Anne Neville

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Anne Neville
Queen consort of England
Tenure26 June 1483 – 16 March 1485
Coronation6 July 1483
Born11 June 1456
Warwick Castle, Warwickshire, England
Died16 March 1485(1485-03-16) (aged 28)
Palace of Westminster, London, England
Burial25 March 1485
, London, England
Spouses
(m. 1470; died 1471)
Richard III, King of England
(m. 1472)
IssueEdward of Middleham, Prince of Wales
HouseNeville
FatherRichard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick
MotherAnne Beauchamp, 16th Countess of Warwick

Anne Neville (11 June 1456 – 16 March 1485) was

King Henry VI
.

As a member of the powerful

the Wars of the Roses. [1]

After the death of Prince Edward and defeat of the Lancastrians at the

Edward of Middleham
, died in 1484 at the age of seven.

Early life

Middleham Castle came into the possession of the Neville family in 1270.

Anne Neville was born at

Richard, Duke of York, who claimed the crown for the House of York
.

Much of Anne Neville's childhood was spent at

Edward of Westminster, the Lancastrian heir to the throne of England, and married to him by the end of the same year.[1]

Princess of Wales

The Earl of Warwick had been at odds with Edward IV for some time, resenting his clandestine marriage to

Edward of Westminster, at the Château d'Amboise in France. They were married in Angers Cathedral
, probably on 13 December 1470, to make Anne Neville the Princess of Wales.

Drawing of Anne and her two husbands from the Beauchamp Pageant, c. 1483-1494

Warwick restored Henry VI to the throne in October 1470; Edward IV however returned to the country in March 1471 and quickly captured London and the person of Henry VI. The mentally challenged Henry VI was taken by Edward IV as a prisoner to the Battle of Barnet, where Warwick was killed on 14 April 1471. Edward IV then incarcerated Henry VI in the Tower of London. Following the decisive Yorkist victory at the Battle of Tewkesbury on 4 May, Henry was reported to have died of "pure displeasure and melancholy," although "The Great Chronicle of London" reported that Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was responsible for his death. As Constable of England, he probably delivered King Edward's order to kill Henry to the Constable of the Tower.[2]

Margaret of Anjou had returned to England with Anne Neville and Prince Edward in April, bringing additional troops. At the Battle of Tewkesbury, Edward IV crushed this last Lancastrian army. Prince Edward was killed in or shortly after the battle, and Anne Neville was taken prisoner. She was taken first to Coventry and then to the house of her brother-in-law the Duke of Clarence in London, while her mother Anne Beauchamp, Warwick's wife, sought sanctuary in Beaulieu Abbey. When the crisis settled down and the Countess wished to be restored to her estates, Edward IV refused her safe conduct to plead her case; she wrote to Queen Elizabeth and several others to no avail.[5]

Anne, now widowed, became the subject of some dispute between George of Clarence and his brother Richard of Gloucester, who still wanted to marry her. Anne Neville and her sister, the Duchess of Clarence, were heiresses to their parents' vast estates. Clarence, anxious to secure the entire inheritance, treated her as his ward and opposed her getting married, which would strengthen her position to claim a share.

There are various accounts of what happened subsequently, including the story that Clarence hid her in a London cookshop, disguised as a servant, so that his brother would not know where she was. Gloucester is said to have tracked her down and escorted her to sanctuary at the Church of

St Martin's le Grand.[6] In order to win the final consent of his brother George to the marriage, Richard of Gloucester renounced most of Warwick's land and property, including the earldoms of Warwick (which the earl had held in his wife's right) and Salisbury and surrendered to Clarence the office of Great Chamberlain of England.[2]

Duchess of Gloucester

The exact date of the wedding of Anne Neville and Richard, Duke of Gloucester, is not known, although most sources agree that a ceremony took place sometime in the late spring/early summer of 1472 in St Stephen's Chapel in the Palace of Westminster, after a dispensation to marry was issued from Rome on 22 April 1472.[7] This dispensed the impediment of affinity created when Anne married Edward of Lancaster, who was Richard's blood cousin.[8] The couple made their marital home in the familiar surroundings of Middleham Castle, Yorkshire, after Richard was appointed Governor of the North on the king's behalf. Upon her marriage, Anne was styled Duchess of Gloucester. They had only one child, Edward, born at Middleham allegedly sometime in 1473, but more probably in 1476.[9] Anne's mother, the Countess of Warwick, joined her daughter's household in 1473 after Richard obtained the king's permission to release his mother-in-law from her guarded sanctuary.[2]

In 1478, Anne Neville inherited the

Richard of Gloucester until his death, when it passed to the new king, Henry VII.[10]

Queen of England

Drawing of Richard and Anne as King and Queen from the Salisbury Roll, c. 1483–1485.

