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Richard III Very
little can be known of Anne’s first dozen years. Born on 1456 and christened
at Warwick College,2 Anne was the younger of the two daughters of Richard
Neville and Anne Beauchamp, Earl and Countess of Warwick, who still
hoped for a son to continue the line. Isabel (b.1451), later duchess
of Clarence, was the elder. Only gradually, perhaps by 1464, did the
earl and countess realise that their two daughters would be their heiresses.
Anne’s father Warwick was already one of the outstanding noblemen and
was destined in due course to accrue also the honours and estates of
his parents. In the 1450s he took command of the seas and of Calais,
where he chose to reside from 1457,3 and where Anne most probably spent
her first four years. In the absence of concrete evidence, we have to
suppose that the earl’s two daughters resided with their mother and
received the conventional upbringing of contemporary gentlewomen. Warwick
himself, first as pirate and rebel against Henry VI (1457-61) and then
as the principal diplomat and soldier of the fledgling Yorkist regime
(1461-7), must often have been absent. His establishment was of unparalleled
size and splendour. Anne first features in public at the enthronement
celebrations of her uncle George Neville as archbishop of York.4 Also
present was her father’s ward Richard Duke of Gloucester (b.1452), the
youngest brother of King Edward IV, who lived in the earl’s household
alongside Francis Lord Lovell and other noble youths. 5 Anne must have
known Duke Richard as a child, but, four years in age apart, any romantic
attachment is unlikely and certainly not demonstrable. A great marriage
and life as a great lady was Anne’s natural destiny. By the standards
of the Nevilles, a family remarkable for child marriages, the espousals
of Warwick’s daughters at eighteen and fourteen respectively were decidedly
overdue. Warwick had a
major role in making a king of his younger cousin Edward IV, was prominent
also in keeping him there, and was perceived by some as the real power
of the new regime. Certainly he conducted much of its external relations:
his brothers John and George were respectively the principal soldier
and administrator for Edward IV.6 Gradually however Edward and the Nevilles
grew apart and in 1467 there was an acrimonious parting of the ways.
Many factors have been identified. As the king grew up, he asserted
himself, married against the earl’s advice, and preferred a diametrically
opposed foreign policy. Advancing the king’s new favourites inevitably
restricted the opportunities for the Nevilles, who could only lose.
In particular, the advantageous marriages of the new queen’s sisters
and in-laws thwarted matches apparently identified by Warwick for his
daughters, themselves great heiresses. Warwick therefore selected for
his eldest daughter Isabel the king’s brother George Duke of Clarence,
a spouse of the highest possible rank and potentially perhaps a king.
Yet King Edward objected, apparently because he wanted his brother’s
hand for diplomatic purposes. Warwick and Clarence persisted nevertheless,
the marriage took place on 12 July 1469, and was the foundation of their
rebellion which destroyed the king’s favourites, consigned King Edward
himself to custody and placed the Nevilles back in control.7 Their coup
failed to endure, however. A brief reconciliation and a further unsuccessful
rebellion completed a political roller coaster that brought the earl
and countess, the duke and duchess, and Anne herself into exile in France.
