first cousin Elizabeth of York. Pope Leo XIII beatified her as a martyr for the Catholic Church on 29 December 1886.

Margaret was born at Farleigh Hungerford Castle in Somerset, the only surviving daughter of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, and his wife Isabel Neville, who was the elder daughter of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, and his wife Anne de Beauchamp, Countess of Warwick. Her maternal grandfather was killed fighting against her uncle, Edward IV of England, at the Battle of Barnet. Her father, already Duke of Clarence, was then created Earl of Salisbury and of Warwick. Edward IV declared that Margaret's younger brother Edward should be known as Earl of Warwick as a courtesy title, but no peerage was ever created for him. Margaret would have had a claim to the Earldom of Warwick, but the earldom was forfeited on the attainder of her brother Edward.

Margaret's mother and youngest brother died when she was three, and her father had two servants killed who he thought had poisoned them. George plotted against his brother, Edward IV, and was attainted and executed for treason; his lands and titles were forfeited. Edward IV died when Margaret was ten, and her uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, declared that Edward's marriage was invalid, his children illegitimate, and that Margaret and her brother Edward were debarred from the throne by their father's attainder. Married to Anne Neville, younger sister to Margaret's mother Isabel, Richard assumed the throne himself as Richard III.

Richard III sent the children to Sheriff Hutton Castle in Yorkshire. He was defeated and killed in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth by Henry Tudor, who succeeded him as Henry VII. The new king married Margaret's cousin Elizabeth of York, Edward IV's daughter, and Margaret and her brother were taken into their care. Soon young Edward, technically a potential Yorkclaimant to the throne, was moved to the Tower of London. Edward was briefly displayed in public at St Paul's Cathedral in 1487 in response to the presentation of the impostor Lambert Simnel as the "Earl of Warwick" to the Irish lords. Shortly thereafter, probably in November 1487, Henry VII gave Margaret in marriage to his cousin, Sir Richard Pole, whose mother was half-sister of the king's mother, Margaret Beaufort. When Perkin Warbeckimpersonated Edward IV's presumed-dead son Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, in 1499, Margaret's brother Edward was attainted and executed for involvement in the plot. Richard Pole held a variety of offices in Henry VII's government, the highest being Chamberlain for Arthur, Prince of Wales, Henry's elder son. When Arthur married Catherine of Aragon, Margaret became one of her ladies-in-waiting, but her entourage was dissolved when the teenaged Arthur died in 1502.

When her husband died in 1504, Margaret was a widow with five children, a limited amount of land inherited from her husband, no salary and no prospects. Henry VII paid for Richard's funeral. To ease the situation, Margaret devoted her third son Reginald Pole to the Church, where he was to have an eventful career as a papal Legate and later Archbishop of Canterbury. Nonetheless, he was to resent her abandonment of him bitterly in later life. Additionally, Margaret, without adequate means to support herself and her children, was forced to live at Syon Abbey among Bridgettine nuns after her husband's death. She was to remain there until she returned to favor at the ascension of Henry VIII in 1509."