Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers

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Anthony Woodville and William Caxton present the first book printed in England to the king; medieval representation

Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers KG (also Anthony Wydeville ; * around 1440 in Grafton Regis , † June 25, 1483 in Pontefract ) was an English nobleman .

Origin and relationship

His parents were Richard Woodville , who was raised to Baron Rivers in 1448 and Earl Rivers in 1466 , and his wife Jacquetta of Luxembourg . His sister was Elizabeth Woodville , in whose wake Anthony would rise to the highest power. He is a leading politician in England during the Wars of the Roses .

Moved from Lancaster to York

Like his father Richard and his sister's first husband, Sir John Gray of Groby († 1461), Anthony was King Henry VI. from the house of Lancaster . While Henry VI. 1461 was deposed and King Edward IV of the House of York took over the rule, the entire Woodville family moved to the York camp. Anthony married Elizabeth Scales, 8th Baroness Scales , widow of Henry Bourchier (son of Henry Bourchier, 1st Earl of Essex and Isabella of York, aunt of Edward IV) in April 1461 at the latest . King Edward IV also fell in love with Anthony's newly widowed sister Elizabeth Woodville and married the beautiful widow on May 1, 1464, against the advice of his confidante.

From the right of his wife ( iure uxoris ) Anthony was first appointed on December 22, 1462 by Writ of Summons as Baron Scales in the House of Lords . In 1466 he was accepted into the Order of the Garter as a Knight Companion .

At the side of Edward IV.

As the queen's brother, Anthony won the king's trust and became one of his most influential advisers. His preference and the good position of other relatives of the new queen led to Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick ("The Kingmaker"), who in 1461 had helped Edward IV to the throne. In 1469 the forces of York were defeated by Warwick and Henry VI. at the Battle of Edgecote Moor . Anthony's father, like Anthony's younger brother John , was executed by the Lancaster supporters. Through the death of his father, Anthony inherited his title as 2nd Earl Rivers.

During the subsequent brief interlude of Henry VI. on the English throne (1470–1471) followed Anthony Edward IV in his exile and accompanied him during the return of the York king to England. In 1473 Eduard appointed Anthony head of the household of his eldest son Edward , the Prince of Wales .

Seizure of power, capture and death

After the king's sudden death in 1483, Anthony accompanied his nephew Edward, the now-designated new king, on his way through England to London. Anthony was the leader of a strong bodyguard for the underage king. The Woodville family tried to control his person and thus to prevent Edward IV's last will, the reign of his brother Richard , the Duke of Gloucester and later Richard III., And to represent himself the first power in the kingdom.

Richard and his ally Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham , advanced against Anthony with strong troops and met the king and his uncle on April 30, 1483 near Nottingham. While the first day was spent with mutual friendliness, the situation escalated the next day. While the king was already moving on, Gloucester described Anthony as a traitor trying to alienate his nephew from him. Eventually Anthony was arrested and Eduard placed himself in Richard's care with Stony Stratford , with another nephew of Anthony and Edward's half-brother, Richard Gray , also being taken into custody. Elizabeth Woodville, upon hearing of this incident, immediately withdrew to Westminster sanctuary with her other children.

Initially, Anthony and his nephew Richard Gray were imprisoned unscathed, but on June 13, 1483 a conspiracy was uncovered by William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings , until then an opponent of the Woodvilles. According to the allegation, he allied himself with the Woodville family with the aim of overthrowing the reign of Gloucester. While Hastings was immediately executed in the Tower without trial, a few days later this event was used as an opportunity to execute Anthony Woodville and Richard Gray. The irony here is that the connection between Hastings and the Woodville family has never been clearly established, but there is no question that the Woodvilles were actually looking for ways to conspire against Gloucester at this stage.

Literary interests

Anthony was educated and had learned excellent French from his mother . He got to know the printer William Caxton during his stay in Bruges , who printed Anthony's Cordyale, or Four last thinges there in 1475 . This work was a translation by the author Jean Miélot with the title Les quattres choses derrenieres from the Latin text Cordiale quattuor novissimorum .

In 1477 Caxton printed Anthony's translation from the French of the Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers in Westminster . This text was based on the handwriting Les ditz moraulx des philosophes by Jehan de Thionville or Guillaume de Thionville , which is based on a Latin text, which in turn is based on an Arabic text from the mid-eleventh century entitled Choice Maxims and Finest Sayings / Mukhta ral -hikam wa mahasin al-kalim of the Egyptian emir al-Mubashhshir ibn Fatiq . Caxton himself added a chapter entitled Touching Women to the translation .

literature

Web links

Commons : Anthony Woodville  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elizabeth Wydevill on thepeerage.com , accessed August 11, 2020.
  2. ↑ Rivers, Earl (E, 1466-1491) at Cracroft's Peerage
  3. ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 1, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 15.
  4. ↑ Cristine and Pierre Lauffray: The great dynasties of Europe. The Plantagenets. Editions Rencontre, Lausanne, 1969, p. 322.
predecessor Office successor
Richard Woodville Earl Rivers
1469-1483 		Richard Woodville
Thomas de Scales Baron Scales
( de iure uxoris )
1461–1473 		Title abeyant
personal data
SURNAME Woodville, Anthony, 2nd Earl Rivers
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rivers, Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl; Wydeville, Anthony; Woodville, Anthony, Baron Scales
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English nobleman
DATE OF BIRTH around 1440
PLACE OF BIRTH Grafton Regis
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 1483
Place of death Pontefract