English noblewoman
Anne Beauchamp, 16th Countess of Warwick
(13 July 1426 ? 20 September 1492) was an important
late medieval
English noblewoman. She was the daughter of
Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick
, and his second wife,
Isabel le Despenser
(a daughter of
Thomas le Despenser
(22 September 1373 ? 13 January 1399/1400) and
Constance of York
).
Anne Beauchamp was the mother of two famous daughters,
Isabel Neville
, the wife of
George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence
, and
Anne Neville
,
Queen of England
as the wife of
King Richard III
.
[1]
Inheritance
[
edit
]
Anne Beauchamp was born at
Caversham Castle
in Oxfordshire (now
Berkshire
). She married
Richard Neville 'the Kingmaker'
? and her brother
Henry Beauchamp
married Richard's sister
Cecily
? in 1436.
[2]
Following the death of Anne's father in 1439, and subsequently that of her brother Henry in 1446, and his infant daughter
Lady Anne
in 1449, Neville inherited the title and the considerable estates of the
Earldom of Warwick
through his wife.
However, this was contested by Anne's three older half-sisters, children of her father's first marriage to Elizabeth, heir of Berkeley. One of these,
Lady Eleanor
, was married to
Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset
(killed at the
First Battle of St Albans
in 1455). The litigation over the Warwick inheritance only fuelled the enmity between this branch of the
Nevilles
and the
Beauforts
who were closely related. Anne Beauchamp's husband, Richard, was the grandson of
Lady Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland
, sister of the Duke's late father. Law considered that Anne Beauchamp being a full-blooded aunt of the last countess was more eligible to inherit than her older half-sisters, who were thus not coheirs with her, including the eldest ?
Lady Margaret, Countess of Shrewsbury
(d. 1468). Richard Neville succeeded in keeping the Warwick and Despencer estates intact.
[3]
Children's marriages
[
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]
Her elder daughter, Lady
Isabel
, married
George, Duke of Clarence
, the younger brother of King
Edward IV of England
. Her younger daughter, Lady
Anne Neville
, was married to
Edward of Westminster
, the only son of King
Henry VI
. When Edward of Westminster was killed in the
Battle of Tewkesbury
, Anne Neville was married to Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later King
Richard III of England
. Although their mother was still living, the husbands of the two Neville sisters fought over their inheritance. To win his brother George's final consent to the marriage with Anne, eventually Richard renounced most of Warwick's land and property including the earldoms of Warwick (which the Kingmaker had held in his wife's right) and Salisbury and surrendered to Clarence the office of Great Chamberlain of England.
[4]
In 1474, to settle the dispute once and for all, Anne was declared legally dead by Parliament and her inheritance divided between her two daughters.
[5]
After George was executed for treason in 1478, his son Edward inherited the title of Earl of Warwick, while Richard's son was styled Earl of Salisbury.
[6]
Later life
[
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]
Anne died in obscurity, having survived her husband, her daughters and the sons-in-law who had effectively disinherited her. She was in sanctuary at
Beaulieu Abbey
in 1486 when she petitioned
Henry VII
for the return of her estate. She recovered a small portion, but only on condition that she broke the entail and remit the bulk of them to Henry VII.
[3]
"The 'Warwick and Spencer lands', her own patrimony became part of the crown estate."
[7]
Fictional portrayals
[
edit
]
Anne, Countess of Warwick, appears prominently in the
Philippa Gregory
novels
The White Queen
(2009),
The Red Queen
(2010), and
The Kingmaker's Daughter
(2012),
[8]
and is played by
Juliet Aubrey
in the 2013 television adaptation of all three novels,
The White Queen
.
[9]
She is depicted as a coldly ambitious mother to Isabel and Anne Neville, and her husband's staunchest supporter.
A more sympathetic portrayal of the Countess of Warwick is in the novel
The Sunne in Splendour
by
Sharon Kay Penman
, and a maternal view of her is observed in
The Reluctant Queen
by
Jean Plaidy
.
