   #copyright

Edward IV of England

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History 1500 and
before (including Roman Britain); Monarchs of Great Britain

                   Edward IV
     By the Grace of God, King of England
   and France and Lord of Ireland.
   Reign       March 4, 1461 – 31 October, 1470
               and April 11, 1471 – April 9, 1483
   Coronation  June 28, 1461
   Born        April 28, 1442
               Rouen
   Died        April 9, 1483 (aged 40)
               Westminster
   Buried      Windsor Castle
   Predecessor Henry VI
   Successor   Edward V
   Consort     Elizabeth Woodville (c. 1437–1492)
   Issue       Elizabeth of York (1466–1503)
               Edward V (1470 – c. 1483)
               Richard, 1st Duke of York
               (1473 – c. 1483)
               Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount
               Lisle (illeg., d. 1542)
   Royal House York
   Father      Richard, Duke of York (1411–1460)
   Mother      Cecily Neville (1415–1495)

   Edward IV ( April 28, 1442 – April 9, 1483) was King of England from
   March 4, 1461 to April 9, 1483, with a break of a few months in the
   period 1470–1471.

Biography

   Edward of York was born on April 28, 1442, at Rouen in France, the
   second son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York (a leading claimant
   to the throne of England) and Cecily Neville. He was the eldest of the
   four sons who survived to adulthood. York's challenge to the ruling
   family marked the beginning of the conflict known as the Wars of the
   Roses. When his father was killed in 1460, at the Battle of Wakefield,
   pressing his claim against the Lancastrian king, Henry VI of England,
   Edward inherited his claim.

   With the support of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick ("The
   Kingmaker"), Edward, already showing great promise as a leader of men,
   defeated the Lancastrians in a succession of battles. While Henry and
   his militant queen, Margaret of Anjou, were campaigning in the north,
   Warwick gained control of the capital and had Edward declared king in
   London in 1461. Edward strengthened his claim with a decisive victory
   at the Battle of Towton in the same year, in the course of which the
   Lancastrian army was virtually wiped out.

   Edward was tall, strong, handsome, affable (even with subjects),
   generous, and popular. Warwick, believing that he could continue to
   rule through him, pressed him to enter into a marital alliance with a
   major European power. Edward, who had appeared to go along with the
   wishes of his mentor, then alienated Warwick by secretly marrying a
   widow, Elizabeth Woodville (possibly, as speculated by contemporary
   rumour, having previously married another widow, Lady Eleanor Talbot,
   even more secretly). Elizabeth had a large group of relatively poor but
   very ambitious, and until the Battle of Towton, Lancastrian relations.
   While it is true that these relations did dominate the marriage market
   and were given numerous titles, they were given little land which was
   the true source of power and thus were not a threat to Warwick's own
   power. However, Warwick resented the influence they had over the King
   and was angry at the emergence of a rival group for the King's favour,
   so with the aid of Edward's disaffected younger brother George, Duke of
   Clarence, the Earl led an army against Edward.

   The main part of the king's army (without Edward) was defeated at the
   Battle of Edgecote Moor, and Edward was subsequently captured at Olney.
   Warwick's forces did capture Edward's father-in-law Richard Wydeville
   and brother-in-law John Wydeville after the battle at Chepstow and had
   them beheaded at Kenilworth on August 12, 1469 on false charges.

   Warwick then attempted to rule in Edward's name, but the nobility, many
   of whom owed their preferments to the king, were restive. With the
   emergence of a rebellion, Warwick was forced to release Edward. Edward
   did not seek to destroy either Warwick or Clarence, instead seeking
   reconciliation with them. However, shortly afterwards Warwick and
   Clarence rebelled again. After a failed rebellion in 1470, Warwick and
   Clarence were forced to flee to France. There, they made an alliance
   with the wife of Henry VI, Margaret of Anjou, and he agreed to restore
   Henry VI in return for French support in an invasion which took place
   in 1470. This time, Edward was forced to flee when he learned Warwick's
   brother, John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu, had also switched to
   the Lancastrian side, making his military position untenable.

   Henry VI was briefly restored to the throne in an act known as the
   Readeption of Henry VI, and Edward took refuge in Burgundy. The rulers
   of Burgundy were his brother-in-law Charles, Duke of Burgundy and his
   sister Margaret of York. Despite the fact that Charles was initially
   unwilling to help Edward, the French declared war on Burgundy and so
   Charles decided to give his aid to Edward, and from there he raised an
   army to win back his kingdom.
        English Royalty
         House of York
   Armorial of Plantagenet
           Edward IV
       Elizabeth of York
      Edward V
       Richard, Duke of York

   When he returned to England with a relatively small force he avoided
   capture by potentially hostile forces by stating his claim, just as
   Henry Bolingbroke had done seventy years earlier, that he merely
   desired to reclaim his dukedom. The city of York however closed its
   gates to him, but as he marched southwards he began to gather support,
   and Clarence (who had realised that his fortunes would be better off as
   brother to a king than under Henry VI) reunited with him. Edward
   defeated Warwick at the Battle of Barnet. With Warwick dead, he
   eliminated the remaining Lancastrian resistance at the Battle of
   Tewkesbury in 1471. The Lancastrian heir, Edward of Westminster, Prince
   of Wales, was killed either on the battlefield or shortly afterwards,
   and a few days later, on the night that Edward re-entered London, Henry
   VI, who was being held prisoner, was murdered in order to completely
   remove the Lancastrian opposition.

