minervacasterly: 13 October 1453 -On the feast of St. Edward the Confessor, Edward of Westminster wa

minervacasterly:13 October 1453 -On the feast of St. Edward the Confessor, Edward of Westminster was born. He was the son of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou. There are a lot of misconceptions regarding the prince of Wales, the most important is an apocryphal story of his birth with Margaret presenting her son to Henry and the king saying that he must have been conceived by the holy spirit. In the “White Queen” the Neville sisters repeat this myth saying adding there is no way the prince is the king’s son because the king was asleep at the time of his conception but this story is false and didn’t come about until 1461. Henry VI was within his mental capabilities at the time of his son’s conception. When Margaret knew she was with child, she and the Duchess of York went on a pilgrimage to Walsingham in Norfolk to give thanks to the Blessed Virgin.Cecily Neville wrote the unborn child was “the most precious, most joyful, and most comfortable earthly treasure that might come unto this land and to the people thereof.”But then something happened. On July 17 the town of Bordeaux was lost, it was a humiliating defeat for the English and when Henry was told he went into a catatonic state. Nothing could wake him up. Margaret went into her confinement uncertain of what the future would hold for her and her baby. She gave birth to her only son in Westminster. Immediately the birth was announced to London, according to Bale’s Chronicle:“Wherefore the bells rang in every church and Te Deum was solemnly sang.”The next day the prince was christened by William Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester (Henry’s confessor). His godparents were the Archbishop of Canterbury, Edmund Beaufort (Duke of Somerset and Margaret Beaufort’s uncle), and Anne Stafford nee Neville the Duchess of Buckingham who was also Margaret Beaufort’s mother in law and Cecily Neville’s sister.But as Dan Jones points out, “if the birth was cause for great joy, it was also clear that the condition of the boy’s father could no longer be ignored.” His son was presented to him but Henry could not recognize him and his mother tried to make a bid for power and establish a regency council in her husband and son’s names but the nobles favored Richard (including the Tudor brothers, Edmund and Jasper). After the prince and Henry’s death in 1471, Henry Tudor went into exile and he was soon seen as a threat by Edward IV who wanted to eradicate every last member of the house of Lancaster. After Mary’s grandfather became king, the cults of Henry VI and Edward of Wesminster grew and several pilgrimages were made to their tombs.Sources: The Prince who did not become King: Edward of Westminster 1453-1471 by Susan Higginbotham, Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses and the Rise of the Tudors by Dan Jones, Cecily Neville by Amy Licence, and Wars of the Roses by Alison Weir. -- source link

More pics about