On 9 April 1483, Edward IV died and Anne's husband Richard was named

Battle of Bosworth. Almost the entire peerage of England was present at what was a magnificent spectacle.[11][12] Richard and Anne's son, Edward of Middleham, was created Prince of Wales in York Minster on 8 September 1483 following their Royal Progress across England.[13]

Anne was on good terms with her mother-in-law

Edward of Middleham died suddenly in April 1484 at Middleham Castle, while his parents were in Nottingham on their way to visit him. Both Richard and Anne were overwhelmed with grief at this news.[15] Anne was particularly heartbroken, and she fell gravely ill only a few months later.

After the death of her son, Anne Neville effectively adopted her nephew

Edward, Earl of Warwick.[16] After Anne Neville died, Richard may have named another nephew, John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, as his heir presumptive.[17]

Death

Anne Neville died on 16 March 1485, probably of tuberculosis, at Westminster.[18] The day she died, there was an eclipse,[19] which some took to be an omen of her husband's fall from heavenly grace. She was buried in Westminster Abbey in an unmarked grave to the right of the High Altar, next to the door to the Confessor's Chapel.[20] Richard III is said to have wept at her funeral. Nevertheless, rumours circulated that Richard III had poisoned her in order to marry his niece Elizabeth of York.[21]

Richard sent Elizabeth away from court to Sheriff Hutton and publicly rebutted these rumours on 30 March 1485 during an assembly of Lords he had summoned at the Hospital of St. John. Addressing them "in a loud and distinct voice", he "showed his grief and displeasure aforesaid and said it never came into his thought or mind to marry in such manner wise, nor willing nor glad of the death of his queen but as sorry and in heart as heavy as man might be …".

Joanna (who was of Lancastrian descent), and Elizabeth of York and Joanna's cousin Duke Manuel (the future Manuel I).[24]

There was no memorial to Queen Anne until 1960, when a bronze tablet was erected on a wall near her grave by the

Richard III Society
.

Coat of arms of Anne Neville
Notes
As Queen, Anne Neville bore the arms of her husband, King Richard III, impaled with the Neville arms without difference. Anne Neville sometimes bore her father, Lord Warwick's, full achievement, however at other times she also bore the arms of Neville without difference by a label for Lancaster (larger coat of arms).
Adopted
1483
Escutcheon
Quarterly, 1st and 4th, France moderne, 2nd and 3rd England; impaled with Gules, a saltire Argent.
Symbolism
The other version of Anne Neville's arms as queen bore that of her husband, King Richard, Quarterly, 1st and 4th, France moderne, 2nd and 3rd England, impaled with the full achievement of Anne Neville's father; of seven, 1st, Gules, a fess between six crosses crosslet Or (Beauchamp), 2nd, Chequy Or and Azure, a chevron ermine (Newburgh), 3rd, Argent, three lozenges conjoined in fess Gules (Montacute), 4th, Or, an eagle displayed Vert (Monthermer), 5th, Gules a saltire Argent, a label of three points gobony Argent and Azure (Neville), 6th, Or, three chevrons Gules (Clare), 7th, Quarterly, Argent and Gules, a fret Or, overall a bendlett Sable (Despencer).[25]
The coat of arms of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick used almost all typical forms of heraldry in England: the first quarter consisted of his father-in-law, Richard de Beauchamp, who bore with an escutcheon of De Clare quartering Despenser, which was shown in Neville's fourth quarter. The second quarter showed the arms of the Montacutes (Montagu). The third quarter showed the arms of Neville differenced by a label for Lancaster.[26]

Cultural depictions

Theatre and film

Richard, Duke of Gloucester and the Lady Anne by Edwin Austin Abbey.

Anne Neville appears in three scenes in William Shakespeare's Richard III. In Act I, Scene 2, Richard III persuades her to marry him. In Act IV, Scene 1, just before Richard III's coronation, Anne Neville meets Edward IV's widow and laments her own position. In Act V, Scene 3, Anne Neville is one of the ghosts that appear to Richard III.

The role has been played in film by

Anne Neville is also a character in the 1939 film Tower of London (played by Rose Hobart), and its 1962 remake (1962) (played by Joan Camden).

In German productions of musical

Tanz Der Vampire (Dance of the Vampires)
at the ball of Count von Krolock there are several historical figures among vampires, including Anne Neville and her husband King Richard III.

Novels

Anne Neville is a major character in several historical novels.

