Anne Neville

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Anne Neville

Anne Neville (born June 11, 1456 in Warwick Castle , † March 16, 1485 in Westminster (London) ) was the wife of Richard III. Queen of England from 1483–85.

Life

Parentage, youth and marriage to Edward, Prince of Wales

Anne Neville was the younger daughter of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick , and Anne Beauchamp . She was baptized in the College of Saint Mary, Warwick. Her father was one of the most powerful nobles in England and the most important supporter of the House of York . Her sister Isabella Neville was five years older than her and her father's only other child. With that, the sisters could expect a considerable inheritance.

In her early childhood, Anne probably lived mainly in Warwick and in the 1460s, apart from Warwick, also lived in her father's castles to the north for a time. In 1461, when she was only five years old, King Henry VI became. deposed and Edward IV crowned the new king with the help of her father. Two years later, in 1463, she attended the re-burial of her grandfather Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury († 1460), in Bisham Abbey . In 1466 she was present with her sister at the inauguration of her uncle George Neville as Archbishop of York, with her future husband Richard , then Duke of Gloucester, at the subsequent banquet at the top of the table. Finally, in 1468, Anne also took part in the wedding feast of Margaret of York .

According to the Burgundian historian Jean de Wavrin , the “kingmaker”, as Anne's ambitious father was called, wanted to marry his two daughters to younger brothers of Edward IV, namely George, Duke of Clarence and Richard, Duke of Gloucester, as early as 1464 However, the king refused. Since Edward IV's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville , the Earl of Warwick saw his influence at court increasingly waning. He then intrigued against the king in 1469 and won his younger brother George, Duke of Clarence, as an ally. First he retired to Calais , which city he presided over as governor, and married his daughter Isabella to Clarence there on July 11, 1469. Soon after, the two nobles returned to England. Warwick's partisan Robin of Redesdale defeated a royalist contingent at the Battle of Edgecote Moor on July 26, 1469, and Edward IV himself fell into the hands of Warwick's supporters. After a superficial reconciliation between the parties to the dispute, Warwick and Clarence instigated a new uprising against the king in Lincolnshire in early 1470 , but their troops were defeated at the Battle of Losecote Field (March 12, 1470). The two magnates and their wives, as well as Warwick's daughter Anne, had to flee to France at the end of April 1470, with Clarence's wife Isabella giving birth to a daughter who died soon after during the passage across the English Channel on board the ship. The fugitive nobles could not end up in Calais, where Warwick's own deputy refused admission, but only in Dieppe , and they were welcomed by the French King Louis XI. received benevolently.

Louis XI. endeavored, the exiled Margaret of Anjou with Warwick, who in 1461 the overthrow of Margaret's husband Henry VI. had brought about to reconcile and bring about a coalition of Warwick, Clarence and the House of Lancaster against King Edward IV. The latter was to be overthrown and Lancaster rule in England restored. The efforts of the French king were successful. In the Treaty of Angers , Margaret of Anjou agreed to forgive Warwick, for what Warwick pledged, for the interests of Henry VI. to fight; and Louis XI. agreed to support both of them with all means at their disposal. It was also agreed that after the intended reinstatement of Henry VI. as the English king whose only son Edward, Prince of Wales, was to be married to Warwick's daughter Anne. If this marriage were to remain without heirs, Clarence would come to power. In the meantime, Anne and Edward were engaged to be married on July 25, 1470 in Angers Cathedral . The invasion of England initiated by Warwick and Clarence went according to plan; Edward IV fled at the beginning of October 1470 to his brother-in-law Karl the Bold in Burgundy and Henry VI. came to the throne again.

Anne and Edward celebrated their wedding in Bayeux on December 13, 1470 , visited Paris and then joined Margaret of Anjou in Normandy to cross over to England. After stormy weather prevented their embarkation for 17 days, they sailed across the English Channel and landed in Weymouth on the evening of Easter Sunday (April 14, 1471) . But on the same day Edward IV, who had received support from the Duke of Burgundy and had returned to England, won a decisive victory over his adversaries in the Battle of Barnet . Warwick had been killed on the run, Henry VI. prisoner again and Clarence had reconciled with his brother Edward IV. Margaret of Anjou tried to retreat to Wales with her troops , but was overtaken by the army of Edward IV and defeated at the Battle of Tewkesbury (May 4, 1471). Anne was captured and her husband Edward was killed. Edward IV, however, was again the undisputed King of England and probably gave the order for Henry VI to be murdered on May 21, 1471. in the Tower of London .

Marriage to Duke Richard of Gloucester, later King Richard III.

After the Battle of Tewkesbury, Anne Neville, who was only 15 years old, was initially brought to Coventry . The Duke of Clarence then took her into his care in London, while her mother Anne Beauchamp sought sanctuary at Beaulieu Abbey . As a result, through his marriage to Isabella, Clarence claimed almost all of Warwick's legacy, namely its vast estates and income, and he wanted to withhold Anne and her mother's share of the family inheritance. Therefore, he also opposed the efforts of his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, to marry Anne, as this would have been easier for her to claim her inheritance. According to the sequel to the Historia Croylandensis , Clarence is said to have even induced Anne to live hidden in the disguise of a kitchen maid in London. Gloucester found her and took her to the church at St Martin's-le-Grand , London. The brothers' quarrel came before a royal council. Clarence admitted that Gloucester could take his sister-in-law as wife, but they should hardly have any part in Warwick's legacy. In order to get his brother Clarence's approval of the marriage, Gloucester finally renounced most of Warwick's possessions, such as the counties of Warwick and Salisbury. A preliminary agreement was reached in March 1472. In 1474/75, two laws passed by parliament suspended the rights of Anne's mother and her cousin George Neville and declared Anne and Isabella sole heirs. Their husbands could now enter into the entire possessions of Warwick as well as into those estates of the Beauchamp family, which Anne's mother had brought into her marriage to Warwick through her inheritance.

