Cecily Neville, Duchess of York

"Cecily Neville" redirects here. For her niece, see Cecily Neville, Duchess of Warwick.

Lady Cecily Neville
Duchess of York
Born	(1415-05-03)3 May 1415 Raby Castle, Durham, England
Died	31 May 1495(1495-05-31) (aged 80) Berkhamsted Castle, Hertfordshire, England
Burial	Church of St Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay
Spouse	Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York
Issue	Anne of York, Duchess of Exeter Edward IV, King of England Edmund, Earl of Rutland Elizabeth of York, Duchess of Suffolk Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence Richard III, King of England
House	House of Neville (by birth) House of York (by marriage)
Father	Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland
Mother	Joan Beaufort

Cecily Neville, Duchess of York (3 May 1415 – 31 May 1495) was the wife of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and the mother of two Kings of England, Edward IV and Richard III.

Lady Cecily Neville was a daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, and Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland. Her maternal grandparents were John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, and Katherine Swynford. John of Gaunt was the third surviving son of Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault.

She was the aunt of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, one of the leading peers and military commanders of his generation, and also the great-great-great-aunt of the queen consort Catherine Parr, sixth wife of her great-grandson, King Henry VIII.

Cecily was called "the Rose of Raby", because she was born at Raby Castle in Durham, and "Proud Cis", because of her pride and a temper that went with it. Historically she is also known for her piety. She herself signed her name "Cecylle".

Duchess of York

In 1424, when Cecily was nine years old, she was betrothed by her father to his thirteen-year-old ward, Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York. Ralph Neville died in October 1425, bequeathing the wardship of Richard to his widow, Joan Beaufort. Cecily and Richard were married by October 1429. Their daughter Anne was born in August 1439 in Northamptonshire. When Richard became a king's lieutenant and governor general of France in 1441 and moved to Rouen, Cecily moved with him. Their son Henry was born in February but died soon after.

The future King Edward IV was born in Rouen on 28 April 1442 and immediately baptised privately in a small side chapel. He would later be accused of illegitimacy directly by his cousin, Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, and by his own brother, George, Duke of Clarence; this was probably because George and Warwick were in dispute with Edward and seeking to overthrow him. The claims would later be dismissed. Some modern historians use Edward's date of birth as an evidence of illegitimacy: the Duke had been away in the calculated days of conception and the baby's baptism was a simple and private affair (unlike that of his younger brother, George, which was public and lavish). Although some historians suggest that the baby was prematurely born, there are no surviving records of this. Other historians point out that Cecily's husband could easily, by the military conventions of the time, have returned briefly to Rouen, where Cecily was living at the time. In any case, Richard acknowledged the baby as his own, which established legal paternity.

Around 1454, when Richard began to resent the influence of Edmund Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, Cecily spoke with Queen consort Margaret of Anjou on his behalf. When Henry VI suffered a nervous breakdown later in the year, Richard of York established himself as a Protector.

After the outbreak of the Wars of the Roses, Cecily remained at their home, Ludlow Castle, even when Richard fled to Ireland and Continental Europe. At the same time she surreptitiously worked for the cause of the House of York. When a parliament began to debate the fate of the Duke of York and his supporters in November 1459, Cecily travelled to London to plead for her husband. One contemporary commentator stated that she had reputedly convinced the king to promise a pardon if the Duke would appear in the parliament in eight days. This failed and Richard's lands were confiscated, but Cecily managed to gain an annual grant of £600 to support her and her children.

After the Yorkist victory at the Battle of Northampton in July 1460, Cecily moved to London with her children and lived with John Paston. She carried the royal arms before Richard in triumph in London in September. When the Duke of York and his heirs officially recognized as Henry VI's successors in the Act of Accord, Cecily became a queen-in-waiting and even received a copy of the English chronicle from the chronicler John Hardyng.

In the Battle of Wakefield (30 December 1460), the Lancastrians won a decisive victory. The Duke of York, his second son Edmund, Earl of Rutland, and Cecily's brother Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, were among the casualties. Cecily sent her two youngest sons, George and Richard, to the court of Philip III, Duke of Burgundy. This forced Philip to ally with the Yorkists.

Mother of two kings

Her eldest son Edward successfully continued the fight against the Lancastrians. When Cecily moved to Baynard's Castle in London, it became the Yorkist headquarters and when Edward defeated the Lancastrians, she became an effective Queen Mother.

During the beginning of Edward's reign, Cecily appeared beside him and maintained her influence. In 1461 she revised her coat of arms to include the royal arms of England, hinting that her husband had been a rightful king. When Edward married Elizabeth Woodville, he built new queen's quarters for her and let his mother remain in the queen's quarters in which she had been living.

In 1469, her nephew, the Earl of Warwick, father-in-law of her sons George and Richard, rebelled against Edward IV. Warwick also begun to spread rumours that the king was a bastard and that his true father was not the Duke of York but an archer named Blaybourne at Rouen, evidence of which has been assembled. By some interpretations, that would have meant that Clarence was the rightful king. Warwick had earlier made similar accusations against Margaret of Anjou. Cecily said little about the matter in public, despite the fact that she had been accused of adultery. She visited Sandwich, possibly trying to reconcile the parties. When the rebellion failed the first time, she invited Edward and George to London to reconcile them. Peace did not last long and in the forthcoming war she still tried to make peace between her sons.