   Edward's two younger brothers, George, Duke of Clarence, and Richard,
   Duke of Gloucester (later King Richard III of England) were married to
   Isabella Neville and Anne Neville. They were both daughters of Warwick
   by Anne Beauchamp and rival heirs to the considerable inheritance of
   their still-living mother. Clarence and Gloucester were at loggerheads
   for much of the rest of his reign. Clarence was eventually found guilty
   of plotting against Edward and was imprisoned in the Tower of London.
   He was "privately executed" (later tradition states he drowned in a vat
   of Malmsey wine) on February 18, 1478.

   Edward did not face any further rebellions after his restoration, as
   the Lancastrian line had virtually been extinguished, and the only
   rival left was Henry Tudor, who was living in exile. Edward declared
   war on France in 1475, and came to terms with the Treaty of Picquigny
   which provided him with an immediate payment of 75,000 crowns and a
   yearly pension thereafter of 50,000 crowns. Edward backed an attempt by
   Alexander Stewart, 1st Duke of Albany, brother of the Scottish king
   James III to take the throne in 1482, and despite the fact that when
   Gloucester invaded he was able to capture Edinburgh and James III,
   Albany reneged on his agreement with Edward, and Gloucester decided to
   withdraw from his position of strength in Edinburgh. However,
   Gloucester did acquire the recovery of Berwick-upon-Tweed.

   Edward fell ill at Easter 1483, but lingered on long enough to add some
   codicils to his will, the most important being his naming of his
   brother Gloucester as Protector after his death. He died on 9 April
   1483 and is buried in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. He was
   succeeded by his twelve-year-old son, Edward V of England.

Ancestors

   CAPTION: Edward's ancestors in three generations

   Edward IV of England Father:
   Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York Paternal Grandfather:
   Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge Paternal
   Great-grandfather:
   Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York
   Paternal Great-grandmother:
   Isabella of Castile, Duchess of York
   Paternal Grandmother:
   Anne de Mortimer Paternal Great-grandfather:
   Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March
   Paternal Great-grandmother:
   Alianore de Holland
   Mother:
   Cecily Neville Maternal Grandfather:
   Ralph de Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland Maternal Great-grandfather:
   John Neville, 3rd Baron Neville de Raby
   Maternal Great-grandmother:
   Maud Percy
   Maternal Grandmother:
   Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland Maternal Great-grandfather:
   John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster
   Maternal Great-grandmother:
   Katherine Swynford

Children

   Edward IV had ten legitimate children by Elizabeth Woodville, though
   only seven survived him:
     * Elizabeth of York, Queen Consort of Henry VII of England ( February
       11, 1466 – February 11, 1503).
     * Mary of York ( August 11, 1467 – May 23, 1482).
     * Cecily of York ( March 20, 1469 – August 24, 1507), married first
       John Welles, 1st Viscount Welles and second, Thomas Kymbe
     * Edward V ( November 4, 1470 – 1483?)
     * Margaret Plantagenet (Princess of York) ( April 10, 1472 – December
       11, 1472)
     * Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York ( August 17, 1473 – 1483?).
     * Anne of York ( November 2, 1475 – November 23, 1511, married Thomas
       Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk.
     * George Plantagenet, Duke of Bedford (March, 1477 – March, 1479).
     * Catherine of York ( August 14, 1479 – November 15, 1527), married
       William Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon.
     * Bridget of York ( November 10, 1480 – 1517), became a nun

   Edward had numerous mistresses, the most well-known of whom is Jane
   Shore (whose name in actuality was Elizabeth).

   He reportedly had several illegitimate children:
     * By Lady Eleanor Talbot
          + Edward de Wigmore (d. 1468). Reportedly died as an infant
            along with his mother.
     * By Elizabeth Lucy or Elizabeth Waite.
          + Elizabeth Plantagenet. Born circa 1464, married Sir Thomas
            Lumley in 1477..
          + Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle (1460s/1470s – March 3,
            1542).
     * By unknown mother. Recent speculations suggests them as children by
       Lucy or Waite.
          + Grace Plantagenet. She is known to have been present at the
            funeral of her stepmother Elizabeth Woodville in 1492.
          + Mary Plantagenet, married Henry Harman of Ellam, son of Thomas
            and Elizabeth Harman and widower of Agness.
          + A daughter said to have been the first wife of John Tuchet,
            6th Baron Audley.

   Perkin Warbeck, an impostor claimant to the English throne, reportedly
   resembled Edward. There is unconfirmed speculation that Warbeck could
   have been another of Edward's illegitimate sons.

