Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York
Encyclopedia
Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, 1st Duke of Norfolk, 1st Earl of Norfolk, Earl Marshal
(17 August 1473 – ?1483) was the sixth child and second son of King Edward IV
of England
and Elizabeth Woodville
. He was born in Shrewsbury
.
He was a younger brother of Elizabeth of York
, Mary of York
, Cecily of York
, Edward V of England
and Margaret Plantagenet (Princess of York). He was also an older brother of Anne of York, George Plantagenet, Duke of Bedford
, Catherine of York
and Bridget of York
.
in May 1474. From this time on, it became a tradition for the second son of the English sovereign to be Duke of York. On 15 January 1478, in St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, when he was about 4 years old, he married the 5-year-old Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk
, who had inherited the vast Mowbray estates in 1476. Because York's father-in-law's dukedom had become extinct when Anne could not inherit it, he was created Duke of Norfolk
and Earl Warennne on 7 February 1477. He was created Earl of Nottingham
on 12 June 1476. When Anne de Mowbray died in November 1481 her estates should have passed to William, Viscount Berkeley and to John, Lord Howard
. In January 1483 Parliament passed an act that gave the Mowbray estates to Richard, Duke of York and Norfolk, for his lifetime, and at his death to his heirs, if he had any. The rights of the two co-heirs at law were extinguished; Viscount Berkeley had financial difficulties and King Edward IV paid off those debts. Berkeley then renounced his claims to the Mowbray estate before parliament in 1483. Nothing was done for Lord Howard. Some have asserted that this step provided Howard with the motive to kill the Princes in the Tower
.
His father died on 9 April 1483. Thus his brother Edward, Prince of Wales, became King of England and was acclaimed as such, and Richard his Heir Presumptive
. This was not to last. Robert Stillington
, the Bishop of Bath and Wells
, testified that Edward IV had agreed to marry Lady Eleanor Talbot
in 1461. Lady Eleanor was still alive when Edward married Elizabeth Woodville in 1464. The Regency council under the late King's brother Richard Duke of Gloucester
, concluded that this was a case of bigamy
, invalidating the second marriage and the legitimacy of all children of Edward IV by this marriage. Under Gloucester's influence, both Edward and Richard were declared illegitimate and removed from the line of succession on 25 June 1483. The Duke of Gloucester, as the only surviving brother of Edward IV, became King Richard III.
, then a royal residence, by King Richard III in mid-1483. What happened to him and his brother—the Princes in the Tower
—after that has been the subject of much speculation and debate. Due to Tudor propaganda efforts, it was long believed that they were both murdered not long afterward on Richard III's orders; however, the lack of any conclusive proof of their fate has led to alternative scenarios being proposed, for instance that that both boys were murdered on the orders of one of Margaret Beaufort
, Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, John Morton or Henry VII
, or that Richard survived. In the 1490s, Perkin Warbeck
, a Pretender for the English crown, claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, but he is generally considered to have been an impostor, and was labeled thus by the Tudor regime. There have been some, a minority, in every generation since then who have believed that Warbeck was Richard, Duke of York, while others have alleged that he was an illegitimate son of either Edward IV or Richard III. The skeletons of two children discovered in a chest in the Tower in 1674 were presumed to be the princes, but the evidence is not conclusive because the bones could not be dated and neither could their sex be established. These remains were subsequently interred in Westminster Abbey. However in 1789, when restoration work was being carried out at the tomb of Edward IV in Windsor Castle, the coffins of two mysterious, unidentified children were found in what appeared to be a secret vault adjoining the main vault of the king and queen. But these were never examined.
features an alternative history
where Richard succeeded his uncle King Richard III
to the throne as King Richard IV of England (portrayed by Brian Blessed
).
Richard appears in Philippa Gregory
's 2009 fictionalized novel The White Queen, which follows the theory that Richard's mother, Elizabeth Woodville
, never gave young Richard over to the custody of his uncle
, instead swapping him with a changeling and sending the true prince into hiding in Tournai
, Belgium. He appears later in the novel under the assumed name, Perkin Warbeck
.
Richard is a character in the young adult series of novels, The Missing
, by Margaret Peterson Haddix. He appears in the second book, Sent
, as the character Alex Polchak.