Her prospects had dimmed disastrously. This was the context
for Anne’s first marriage to Edward of Lancaster, the son and heir of
the dethroned Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou. Warwick and Margaret had
each found themselves to be too weak to confront King Edward on equal
terms. Hence now they allied together against him with the essential
support of King Louis XI of France. This marriage between the seventeen-year-old
prince and the fourteen-year-old Anne, who had probably never met before,
was the essential cement to the alliance – an arranged marriage par
excellence that would make Anne into a queen: an earnest both of the
good faith of old enemies and the guarantee to each parent of a proper
stake in the future. It was the foundation for Warwick’s invasion of
England late in 1470, which attracted enormous support. Edward IV fled
abroad and Henry VI resumed his throne. Anne and Edward were married
at Angers on 13 December.8 They landed in England on 13 April 1471,
just in time to witness the destruction of the new regime. Clarence
had already reverted to his former Yorkist allegiance, Warwick had perished
in defeat at Barnet on 14th, and Anne’s mother took refuge in sanctuary
at Beaulieu Abbey in the New Forest, where she was to remain for three
years. Now Princess of Wales, Anne Neville shared in the forced march
to Tewkesbury, where King Edward destroyed the Lancastrian army and
Anne’s husband was amongst the slain. Her father-in-law Henry VI died
shortly after. Widowed within five months of her marriage, the titular
princess was fortunate to be taken into the custody of her sister Duchess
Isabel and brother-in-law Clarence.9 What was to follow
was far from certain.10 Anne’s husband had died a traitor to the Yorkist
king: Anne’s status as princess was titular and empty. Her father had
also died a traitor. Her prospective inheritance was forfeit and had
been apportioned by royal grants to the king’s two brothers Clarence
and Gloucester, the latter receiving the Neville lands in the North
and the former the rest. Anne’s mother, the rightful possessor of the
bulk, was out of the picture and powerless at Beaulieu. Anne had no
recognizable prospects. Like others in their position, Clarence and
her sister obviously had no intention of allowing her to marry or inherit.
Anne, however, determined not to become a nun but to remarry to her
brother-in-law Richard Duke of Gloucester, for whom she and her inheritance,
if it could be realised, was the most attractive match. Whenever it
was agreed, it was a lightning match and the most prudential for both
parties. It could have been a love match, but actually no romantic element
is required to explain it. As soon as he recognized the danger, Clarence
sought to conceal Anne, supposedly as a kitchen maid.11 Although only
fourteen years old, Anne consented to her abduction by Duke Richard
to the sanctuary of St Martin’s le Grand in London, to marry him, and
to dispossess her mother of her inheritance: three decisions that were
probably taken together. From a destitute anomaly Anne became a royal
duchess – the best possible result for her and one indeed that her father
may also have contemplated. Clarence was obliged to accept the marriage
by 16 February 1472, when he still hoped to hang on to the property.12
By 18 March, however, the outlines of a partition were agreed.13 Most
probably their marriage followed soon after.14 A further three years
on, after obstruction by Clarence and legal difficulties had been overcome,
the settlement was confirmed. The Gloucesters received the Welsh estates
and those in the North, that underpinned Richard’s northern hegemony
and brought him the Neville connection, formerly of the kingmaker, which
helped him to secure and retain his throne.15 The birth of Edward of
Middleham, probably early in 1477, sealed the marital alliance. Regrettably
we can know only fragments about Anne’s married life. The Crowland chronicler
was shocked by the marriage.16 The two royal dukes wanted their shares
made secure, hence by inheritance rather than by royal grants, which
could be cancelled. They wanted it at once, even though most of it rightly
belonged to Anne Countess of Warwick and to Warwick’s nephew George
Neville. Parliament had to be induced to legalise their tenure by discounting
their rights, in the countess’ case by declaring her to be legally dead.
And they wanted it permanently, even if their duchesses died childless
or – in Gloucester’s case – was divorced. For the match
of Anne and Richard encountered another problem: already third, second,
and first cousins once removed, related in the second, third and fourth
degrees, they were also brother- and sister-in-law, related in the closest
degree of affinity. Unable to contract a legal marriage, Richard took
the essential precaution of securing a dispensation from the pope –
but one that covered only two impediments in the third and the fourth
degrees of affinity. 17 He must have known how closely they were related
and therefore that the dispensation was insufficient to validate the
marriage and legitimate any consequent children; Anne may not have known.