Successors

   Edward IV's eldest son was invested with the title of Prince of Wales
   at the age of seven months. At the age of three, he was sent by his
   father to Ludlow Castle as nominal head of the Council of Wales and the
   Marches, a body that had originally been set up to help the future
   Edward II of England in his duties as Prince of Wales. The prince was
   accompanied to Ludlow by his mother and by his uncle, Anthony
   Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers, who carried out many of the administrative
   duties associated with the presidency of the Council. The king visited
   his son occasionally at Ludlow, though, as far as is known, he never
   ventured into Wales itself. It is clear that he intended this
   experience of government to prepare his son for the throne.

   Although his son was quickly barred from the throne and succeeded by
   Richard of Gloucester, Edward IV's daughter, Elizabeth of York, later
   became the Queen consort of Henry VII of England. (Elizabeth's son was
   Henry VIII of England.) The grounds for Titulus Regius, passed to
   justify the accession of Richard III, were that Edward had been
   contracted to marry another woman prior to his marriage to Elizabeth
   Woodville. Lady Eleanor Butler (a young widow, daughter of John Talbot,
   1st Earl of Shrewsbury) and Edward were alleged to have been
   precontracted; both parties were dead by this time, but a clergyman
   (named only by Philippe de Commines as Robert Stillington, Bishop of
   Bath and Wells), claimed to have carried out the ceremony. The
   declaration was repealed shortly after Henry VII assumed the throne,
   because it illegimitized Elizabeth of York, who was to be his queen.

   The final fate of Edward IV's legitimate sons, Edward V and Richard,
   Duke of York, is unknown. Speculation on the subject has given rise to
   the " Princes in the Tower" mystery.

Was Edward illegitimate?

   Evidence of Edward's illegitimacy remain subjective and disputed
   amongst modern historians. Despite some concerns raised by some
   scholars, it was, and still essentially is, generally accepted that the
   issue was raised as propaganda to support Richard III.

   In his time, it was noted that Edward IV resembled his father little,
   especially in terms of his (then) exceptional height of 6 feet 4 inches
   when compared to the other members of the House of York, who were not
   well known for their height. Questions about his paternity were raised
   during Edward's own reign, for example by Richard Neville, 16th Earl of
   Warwick in 1469, and repeated by Edward's brother, George, shortly
   before his execution in 1478, but with no evidence; it must be noted
   that in propaganda wars, such as these, many statements were used that
   perhaps had no basis in truth (for example, Henry VI's heir, Edward of
   Westminster, was purported to have been a bastard of Margaret of Anjou
   and the Duke of Somerset). It was suggested that the real father may
   have been an archer called Blaybourne.

   Prior to his succession, on June 22, 1483, Richard III declared that
   Edward was illegitimate, and three days later the matter was addressed
   by parliament. In Titulus Regius (the text of which is believed to come
   word-for-word from the petition presented by Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke
   of Buckingham to the assembly which met on June 25, 1483, to decide on
   the future of the monarchy), Richard III is described as "the undoubted
   son and heir" of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and "born in
   this land" — an oblique reference to his brother's birth at Rouen and
   baptism in circumstances which could have been considered questionable.
   Dominic Mancini says that Cecily Neville, mother of both Edward IV and
   Richard III, was herself the basis for the story: when she found out
   about Edward's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, in 1464, "Proud Cis"
   flew into a rage. Mancini reported that the Duchess, in her anger,
   offered to declare him a bastard. However, this is not supported in
   contemporary sources, but is most likely reflective of contemporary
   opinion. According to Polydore Vergil, Duchess Cecily, "being falsely
   accused of adultery, complained afterwards in sundry places to right
   many noble men, whereof some yet live, of that great injury which her
   son Richard had done her." If she had indeed complained — as would
   befit a high-ranking lady of renowned piety, as she had been regarded —
   these petitions may have had some effect: the allegations were dropped
   and never again pursued. Richard III's claim to the throne is generally
   believed to be based upon his claim that Edward IV's children were
   illegitimate.

   The matter is also raised in William Shakespeare's Richard III, in the
   following lines from Act 3 Scene 5:

          Tell them, when that my mother went with child
          Of that unsatiate Edward, noble York
          My princely father then had wars in France
          And, by just computation of the time,
          Found that the issue was not his begot

   It is to be noted, however, that many of Shakespeare's issues were for
   the sake of drama, including that of his perception of Richard III
   himself — that immortalized image of Richard as the "crook-backed
   monster."

   In a 2004 television documentary, it was noted that, from 14 July to 21
   August 1441 (the approximate time of conception for Edward, who was
   born in April 1442), Edward's father was on campaign at Pontoise,
   several days march from Rouen (where Cecily of York was based). This
   was taken to suggest that the Duke of York could not have been
   available to conceive Edward. However, it was countered that the Duke
   could have returned to Rouen from Pontoise, or that Edward could have
   been premature. For more details about this theory, see the TV
   programme Britain's Real Monarch.

Trivia

     * His Royal Motto was modus et ordo, Method and order

Edward IV in fiction

   Edward IV figures richly in an award-winning novel, The Rose of York:
   Love & War by Sandra Worth. The book has been noted for its meticulous
   research by the Richard III Society.

   Edward IV is also the central male character in The Innocent, The
   Exiled and The Beloved (released as The Uncrowned Queen) by Australian
   novelist, Posie Graeme-Evans.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_IV_of_England"
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