On this day, 13 December 1470
On this day, 13 December 1470, Edward of Lancaster (son of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou) married Anne Neville (daughter of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick AKA “the Kingmaker”).
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On this day, 13 December 1470, Edward of Lancaster (son of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou) married Anne Neville (daughter of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick AKA “the Kingmaker”) in exchange for restoring the Lancastrian dynasty.
Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales by Silvester Harding, 29 January 1793
Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, was known as the Kingmaker due to not only his military prowess during the Wars of the Roses but also his virtual control of the country under several kings due to his own cunning. After Edward IV took the throne, Warwick was working with the French to secure a marriage between the new king and the sister of the Queen of France. This would help in bolstering up the new dynasty with a powerful foreign ally of Warwick’s choosing. However, Edward IV married Elizabeth Woodville, a widow of a Lancastrian knight, in secret. This was the beginning of the rift between Edward IV and the Kingmaker.
The arms of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick.
When Edward IV increasingly sided with his wife’s relatives, going as far as being convinced that an Anglo-Burgundian alliance would be better than the Anglo-French alliance Warwick favored, Warwick decided to act. He married his eldest daughter, Isabel Neville, to Edward IV’s brother, George, Duke of Clarence, even though the king had forbidden the match. Any male children of this match would be an heir to the throne of England (so far, Edward IV only had daughters).
The first battle of this period of the Wars of the Roses took place in Northamptonshire when the army of the Earl of Pembroke, which was marching to join with Edward IV at Nottingham, encountered a rebel force under an anonymous knight known only as Robin of Redesdale, which was marching to join with the army of the Earl of Warwick. They clashed at the Battle of Edgcote Moor on the morning of 24 July 1469. King Edward IV was captured and put under Warwick’s “protection,” with Warwick then in nominal control of the country. The king was thrown into prison at Warwick Castle. Also, in retaliation for the betrayal he felt, Warwick had the Queen’s father, Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers, who was greatly in favor and had the king’s ear, beheaded at Kenilworth after the battle. The imprisonment of the king, however, did not have the full backing of the elite, especially in London, and in October 1469 Edward was released and Warwick exiled to France.
By this point, the Warwick-Clarence match had not yet produced the desired male heir, and Warwick was in exile. So, in Angers on June 22 1470, Richard, Earl of Warwick, met with Margaret of Anjou, Henry VI’s queen, in a meeting brokered by Louis XI of France. Louis XI wanted a long-lasting peace with England; the best way to achieve that was to have his cousin Margaret on the throne. In the agreement reached, Edward Prince of Wales would marry Warwick’s second daughter, Anne. In exchange, Warwick would oppose Edward IV and do everything he could to return Henry VI (and therefore Margaret) to the throne. Louis XI even agreed to finance Warwick’s upcoming invasion of England.
Warwick submits to Margaret of Anjou
Doyle, James William Edmund (1864) in A Chronicle of England: B.C. 55 – A.D. 1485
Warwick arrived in England in September 1470. He soon drove Edward IV and his few remaining allies into exile in the Netherlands. Warwick removed a feeble-minded and confused Henry VI from the Tower of London on 3 October 1470, parading him by the hand through the city. He re-installed Henry VI as a puppet king and ruled through him.
Edward, Prince of Wales, subsequently married Anne Neville on 13 December 1470 at Château Amboise, France.
Château Amboise, France
Anne travelled to England with her new husband, arriving at Weymouth on 14 April 1471. On that same day, her father was killed at the Battle of Barnet. While her mother fled into sanctuary at Beaulieu, Anne remained with Queen Margaret of Anjou. She was discovered with Margaret after the Battle of Tewkesbury, during or after which Edward, Prince of Wales, was killed. Having made his peace with Edward IV before Barnet, George, Duke of Clarence, took Anne into his custody. She was discovered and taken by Clarence’s brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who would eventually make her his bride and queen.
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Sources for this article:
https://www.warsoftheroses.com/people/anne-neville/
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Warwick-The-Kingmaker/
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-IV-king-of-England
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Neville-16th-earl-of-Warwick
https://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/warsoftheroses/battleview.asp?BattleFieldId=13
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coat_of_Arms_of_Sir_Richard_Neville,_16th_Earl_of_Warwick,_KG.png
https://photographfrance.com/blog/a-game-of-thrones-at-royal-chteau-amboise
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edward_of_Westminster,_Prince_of_Wales_by_Silvester_Harding.jpg
https://www.richardiii.ca/the-war-of-the-roses/