[
citation needed
]
Novelist
Sandra Worth
represents the Countess as her husband's conscience in her five novels about the
Wars of the Roses
. Another sympathetic portrayal of Anne Beauchamp is
Wife to the Kingmaker
, a 1974 title by Sandra Wilson.
[10]
Ancestry
[
edit
]
Ancestors of Anne Neville, 16th Countess of Warwick
|
---|
| | | | | | | | | 16.
Guy de Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick
| | | | | | | 8.
Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick
| | | | | | | | | | 17.
Alice de Toeni
| | | | | | | 4.
Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick
| | | | | | | | | | | | 18.
Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March
| | | | | | | 9.
Katherine Mortimer
| | | | | | | | | | 19.
Joan de Geneville, 2nd Baroness Geneville
| | | | | | | 2.
Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | 20. Henry Ferrers, 2nd
Baron Ferrers of Groby
| | | | | | | 10. William Ferrers, 3rd
Baron Ferrers of Groby
| | | | | | | | | | 21. Isabel Verdon
| | | | | | | 5.
Margaret Ferrers
| | | | | | | | | | | | 22.
Robert d'Ufford, 1st Earl of Suffolk
| | | | | | | 11. Margaret Ufford
| | | | | | | | | | 23. Margaret Norwich
| | | | | | | 1.
Anne Neville, 16th Countess of Warwick
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 24.
Edward le Despenser
| | | | | | | 12.
Edward le Despenser, 1st Baron le Despencer
| | | | | | | | | | 25.
Anne Ferrers
| | | | | | | 6.
Thomas le Despenser, 1st Earl of Gloucester
| | | | | | | | | | | | 26.
Bartholomew de Burghersh, 2nd Baron Burghersh
| | | | | | | 13.
Elizabeth de Burghersh
| | | | | | | | | | 27. Cecily de Weyland
| | | | | | | 3.
Isabel le Despenser, Countess of Worcester and Warwick
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | 28.
Edward III of England
| | | | | | | 14.
Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York
| | | | | | | | | | 29.
Philippa of Hainault
| | | | | | | 7.
Constance of York
| | | | | | | | | | | | 30.
Peter of Castile
| | | | | | | 15.
Infanta Isabella of Castile
| | | | | | | | | | 31.
Maria de Padilla
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Hicks, Michael (26 August 2011).
Anne Neville: Queen to Richard III
. History Press.
ISBN
978-0-7524-6887-7
.
- ^
Hicks, Michael (1998).
Warwick the Kingmaker
, p.24. Blackwell, Oxford.
ISBN
0-631-16259-3
.
- ^
a
b
Hicks, M. A. (1979). "Descent, Partition and Extinction: the 'Warwick Inheritance'1".
Historical Research
.
52
(126). Blackwell Publishing Ltd: 116?128.
doi
:
10.1111/j.1468-2281.1979.tb02217.x
.
- ^
Kendall P.M.,
Richard III
, 1955. Reprinted:
Kendall, Paul Murray (2002).
Richard the Third
. W. W. Norton. p. 608.
ISBN
978-0-393-00785-5
.
- ^
Lewis, Matthew (2013)
The Wars Of The Roses In 100 Facts
, no.80, Amberley Publishing, Stroud.
ISBN
9781445647463
- ^
Ashdown-Hill, John (3 March 2014).
Third Plantagenet: George, Duke of Clarence, Richard III's Brother
. History Press.
ISBN
978-0-7509-5539-3
.
- ^
Wolffe, B.P. (1970).
Crown Lands, 1461?1536: An Aspect of Yorkist and Early Tudor Government
. Allen & Unwin. pp.
216
.
ISBN
978-0049420816
.
- ^
Dennison, Matthew (17 August 2012).
"Review: The Kingmaker's Daughter by Philippa Gregory"
.
Express.co.uk
. Retrieved
29 March
2018
.
- ^
Genzlinger, Neil (9 August 2013).
"
'The White Queen' Has Its Premiere on Starz"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
29 March
2018
.
- ^
Holland, Cecelia (27 April 1975).
"Timeless core in historical fiction"
.
Los Angeles Times
. p. 559
. Retrieved
29 March
2018
.