Richard Gray (nobleman, † 1483)
Sir Richard Gray (* around 1456; † June 1483 in Pontefract Castle ) was the younger son of John Gray and the future Queen Elizabeth Woodville of England .
Richard Grey's father belonged to the lesser aristocracy of Leicestershire , his mother Elizabeth was the daughter of the knight Richard Woodville , who had married the widow of the Duke of Bedford without the king's permission .
His father was killed in the Second Battle of St Albans during the Wars of the Roses in 1461 . In May 1464 the English King Edward IV secretly married his mother. After he had her officially crowned queen in 1465, he gave her relatives rich estates and titles. Richard was beaten to the Knight of the Bath by his stepfather on White Sunday (April 18) 1475 . When Edward IV died in 1483, he and his uncle Anthony Woodville were among the entourage of his half-brother, the Crown Prince Edward . They wanted to escort him to his coronation in London, but they were intercepted on April 30, 1483 by Edward's uncle Richard of Gloucester , whom Edward IV had appointed regent when his son was a minor, at Stony Stratford . Richard accused them of trying to prevent his reign and had them imprisoned at Pontefract Castle . There they were executed without further trial by Richard Ratcliffe before the coronation of Richard of Gloucester, together with Thomas Vaughan , Chamberlain of Edward . Richard Gray's body was interred in the church of Pontefract.
In Shakespeare's drama Richard III. Richard Gray is a small marginal figure as a supporter of Edward IV, who was eventually replaced by Richard III. is executed.
literature
- Charles Lethbridge Kingsford: Gray, John (1432-1461) , in: Dictionary of National Biography . Volume XXIII . Macmillan, Smith, Elder & Co., London and New York 1890, p. 194
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 1, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 137.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gray, Richard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English knight |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1456 |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 1483 |
| Place of death | Pontefract Castle |