Cecilia Neville (1415-1495) was the wife of Richard Plantagenet and the mother of two kings of England. She was of noble birth, and one of her nicknames was “Rose Rabbi”. It was explained by the fact that her ancestors wore the peers' title of Barons Neville of Rabbi. Her husband was the Duke of York. This person also had another nickname - “Proud Cis”, which was associated with her arrogance and pronounced temperament, hot temper. But, in addition to this, in her character was noted unprecedented piety. This article presents a biography of Cecilia Neville.
A family
Cecilia was born in the county of Durham, in a castle owned by her family. Her father is R. Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, and her mother is Lady D. Beaufort. In total, they had 14 children, and Cecilia was the youngest of them. In addition to full 9 brothers and 4 sisters, the family also had father's children from their first marriage - 2 boys and 6 girls.
On the paternal side, her ancestors were Barons Neville of Rabbi, and on the maternal side were the Dukes of Lancaster, one of whom was the son of the English king Edward III. In addition, on the mother's side, Cecilia was the niece of King Henry IV of England. She also belonged to her aunt Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, who went down in history as the “king-maker”. He was one of the key figures of the Scarlet and White Roses war and helped to overthrow Henry VI of Lancaster and the reign of Edward IV of York. The duchess also had many other noble relatives.
Marriage
Cecilia was engaged to her future husband when she was 9 and he was 13. She married Richard Plantagenet in 1429, and 9 years later they had a daughter, Joan. In total, they had 13 children: 8 boys and 5 girls, of which six died in childhood.
In 1441, Richard was appointed French governor-general and royal lieutenant. The family moved to Rouen, where their first son, the third child, was born and died. The second son, who later became King Edward IV, was born there in 1442.
Secret baptism
The child was secretly christened in a small chapel, and this made it possible in the future to say that he was illegitimate. This was needed by his brother George Clarence, as well as his cousin Richard Neville, to remove the king from the throne. To date, the fact of whether Edward was the legitimate son of Richard Plantagenet has not been established. There are various theories on this subject. Nevertheless, the latter recognized the boy as a son, thereby legitimizing his origin.
Start of war
In 1453, under King Henry VI, the actual ruler was Edmund Beaufort, cousin of the Duchess. Richard Plantagenet was Edmond's worst enemy. On behalf of her husband, she turned to Queen Margarita to draw her attention to Beaufort's illegal actions.
As a result, the latter was imprisoned in the Tower, and Richard was appointed Lord Protector. This happened after the king had a fit of insanity. All that saved Edmund Beaufort from execution was that by the end of 1454 the mind had returned to the king. At the beginning of 1455, Queen Margarita ensured that Cecilia's cousin was freed, and that the Duke of York was sent into exile.
Shortly afterwards, Richard, dreaming of regaining power in his own hands, set about gathering the army and unleashed a war that later became known as the Scarlet and White Rose War. The first battle took place in 1455 in the city of St. Albans. Edmund commanded the army of the king, and Richard of York commanded the opposing army. The royal army was defeated, and Beaufort killed.
Land confiscation
With the outbreak of war, the Duchess of York went to Ludlow Castle. While her husband had to flee to Ireland, and later to the European continent. Meanwhile, a debate was going on in Parliament about the future fate of Richard and his supporters. In 1459, the duchess went to the capital to petition the king for her wife.
She managed to convince the monarch to forgive Plantagenet on the condition that he would appear before the parliament for 8 days. But he did not do this, and as a result his lands were confiscated. But at the same time, Cecilia Neville managed to get a subsidy for herself and her children.
Richard's death
After the Yorks defeated the Battle of Northampton in 1460, the Duchess of York arrived with her children in London. She began to wear the royal coat of arms on her clothes before her husband triumphantly entered the capital in September. He made a compromise with the parliament (an act of consent), according to which the right to inherit the English throne passed to him.
Queen Margarita did not want to put up with the fact that her son was deprived of the right to the throne. In addition, she was able to maintain a loyal relationship with the home of Lancaster. At the end of 1460, the Battle of Wakefield took place, where the Lancaster army won a landslide victory, and Richard was killed during the battle.
However, a month later there was another battle in which the Yorks defeated. Thanks to this, Edward, son of Richard, was able to pave the way to his coronation. After the Yorks became the official heirs to the throne, Cecilia was considered as the future queen. After the Battle of Wakefield, her son Edmund and her husband's brother, Richard Salisbury, also died. She sent her youngest sons, Richard and George, to the court of the Duke Philip III of Burgundy. By this, she wanted to indicate his joining the York party.
Mother of kings
In 1461, Edward IV became the king at the age of 18 with the help of Richard Salisbury. In the same year, several more victories were won over Lancaster. Cecilia Neville became the Queen Mother, and King Henry VI and his wife Margarita fled. Then Heinrich was caught and put in the Tower. And in 1478 the younger brother of the king, Duke Clarence, was imprisoned in the Tower. He was accused of trying to overthrow the government and executed. Edward "became famous" for his craving for alcohol and profligacy. Unexpectedly for all, he died in 1483, and his son became king.
In the same year, the second son of Cecilia Neville, Richard III, became king. He became the last representative on the English throne of the male plantagenet line. In 1485, he was defeated at the battle of Bosworth with the army of the candidate for the throne, Henry Tudor, and was killed.