Edward IV was briefly overthrown by Warwick and Margaret of Anjou, and for about six months (October 1470 - April 1471) Henry VI was restored to the throne. The breach between Edward and his brother George was apparently never really healed, for George was executed for treason in the Tower of London on 18 February 1478. Edward IV died suddenly on 9 April 1483, leaving two sons aged 13 and 10. Cecily Neville's youngest son Richard, their uncle, was appointed their protector by Edward's will, but he had them placed in the Tower, whence they were never to emerge. The subsequent enquiry found that that Edward IV's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville had been invalid: their children were thus illegitimate, making Richard the legal heir to the crown. The Princes in the Tower were declared illegitimate by Act of Parliament in 1483 to allow their uncle Richard to be crowned Richard III on 6 July 1483. The Princes in the Tower were supposed to have been murdered around this time.

Cecily was on good terms with Richard's wife Anne Neville, with whom she discussed religious works such as the writings of Mechtilde of Hackeborn.

Richard's reign was brief, as he was defeated and killed on 22 August 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field by the last Lancastrian, Henry Tudor. Thus by 1485, Cecily's husband and four sons had all died, although two of her daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, still lived. On 18 January 1486, Cecily's granddaughter, Elizabeth of York, eldest daughter of Edward IV, married Henry VII and became Queen of England. Cecily devoted herself to religious duties and her reputation for piety comes from this period.

Cecily Neville died on 31 May 1495 and was buried in the tomb with her husband Richard and their son Edmund at the Church of St Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire, with a papal indulgence. All subsequent English monarchs, beginning with Henry VIII, are descendants of Elizabeth of York, and therefore of Cecily Neville.

Ancestry

Family of Cecily Neville, Duchess of York

16. Ralph Neville, 1st Baron Neville de Raby 8. Ralph Neville, 2nd Baron Neville de Raby 17. Euphemia Clavering 4. John Neville, 3rd Baron Neville de Raby 18. Hugh Audley 9. Alice Audley 19. Isolda Mortimer 2. Ralph de Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland 20. Henry de Percy, 1st Baron Percy 10. Henry de Percy, 2nd Baron Percy 21. Eleanor Fitzalan 5. Maud Percy 22. Robert de Clifford, 1st Baron de Clifford 11. Idonea Clifford 23. Maud de Clare 1. Cecily Neville 24. Edward II of England 12. Edward III of England 25. Isabella of France 6. John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster 26. William I, Count of Hainaut 13. Philippa of Hainault 27. Joan of Valois 3. Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland 28. Paon de Roet 14. Payne Roet 7. Katherine Swynford

Issue

Her children with Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, were:

1. Joan (1438–1438)
2. Anne of York (10 August 1439 – 14 January 1476), wife of Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter, and secondly, Sir Thomas St. Leger.
3. Henry of York (10 February 1441 – 10 February 1441), died soon after his birth.
4. Edward IV of England (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483).
5. Edmund, Earl of Rutland (17 May 1443 – 31 December 1460).
6. Elizabeth of York (22 April 1444 – after January, 1503), wife of John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk.
7. Margaret of York (3 May 1446 – 23 November 1503). Married Charles I, Duke of Burgundy.
8. William of York (7 July 1447 – young)
9. John of York (7 November 1448 – young)
10. George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence (21 October 1449 – 18 February 1478).
11. Thomas of York (1450/1451 – young)
12. Richard III of England (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485).
13. Ursula (22 July 1455 – young)

Fictional Portrayals

Cecily Neville as the Duchess of York is a principal character in Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of King Richard III. She is portrayed as having deep affection for her dead sons George and Edward, but is cold and unloving to Richard, who she refers to as a "false glass that grieves me when I see my shame in him." Because Richard is (accurately) depicted as a hunchback - he suffered from scoliosis - the Duchess seems to hate him for his deformity and for his difficult birth, which several characters in the play gossip about. After Richard has done away with The Princes in the Tower, his mother turns against him completely, cursing him with the damning words: "Bloody thou art, Bloody will be thy end!" She has been portrayed by many noted actresses, including Elinor Aickin, Eleanor Bron, Annette Crosbie (for BBC Shakespeare in 1983, Helen Haye (in Laurence Olivier's 1955 film), Anne Jeffreys, and, in the 1995 film starring Ian McKellen, Dame Maggie Smith. In this last version, her character was given several scenes belonging to Margaret of Anjou in the actual play. In the 1955 Olivier film, her role was reduced to little more than a bit part.

An imaginary novel about Cecily entitled "The Rose of Raby" is discussed in Josephine Tey's 1951 novel The Daughter of Time. Cecily Neville is portrayed in "The White Queen", Philippa Gregory's novel about Elizabeth Woodville, and is mentioned in the second novel of the Cousin's War series,"The Red Queen" about Lady Margaret Beaufort. Two books were published in 2011 that dramatized the Duchess's life: One by novelist Anne Easter Smith titled “Queen by Right”, and another by novelist Cynthia Sally Haggard titled "Thwarted Queen". She is one of the principal characters in the 1983 novel The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford and is essential to the plot of the novel Sovereign by C. J. Sansom. She is a leading character is Sharon Kay Penman's 1982 Richard III novel, The Sunne in Splendour.

References

• Joanna Laynesmith - The King's Mother (History Today March 2006)

External links

• Ladies of the Bower & Lords of the Tower A Medieval Re-enactment Society based in London, featuring members of the Neville/Plantagenet family.