Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers
Anthony Woodville | |
|---|---|
| 2nd Illegitimate)[1] | |
| Father | Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers |
| Mother | Jacquetta of Luxembourg |
Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers
Origins
He was the eldest son to survive childhood of Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers, by his wife Jacquetta of Luxembourg. His sister was Elizabeth Woodville, who married King Edward IV and became queen.
Career
Like his father, he was originally a
The supporters of Edward IV were defeated at the Battle of Edgcote, near Banbury, on 24 July 1469, and Richard Woodville and his second son John Woodville were taken prisoners at Chepstow. After a hasty and controversial trial, they were both beheaded at Gosford Green, Coventry on 12 August 1469 and Anthony succeeded his father in the earldom.
Career as Earl Rivers
He joined the king in his temporary exile in 1470, and returned with him the next year, where he was wounded at the Battle of Barnet. As a result of this battle, Edward IV regained the throne. Whilst in charge of the garrison at the Tower of London, Rivers defeated an attempt by a Lancastrian army (led by Thomas Neville) to capture the city during the Siege of London (1471).
In 1472, Edward IV sent Rivers and his younger brother Edward Woodville to Brittany at the head of 1,000 archers to help the Bretons fend off a threatened French invasion of the duchy. The French withdrew when faced with determined resistance.[5]
In 1473, King Edward IV appointed Rivers Governor of the
In 1476, the Republic of Venice declared Anthony heir to the Kingdoms of Jerusalem and Cyprus, but his death ended all plans.
Death and succession
When the king died suddenly in 1483, Rivers was ordered by his sister to bring the Prince of Wales, now King Edward V, straight back to London under an armed guard. They were intercepted by Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later King Richard III), who arrested the Earl, along with his nephew Sir Richard Grey, the young king's half-brother.[6] Rivers was imprisoned and then beheaded at Pontefract Castle in West Yorkshire on 25 June 1483 as part of the duke's path towards kingship (as Richard III).
Anthony was succeeded by his brother Richard Woodville, 3rd Earl Rivers.[2] The Scales lands inherited from his wife were bequeathed to his younger brother Edward Woodville, but King Richard III ignored Anthony's wishes as Edward had joined Henry Tudor.
Marriages
He married twice, without legitimate progeny, as follows:
- Firstly to Thomas de Scales, 7th Baron Scales, and widow of Henry Bourchier, younger son of Henry Bourchier, 1st Earl of Essex. Before succeeding to his father's earldom, Anthony was summoned to Parliament, in right of his wife, as Baron Scales.
- Secondly he married Mary FitzLewis, daughter of Henry FitzLewis.
Mistresses and illegitimate progeny
By his mistress Gwenlina Stradling, a daughter of William Stradling
- "A testimony of this match apereth by indenture of a Chappell near Bristowewhere they lye buried".
Literary interests
Rivers had met the earliest English printer William Caxton when in exile in Bruges, and there in 1475–76 Caxton published Cordyale, or Four last thinges, Rivers' English translation from the French of Jean Miélot of Les quattres choses derrenieres, itself a translation of the Cordiale quattuor novissimorum. After both of them had returned to England, one of the first, if not the first, books printed in England was Rivers' translation from French of the Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers, printed by Caxton at Westminster in 1477.[9] Lambeth Palace Library has a manuscript illustration showing Rivers presenting a copy of this book to Edward IV (illustrated top right).
Notes
- ^ Novelist Susan Higginbotham blog
- ^ a b Gosse, Edmund (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 385. This presents a detailed biography.
- ^ White, Geoffrey H., ed. (1949). The Complete Peerage, Volume XI. St Catherine's Press. p. 22.
- ^ "TimeRef – Medieval". Archived from the original on 8 November 2010.
- ^ Ross, Charles, Edward IV, University of California Press, 1974, p.206
- ^ Chalmers' Biography, vol. 32, p 351
- ^ Maclean, Sir John & Heane, W.C., (Eds.), The Visitation of the County of Gloucester Taken in the Year 1623 by Henry Chitty and John Phillipot as Deputies to William Camden Clarenceux King of Arms, etc, London, 1885, p.133
- ^ Maclean, 1885, p.129
- ^ Caxton exhibition Archived 6 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine
References
- Hicks, Michael. "Woodville, Anthony". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/29937. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Ives, E. W. "Andrew Dymmock and the Papers of Anthony Earl Rivers," Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 41 (1968): 216–229.
- Lowe, D. E. "Patronage and Politics: Edward IV, the Wydevills, and the Council of the Prince of Wales, 1471-83," The Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 29 (1981): 545–573.
- Pidgeon, Lynda. "Antony Wydevile, Lord Scales and Earl Rivers: Family, Friends and Affinity. Part 1," The Ricardian 15 (2005): 1–19. Richard III Society.
- Pidgeon, Lynda. "Antony Wydevile, Lord Scales and Earl Rivers: Family, Friends and Affinity. Part 2," The Ricardian 15 (2006): 1–14. Richard III Society.
- Scofield, Cora L. "The Capture of Lord Rivers and Sir Anthony Woodville, 19 January 1460," The English Historical Review 37:146 (April 1922): 253–255.
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