Richard appears in the Japanese anime Kuroshitsuji
as a small boy, who, together with his older brother, Edward V, haunts Ludlow Castle, until they can both find salvation and be sent to Heaven. Edward believes that, to do that, he must gather the skulls of his whole family but cannot, since, for some reason, which is revealed later, Richard refuses to hand over his own. He is voiced by Sasamoto Yuuko in the original and by Maxey Whitehead
in the English dub.
Earl Marshal
Earl Marshal is a hereditary royal officeholder and chivalric title under the sovereign of the United Kingdom used in England...
(17 August 1473 – ?1483) was the sixth child and second son of King Edward IV
Edward IV of England
Edward IV was King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death. He was the first Yorkist King of England...
of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Elizabeth Woodville
Elizabeth Woodville
Elizabeth Woodville was Queen consort of England as the spouse of King Edward IV from 1464 until his death in 1483. Elizabeth was a key figure in the series of dynastic civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses. Her first husband, Sir John Grey of Groby was killed at the Second Battle of St Albans...
. He was born in Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is a civil parish home to some 70,000 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...
.
He was a younger brother of Elizabeth of York
Elizabeth of York
Elizabeth of York was Queen consort of England as spouse of King Henry VII from 1486 until 1503, and mother of King Henry VIII of England....
, Mary of York
Mary of York
Mary of York was the second daughter of Edward IV of England and his queen consort Elizabeth Woodville.-Family:...
, Cecily of York
Cecily of York
Cecily of York, Viscountess Welles was an English Princess and the third, but eventual second surviving, daughter of Edward IV, King of England and his queen consort, née Lady Elizabeth Woodville, daughter of Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers.-Birth and Family:Cecily was born in Westminster Palace...
, Edward V of England
Edward V of England
Edward V was King of England from 9 April 1483 until his deposition two months later. His reign was dominated by the influence of his uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who succeeded him as Richard III...
and Margaret Plantagenet (Princess of York). He was also an older brother of Anne of York, George Plantagenet, Duke of Bedford
George Plantagenet, Duke of Bedford
George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Bedford was the eighth child and third son of Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville....
, Catherine of York
Catherine of York
Catherine or Katherine of York was the ninth child and sixth daughter of Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville. From birth to death, she was daughter to Edward IV, sister to Edward V, niece to Richard III, sister-in-law to Henry VII and aunt to Henry VIII.-Early life:She was born in Eltham...
and Bridget of York
Bridget of York
Bridget of York was the tenth child and seventh daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville.-Family and life:She was a younger sister of Elizabeth of York, Mary of York, Cecily of York, Edward V, Margaret of York, Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, Anne of York, Countess of Surrey and...
.
Dukedoms
He was created Duke of YorkDuke of York
The Duke of York is a title of nobility in the British peerage. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of the British monarch. The title has been created a remarkable eleven times, eight as "Duke of York" and three as the double-barreled "Duke of York and...
in May 1474. From this time on, it became a tradition for the second son of the English sovereign to be Duke of York. On 15 January 1478, in St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, when he was about 4 years old, he married the 5-year-old Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk
Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk
Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk, later Duchess of York and Duchess of Norfolk was the child bride of Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, one of the Princes in the Tower...
, who had inherited the vast Mowbray estates in 1476. Because York's father-in-law's dukedom had become extinct when Anne could not inherit it, he was created Duke of Norfolk
Duke of Norfolk
The Duke of Norfolk is the premier duke in the peerage of England, and also, as Earl of Arundel, the premier earl. The Duke of Norfolk is, moreover, the Earl Marshal and hereditary Marshal of England. The seat of the Duke of Norfolk is Arundel Castle in Sussex, although the title refers to the...
and Earl Warennne on 7 February 1477. He was created Earl of Nottingham
Earl of Nottingham
Earl of Nottingham is a title that has been created seven times in the Peerage of England.-Earls of Nottingham, First creation :* John de Mowbray , 5th Baron Mowbray-Earls of Nottingham, Second creation :...
on 12 June 1476. When Anne de Mowbray died in November 1481 her estates should have passed to William, Viscount Berkeley and to John, Lord Howard
John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk
John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk, KG, Earl Marshal was an English nobleman, soldier, and the first Howard Duke of Norfolk...