It was for this reason that the act settling the Neville estates provided
that in case of a divorce – in the event of the marriage being declared
null – Richard could hang on to her lands.18 Clarence could have been
behind this. Alternatively Richard himself may have been securing his
position.19 In either case, Richard was henceforth aware that his marriage
and his son’s legitimacy were void. He contrived, however, to conceal
it, to continue living with Anne as man and wife, to secure her coronation
as queen, and their son’s elevation first as earl of Salisbury (1477)
and then as prince of Wales (1483). In February 1484 members of his
parliament swore allegiance to Prince Edward as heir presumptive to
the crown.20 Anne’s career
as duchess and queen is exceptionally obscure. Although doubtless frequently
in company with Richard, she was probably frequently apart from him
and residing, like other great ladies, in her own great household, surrounded
by her own servants, residing in her own residences and supported from
her own estates. Actually, however, we know none of this and can trace
her movements on only half a dozen occasions in 1472-83. Apparently
Richard ran her estates as his own. They were together in London late
in 1476, when Richard charged some splendid clothes to his East Anglian
estates.21 Although bearing his son and associated with him in his religious
foundations, 22 Anne is visible only momentarily as sister of Durham
priory and the gild of Corpus Christi at York, respected but only apparently
influential in his absence abroad. 23 Similarly it defies belief that
Anne did not have the great estate and household of other queens, supplanting
Elizabeth the consort of Edward IV, but there are actually no grants
to her, no accounts, and a mere handful of known servants. The best
recorded event of her whole reign – indeed of her whole life – is her
coronation. 24 She features also in Richard’s splendid progress to York
and shared in his numerous religious foundations.25 She may have been
the inspiration, the recipient, or even the commissioner of Rows’ Roll,
the second Salisbury Roll, and the Pageant of her father Richard Beauchamp
Earl of Warwick, 26 but we cannot be certain. She is as obscure as any
other English queen. Prince Edward’s
death was a tragedy for Richard and Anne. Crowland reports how distraught
they were. 27 His death also left Richard without an obvious heir to
continue his dynasty and to reassure his supporters about the future.
The king’s two nephews were stopgaps only. Much better would be to breed
a further son of his own body. Unfortunately this he could not do. His
queen failed to conceive again and her ill-health suggested further
offspring were unlikely. Moreover his enemies’ discovery as alternative
candidate of a blameless adult in Henry Tudor and the latter’s selection
as prospective bride of Edward IV’s eldest daughter Elizabeth of York
offered an enticing alternative to the traditional Yorkist establishment.
The material advantages that Anne had offered to a penurious duke counted
for little now he was king. He did not need her Warwick inheritance
any more, although he was forcefully informed by Catesby and Ratcliffe
that he still needed her retinue.28 Anne conferred no diplomatic connections
and possessed no independent title to the crown to reinforce his own.
It is no wonder therefore, as Crowland reports, that he considered a
divorce and remarriage,29 obviously to a lady able to bring him an heir
and some of these other attributes. His preferred candidate was apparently
Elizabeth of York herself – a bride able not only to reinforce his title,
but denied to Henry Tudor. Richard might indeed think it easy to obtain.30
He knew well, after all, that his marriage had never been valid. He
had only to reveal the absence of a valid dispensation to bring it to
an end: although the impact on his reputation for morality might well
have been serious. Quite what would have befallen his ex-queen we cannot
tell because the marriage was never declared null. No divorce was necessary,
as Anne’s health declined and she died on 16 March 1485. So convenient
was this that Richard was alleged to have poisoned her – a charge that
he explicitly denied on 30 March.31 Evidently Crowland disbelieved the
charge. There is no reason to doubt Richard’s declaration of his sorrow
at Anne’s death.32 It was political expediency and self-preservation
that motivated him, not dislike for Anne. She received a funeral worthy
of a queen at Westminster Abbey.33 Anne cannot, however, have been ignorant
of the rumours of divorce: her last year must have been sad indeed.
So soon did her husband perish, that no monument was ever erected for
her.
Professor Michael
Hicks, of King Alfred’s College, Winchester, has written a book about
Anne Neville and which has been published by Tempus. Anne Neville:
Richard III Society website: Notes
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