Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York

Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury: The Princes in the Tower; Romanticizing painting 400 years later by Paul Delaroche

Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York and 1st Duke of Norfolk (born August 17, 1473 in Shrewsbury , † 1483?) Was the sixth child and the second oldest son of Edward IV and his wife Elizabeth Woodville . He and his older brother Edward V became known as the Princes in the Tower after their father died and disappeared in 1483 .

Life

Wedding of the children Anne Mowbray and Richard Duke of York, mezzotint 1821, William Say after James Northcote

Richard of Shrewsbury Coat of Arms

Richard was the younger brother of the Prince of Wales and later King Edward V and was given the title of Duke of York in 1474 . At the age of four, on January 15, 1478, he was married to five-year-old Anne Mowbray , heiress of the Dukes of Norfolk, so that his father Edward IV could now dispose of this inheritance. In 1481 Richard was also given the title of Duke of Norfolk (with the subordinate title Earl of Nottingham ), which led to considerable dissatisfaction among relatives and thus possible other heirs of the Mowbrays, in particular with Johann Howard . In the same year the young Anne Mowbray died and Richard became a widower at the age of eight.

After the death of Edward IV on April 9, 1483, Richard's brother became King Edward V and Richard himself became heir apparent. However, there were quick arguments between the Edward V family and Richard's mother, Elizabeth Woodville, and the uncle of the two boys, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, appointed by Edward IV as regent . When Edward V came under the control of Gloucester, Elizabeth Woodville withdrew with Richard and her daughters to the sanctuary of Westminster Abbey .

At about the same time, the Bishop of Bath and Wells , Robert Stillington , was promoting the claim that the marriage between Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville was invalid because Edward IV was already engaged at the time of his wedding. There is no evidence that Gloucester was behind the rumor, or that it was merely compelled to act, now that the reign of an illegitimate king was looming. After lengthy negotiations, Elizabeth Woodville also handed her second son Richard into the care of her brother-in-law.

On June 25, 1483 Gloucester was named Richard III. proclaimed king while Edward V and Richard were arrested in the Tower. The Titulus Regius act passed by parliament declared Edward IV's marriage to be invalid and the sons to be illegitimate. Both probably died there or were murdered. Further information can be found in the prince in the tower .

Since the bodies of the two boys were never found, at the beginning of the Tudor period there were always impostors who pretended to be one of the sons of Edward IV. The most famous of these was Perkin Warbeck , who claimed to be Richard of Shrewsbury in 1490 and, supported by numerous opponents of the Tudors, threatened the crown of Henry VII for almost a decade .

The children's skeletons found later in 1674 cannot be assigned with any certainty to the prince. See also the princes in the tower .

ancestors

16. Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York

8. Richard of Conisburgh, 1st Earl of Cambridge

17. Isabella of Castile, Duchess of York

4. Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York

18. Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March

9. Anne Mortimer

19. Alianore de Holland

2. Edward IV.

20. John Neville, 3rd Baron Neville de Raby

10. Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland

21. Maud Percy

5. Cecily Neville

22. John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster

11. Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland

23. Catherine Swynford

1. Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York

24. Richard Wydeville

12. Sir Richard Wydevill

25. Elizabeth Lyons

6. Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers

26. John Bodulgate

13. Elizabeth Bodulgate

27. Joan Beauchamp

3. Elizabeth Woodville

28. John II

14. Peter I (St. Pol and Brienne)

29. Marguerite of Enghien

7. Jacquetta of Luxembourg

30. Francois de Baux, Duke of Andria

15. Margherita del Balzo

31. Sueva Orsini del Balzo

literature

• Rosemary Horrox: Richard, duke of York and duke of Norfolk (1473–1483) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
• Alison Weir: The Princes in the Tower. Ballantine Books 2005. ISBN 0-345-39178-0
• David Baldwin: The Lost Prince: The Survival of Richard of York. History Publishing Group, Sutton 2007, ISBN 978-0750943369

Web links

Commons : Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Richard Plantagenet, 1st Duke of York on thepeerage.com , accessed July 21, 2015.

Individual evidence

1. ^ F. Maurice Powicke and EB Fryde (eds.): Handbook of British Chronology (= Royal Historical Society. Guides and handbooks. Vol. 2). 2nd edition. Royal Historical Society, London 1961, p. 456.
2. ^ F. Maurice Powicke and EB Fryde (eds.): Handbook of British Chronology (= Royal Historical Society. Guides and handbooks. Vol. 2). 2nd edition. Royal Historical Society, London 1961, p. 440.
3. ↑ Natalie Fryde, Hanna Vollrath : The English kings in the Middle Ages. From William the Conqueror to Richard III. (= Beck series 1534). Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-49463-3 , p. 216.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Natalie Fryde, Hanna Vollrath: The English kings in the Middle Ages. From William the Conqueror to Richard III. (= Beck series 1534). Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-49463-3 , p. 218

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Duke of York 1474-1483	Title expired
New title created	Duke of Norfolk 1481-1483	Title expired