The exact wedding date of Anne and Richard of Gloucester is unknown. It is commonly believed that the couple married in the spring of 1472, but it can only be said with certainty that their wedding took place before July 1474. Apparently, no papal dispensation to legitimize marriage was sought. After their marriage, Anne had the title of Duchess of Gloucester. She had inherited estates in Wales as well as her father's northern English possessions and resided with her second husband mostly in Middleham Castle , Yorkshire, and neighboring castles, because Richard's power base was in the north of the country. According to contemporary evidence, the marriage seems to have gone well. Perhaps in 1473, but more likely not until 1476, Anne gave birth to her son Edward , and she may have had a second son named George. In 1476 she was admitted to the Durham Cathedral Priory . Three years earlier, in 1473, Anne's mother had come to Middleham after leaving her sanctuary and was taken into her daughter's household.

Queen and death

After King Edward IV died unexpectedly on April 9, 1483, the Duke of Gloucester usurped on June 26, 1483 as King Richard III. the throne so that Anne became Queen of England. On July 6, 1483, Anne and her husband were crowned at Westminster Abbey by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Bourchier . It was the first joint coronation in 175 years. The Queen's train was carried by Margaret Beaufort , Countess of Richmond, whose son was the future King Henry VII . Many nobles were present at the magnificent ceremony.

Soon after, Richard III left. Windsor and went on his tour, which first took him to the west of England. Anne rejoined him in Warwick and accompanied him to York , which had risen to become England's second capital in recent decades. The residents of York gave the royal couple an enthusiastic welcome. Richard III stayed with his family from August 30, 1483 for a few days in the city and named his son Edward on the following September 8th as Prince of Wales . On this occasion the King and Anne walked in solemn procession through the streets with crowns on their heads, and the splendid festivities in York of that time were compared to Richard's second coronation. The next year, 1484, Anne again traveled to York with her husband.

Anne was on good terms with her mother-in-law, Cecily Neville , Duchess of York, with whom she discussed religious works such as that of Mechthild von Hackeborn . Probably due to her poor health, she seems to have played a fairly insignificant role as queen. She did have her own household, but apparently none of the widow lands customary for queens. It may not even have had its own inheritance, which was administered by royal officials. Her name also seldom appears in office notes.

While Anne was in Nottingham with her husband , her son Edward, who was only a child, suddenly died on April 9, 1484 in Middleham. Anne was hard hit by his death, as was the king, who was now without an heir. Anne did not have another child, and rumors surfaced that Richard III. she wanted to reject and enter into a new marriage with his niece Elizabeth of York , a daughter of Edward IV.

Less than a year after the death of her son, Anne also passed away on March 16, 1485, the day a solar eclipse occurred, at the age of only 28 in Westminster, London. She had been ailing for some time and probably died of tuberculosis . Opponent Richard III. claimed, however, that the king poisoned his wife. On March 30, 1485 Richard III denied. publicly in London that he had ever intended to marry Elizabeth of York. The body of the late Queen, whom the historian John Rous , who was known with her , described as beautiful, gracious and virtuous, was buried in Westminster Abbey in an anonymous grave to the right of the high altar.

literature

Web links

Commons : Anne Neville  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Michael Hicks, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Vol. 2 (2004), p. 180.
  2. ↑ a b c d James Gairdner ,. Dictionary of National Biography , Vol. 1 (1885), p. 423.
  3. ↑ Karl-Friedrich Krieger : History of England I . CH Beck, 2nd edition Munich 1996, ISBN 3-406-33004-5 , p. 227 f.
  4. ↑ a b Karl-Friedrich Krieger, Geschichte Englands I , p. 228.
  5. ↑ James Gairdner ,. Dictionary of National Biography , Vol. 1 (1885), pp. 423 f.
  6. ↑ a b c James Gairdner ,. Dictionary of National Biography , Vol. 1 (1885), p. 424.
  7. ↑ Bärbel Brodt: The House of York and the Wars of the Roses . In: Hanna Vollrath , Natalie Fryde (ed.): The English kings in the Middle Ages . CH Beck, 2nd edition 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-58982-9 , p. 210.
  8. ↑ Bärbel Brodt, in: The English Kings in the Middle Ages , p. 220.
  9. ↑ Lisa Hilton: Queens Consort, England's Medieval Queens . Weidenfeld & Nichelson, 2008, ISBN 978-0-7538-2611-9 , p. 456.
  10. ↑ a b c Michael Hicks, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Vol. 2 (2004), p. 181.
  11. ↑ a b James Gairdner ,. Dictionary of National Biography , Vol. 1 (1885), p. 425.
  12. ↑ Anne Neville, wife of Richard III ( Memento of the original from September 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , on Westminster-abbey.org. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / westminster-abbey.org
predecessor Office Successor
Elizabeth Woodville Queen Consort of England
1483–1485 		Elizabeth of York
personal data
SURNAME Neville, Anne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Queen consort of England
DATE OF BIRTH June 11, 1456
PLACE OF BIRTH Warwick Castle
DATE OF DEATH March 16, 1485
Place of death Westminster (London)