lochiels: HISTORY MEME | FASCINATING WOMEN [10/10} → Isabel Neville, Duchess of

lochiels:HISTORY MEME | FASCINATING WOMEN [10/10} → Isabel Neville, Duchess of Clarence [1451-1476]Born on September 5, 1451, we know little of her childhood or education. In 1469 Isabel Neville was betrothed to George, Duke of Clarence, part of her father’s “kingmaking” in the Wars of the Roses. Clarence was the next-eldest brother of Edward IV, who had taken the crown from Henry VI in 1461 with the help of Isabel’s father, Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick. Clarence thus had been Edward’s presumptive heir until the birth of Edward’s daughter in 1466 and then of Edward’s son in 1470. In 1469, at the time of Isabel’s marriage, Isabel’s younger sister, Anne, was unmarried, although their father had apparently tried to betroth her to a younger brother of king Edward and of Clarence, Richard of Gloucester.Isabel Neville and George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, married in a ceremony in Calais, just across the English Channel in France. The marriage was presided over by one of her father’s brothers, George Neville, who was the Archbishop of York. Isabel’s new husband joined his father-in-law and the Lancastrians to restore Henry VI as king and Edward of Westminster as Prince of Wales.After a July 1869 battle in which the Lancastrians headed by Warwick briefly prevailed over the Yorkists, Warwick decided that he would replace Edward IV with George, Duke of Clarence, rather than with the mentally ill Henry VI. That positioned Isabel Neville as a likely future Queen of England. But Warwick and Clarence had to flee back to France after defeat by forces of Edward IV in March of 1470. Just 10 months after her marriage, on April 16, 1470, Isabel gave birth to her first child, a daughter, Anne, on board a ship off Calais. The child died a day or so later.After the Yorkists victory Isabel’s sister Anne was taken prisoner after her husband was killed. Clarence kept her as his ward, with an interest in seeing her remain unmarried so that he would inherit her full share as well as his wife’s of their father’s rich estates. Exactly what happened is not clear, but somehow she escaped custody and married Richard of Gloucester, brother of both Edward IV and the Duke of Clarence in July of 1472.Isabel and George had three more children: Margaret, born in 1473; Edward, born in 1475; and Richard, born in 1476. About 10 weeks after the birth of Richard in 1476, Isabel died on December 22, perhaps of child bed fever. The baby Richard died about ten days after his mother’s death.Isabel is known for her dynastic role in the Wars of the Roses, and the fates of her children, grandchildren and other descendants. As with many medieval women, she’s known mainly for her heritage, her marriage and her descendants. She was heiress to a fortune and title, and for her father’s arrangement of her marriage to a possible heir to the English crown. -- source link

More pics about