. In January 1483 Parliament passed an act that gave the Mowbray estates to Richard, Duke of York and Norfolk, for his lifetime, and at his death to his heirs, if he had any. The rights of the two co-heirs at law were extinguished; Viscount Berkeley had financial difficulties and King Edward IV paid off those debts. Berkeley then renounced his claims to the Mowbray estate before parliament in 1483. Nothing was done for Lord Howard. Some have asserted that this step provided Howard with the motive to kill the Princes in the Tower
Princes in the Tower
The Princes in the Tower is a term which refers to Edward V of England and Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York. The two brothers were the only sons of Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville alive at the time of their father's death...
.
Heir presumptive
Heir Presumptive
An heir presumptive or heiress presumptive is the person provisionally scheduled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir or heiress apparent or of a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question...
. This was not to last. Robert Stillington
Robert Stillington
Robert Stillington was Bishop of Bath and Wells and a courtier under Edward IV of England. He twice served as Edward#s Lord Chancellor and in 1483, he was instrumental in the accession of Richard III, leading to reprisals under Henry VII.-Life:Stillington was Archdeacon of Wells when he was made...
, the Bishop of Bath and Wells
Bishop of Bath and Wells
The Bishop of Bath and Wells heads the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells in the Province of Canterbury in England.The present diocese covers the vast majority of the county of Somerset and a small area of Dorset. The Episcopal seat is located in the Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew in...
, testified that Edward IV had agreed to marry Lady Eleanor Talbot
Lady Eleanor Talbot
Lady Eleanor Talbot was a daughter of John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury. Her alleged pre-contract of marriage with King Edward IV of England was of great significance to the final fate of the Plantagenet dynasty and outcome of the Wars of the Roses.-Marriage:In 1449, 13-year-old Eleanor married...
in 1461. Lady Eleanor was still alive when Edward married Elizabeth Woodville in 1464. The Regency council under the late King's brother Richard Duke of Gloucester
Richard III of England
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
, concluded that this was a case of bigamy
Bigamy
In cultures that practice marital monogamy, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. Bigamy is a crime in most western countries, and when it occurs in this context often neither the first nor second spouse is aware of the other...
, invalidating the second marriage and the legitimacy of all children of Edward IV by this marriage. Under Gloucester's influence, both Edward and Richard were declared illegitimate and removed from the line of succession on 25 June 1483. The Duke of Gloucester, as the only surviving brother of Edward IV, became King Richard III.
Possible fate
The Duke of York was sent to the Tower of LondonTower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
, then a royal residence, by King Richard III in mid-1483. What happened to him and his brother—the Princes in the Tower
Princes in the Tower
The Princes in the Tower is a term which refers to Edward V of England and Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York. The two brothers were the only sons of Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville alive at the time of their father's death...
—after that has been the subject of much speculation and debate. Due to Tudor propaganda efforts, it was long believed that they were both murdered not long afterward on Richard III's orders; however, the lack of any conclusive proof of their fate has led to alternative scenarios being proposed, for instance that that both boys were murdered on the orders of one of Margaret Beaufort
Margaret Beaufort
Lady Margaret Beaufort , later Countess of Richmond and Derby, was the mother of King Henry VII and grandmother of King Henry VIII of England. She was a key figure in the Wars of the Roses, an influential matriarch of the House of Tudor and foundress of two Cambridge colleges...
, Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, John Morton or Henry VII
Henry VII of England
Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....
, or that Richard survived. In the 1490s, Perkin Warbeck
Perkin Warbeck
Perkin Warbeck was a pretender to the English throne during the reign of King Henry VII of England. By claiming to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, the younger son of King Edward IV, one of the Princes in the Tower, Warbeck was a significant threat to the newly established Tudor Dynasty,...
, a Pretender for the English crown, claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, but he is generally considered to have been an impostor, and was labeled thus by the Tudor regime. There have been some, a minority, in every generation since then who have believed that Warbeck was Richard, Duke of York, while others have alleged that he was an illegitimate son of either Edward IV or Richard III. The skeletons of two children discovered in a chest in the Tower in 1674 were presumed to be the princes, but the evidence is not conclusive because the bones could not be dated and neither could their sex be established. These remains were subsequently interred in Westminster Abbey. However in 1789, when restoration work was being carried out at the tomb of Edward IV in Windsor Castle, the coffins of two mysterious, unidentified children were found in what appeared to be a secret vault adjoining the main vault of the king and queen. But these were never examined.