She is the title character in:

  • Gladys Malvern, The Queen's Lady (1963), historical fiction for teen readers[27]
  • Jan Westcott, Set Her on a Throne (1972)
  • Frances Irwin, The White Pawn (1972)
  • Frances Irwin, The White Queen (1974), sequel to The White Pawn
  • Evelyn Hood, The Kingmaker’s Daughter (1974)
  • Hilda Brookman Stainer, The Kingmaker’s Daughter (1978)
  • Lesley J. Nickell, The White Queen (1978), reprinted in 2014 as "The White Queen of Middleham"
  • Maureen Peters, Beggar Maid, Queen (1980)
  • Philippa Wiat, The Kingmaker's Daughter (1989)
  • The Reluctant Queen: The Story of Anne of York
    (1990)
  • Eleanor Mennim, Anne Neville, Queen of England (1999), a fictional biography
  • Anne O'Brien, The Virgin Widow (2010)
  • Philippa Gregory, The Kingmaker's Daughter (2012)
  • Julie May Ruddock, A Daughter of Warwick (2012)
  • Paula Simonds Zabka, Anne of Warwick The Last Plantagenet Queen (2012)
  • Liz Orwin, The Maid's Tale: Anne (2016)

Anne Neville is one of the main characters in:

  • Olive Eckerson, The Golden Yoke (Coward-McCann, 1961)
  • Margaret Davidson, My Lords Richard (1979)
  • Rhoda Edwards, Fortune's Wheel (1978) and The Broken Sword (also titled "Some Touch of Pity", 1977)
  • Anne Powers, The Four Queens (1977) (also known as The Royal Consorts (1978) or Queen's Ransom (1986))
  • Sharon Kay Penman, The Sunne in Splendour (1982)
  • Paula Simonds Zabka, Desire the Kingdom (2002)
  • Sandra Worth's The Rose of York trilogy - Love and War (2003), Crown of Destiny (2006), and Fall From Grace (2007)
  • Sylvia Charlewwod, King Richard III & Anne Neville: their love story (2015)
  • J.P. Reedman, I, Richard Plantagenet (2016)

Non-fiction

References

  1. ^ .
  2. ^ .
  3. .
  4. ^ Licence 2013, p. 63. Young aristocrats were often sent away to be raised in households of their intended future partners
  5. .
  6. ^ Croyland Chronicle (pp. 469–70) Clarence "caused the damsel (Anne) to be concealed in order that it might not be known by his Brother where she was; as he was afraid of a division of the Earl's property, which he wished to come to himself alone in right of his wife, and not be obliged to share it with any other person." Richard however, "discovered the Young lady in the city of London disguised in the habit of a cookmaid; upon which he had her removed to the sanctuary of St. Martin's", as reported in Paul Murray Kendall, Richard III, 1955.
  7. ^ Hicks, Michael (2011). Anne Neville: Queen to Richard III. The History Press. pp. 143–44. The ceremony has often been located in the spring of 1472 although, actually, canon law forbade marriage during Lent. Since actually Edward's birth was probably some years later, such speculation is unfounded. That the Warwick inheritance dispute still raged in November 1473 does not mean, as Peter Hammond wrongly supposed, that Anne and Richard were still unmarried then and that the marriage took place in 1474. Where was Anne in the interim? Did she remain in sanctuary throughout, which Crowland's chronology did not exclude? Did she cohabit with the duke or reside under his protection, scarcely less morally dubious? Sheer convenience points to marriage as soon after the March council as possible. Allowing for the dispensation of 22 April 1472 and its transmission from Rome, it is likely that, as Clarke has deduced, the wedding took place in the late spring or early summer of 1472.
  8. ^ Barnfield, Marie (2007). "Diriment Impediments, Dispensations and Divorce: Richard III and Matrimony". The Ricardian. XVII. Archived from the original on 13 September 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  9. ^ Blunt, John Henry (1875). Tewkesbury Abbey and its associations. London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.
  10. .
  11. ^ "Westminster Abbey » Richard III". Westminster-abbey.org. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  12. .
  13. ^ York City Records
  14. .
  15. . "On hearing the news of this, at Nottingham, where they were then residing, you might have seen his father and mother in a state almost bordering on madness, by reason of their sudden grief"
  16. ^ "Edward PLANTAGENET (1º E. Warwick)". www.tudorplace.com.ar. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  17. .
  18. ^ Licence 2013, p. 176.
  19. ^ "Catalog of Solar Eclipses: 1401 to 1500". Eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  20. ^ "Westminster Abbey » Anne Neville, wife of Richard III". Westminster-abbey.org. Archived from the original on 18 September 2016. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  21. ^ Hicks 2006, p. 196.
  22. . Entry for 31 March 1485
  23. ^ Hicks, 2011
  24. .
  25. .
  26. ^ Mercy Pilkington (8 December 2012). "Beebliome Develops Interactive History Novelizations for YA Readers". goodereader.com.

Further reading

English royalty
Vacant
Title last held by
Elizabeth Woodville
Queen consort of England

Lady of Ireland

26 June 1483 – 16 March 1485
Vacant
Title next held by
Elizabeth of York
Vacant
Title last held by
Joan of Kent
Princess of Wales
13 December 1470 – 4 May 1471
Vacant
Title next held by
Catherine of Aragon