Arms
As son of the sovereign, Richard was granted use of the arms of the kingdom, differentiated by a label argent, on the first point a canton gules.In popular culture
The comedy series The Black AdderThe Black Adder
The Black Adder is the first series of the BBC situation comedy Blackadder, written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson, directed by Martin Shardlow and produced by John Lloyd...
features an alternative history
Alternate history (fiction)
Alternate history or alternative history is a genre of fiction consisting of stories that are set in worlds in which history has diverged from the actual history of the world. It can be variously seen as a sub-genre of literary fiction, science fiction, and historical fiction; different alternate...
where Richard succeeded his uncle King Richard III
Richard III of England
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
to the throne as King Richard IV of England (portrayed by Brian Blessed
Brian Blessed
Brian Blessed is an English actor, known for his sonorous voice and "hearty, king-sized portrayals".-Early life:The son of William Blessed, a socialist miner, and Hilda Wall, Blessed was born in the town of Goldthorpe, West Riding of Yorkshire, England...
).
Richard appears in Philippa Gregory
Philippa Gregory
Philippa Gregory is an English novelist.-Early life and academic career:Philippa Gregory was born in Kenya. When she was two years old, her family moved to England. She was a "rebel" at school, but managed to attend the University of Sussex...
's 2009 fictionalized novel The White Queen, which follows the theory that Richard's mother, Elizabeth Woodville
Elizabeth Woodville
Elizabeth Woodville was Queen consort of England as the spouse of King Edward IV from 1464 until his death in 1483. Elizabeth was a key figure in the series of dynastic civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses. Her first husband, Sir John Grey of Groby was killed at the Second Battle of St Albans...
, never gave young Richard over to the custody of his uncle
Richard III of England
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
, instead swapping him with a changeling and sending the true prince into hiding in Tournai
Tournai
Tournai is a Walloon city and municipality of Belgium located 85 kilometres southwest of Brussels, on the river Scheldt, in the province of Hainaut....
, Belgium. He appears later in the novel under the assumed name, Perkin Warbeck
Perkin Warbeck
Perkin Warbeck was a pretender to the English throne during the reign of King Henry VII of England. By claiming to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, the younger son of King Edward IV, one of the Princes in the Tower, Warbeck was a significant threat to the newly established Tudor Dynasty,...
.
Richard is a character in the young adult series of novels, The Missing
The Missing (novel series)
The Missing is a series of young adult novels written by Margaret Peterson Haddix. The first book is Found. Book two, Sent, was released on August 25, 2009. The third book, Sabotaged, was released on August 24, 2010. The fourth book, Torn, was released on November 10, 2011.Haddix has said that...
, by Margaret Peterson Haddix. He appears in the second book, Sent
Sent (novel)
Sent is the second novel in The Missing series by Margaret Peterson Haddix. It was released on August 24, 2009.- Plot summary :Jonah, Katherine, Chip, and another boy, Alex, have no preparation before they are sent back to 1483 at the Tower of London. JB promises them that they can return to the...
, as the character Alex Polchak.
Richard appears in the Japanese anime Kuroshitsuji
Kuroshitsuji
is a manga written and illustrated by Yana Toboso. Since its debut on September 16, 2006, it has been serialized in Square Enix's shōnen manga magazine Monthly GFantasy....
as a small boy, who, together with his older brother, Edward V, haunts Ludlow Castle, until they can both find salvation and be sent to Heaven. Edward believes that, to do that, he must gather the skulls of his whole family but cannot, since, for some reason, which is revealed later, Richard refuses to hand over his own. He is voiced by Sasamoto Yuuko in the original and by Maxey Whitehead
Maxey Whitehead
Maxey Whitehead is an American stage actress and voice actress who works for anime series at Funimation Entertainment. She has provided voices for a number of English language versions of Japanese anime films....
in the English dub.