wife. Gloucester, in turn, was, on marriage, to receive Warwick's estates in Yorkshire, Northumberland and Cumberland, where he would inherit the loyalty and service of those who had served the Nevilles.
Richard and Anne were married in the spring or summer of 1472 at Westminster, either in the Abbey or in St Stephen's Chapel. Richard was so anxious for the marriage to go forward that he did not wait for a papal dispensation -- which was necessary, as he and Anne were second cousins. After the wedding the couple lived chiefly at Middleham Castle, a massive eleventh-century stronghold on high ground overlooking the River Ure in Yorkshire, which had been previously owned and enlarged by the Nevilles. Although primarily built for defence, the castle was in Richard's day extremely comfortable, with luxurious private apartments, fireplaces in the domestic ranges, and communal latrines. The Duke himself built a new great hall with spacious windows above the old keep. There was a chapel, and plenty of accommodation for the many scores of retainers a royal duke needed in his retinue. Middleham is now a ruin, but enough remains to give a good impression of the splendour that once earned it the name 'the Windsor of the North'.
We know nothing at all about Richard and Anne's personal life, nor whether they were happily or unhappily married, nor what they felt about each other. Anne's health seems to have been delicate, and they had one child only, named Edward of Middleham after the place of his birth, who was probably born in the spring of 1476, as Rous states he was seven and a half in August 1483. He seems to have been a frail boy as he rarely left Middleham, where he was nursed as a baby by one Jane Collins, who earned 100s. per annum, and he was later tutored by a Master Richard Bernall.
In the summer of 1473 Gloucester arranged for his mother-in-law, the Countess of Warwick, to join the household at Middleham. This unfortunate lady, still in her forties, had been living in the Sanctuary at Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire since Warwick's death, occupying herself by sending urgent petitions for the restoration of her lands to the King, the Queen, the King's mother the Duchess of York, and even the young Princess Elizabeth, but to no avail. On 13th June, 1473, the Paston Letters record that 'the Countess is now out of Beaulieu sanctuary, and Sir James Tyrell conveyeth her northward, men say by the King's assent'. Tyrell was one of Richard's most trusted retainers. Rous later stated that the Countess had fled to Gloucester 'as her chief refuge', only to find herself'locked up for the duration of his life'. As Rous had always taken such a particular interest in the Beauchamp and Neville families, and made it his business to record their deeds, it is quite possible that this was the Countess's fate. Certainly she made no public appearances after this time. Indeed, both Gloucester and Clarence were instrumental in bringing about the passing, in 1474, of an Act of Parliament settling all the Warwick estates upon themselves in right of their spouses, and ignoring the rights of the Dowager Countess, who was deemed to be 'naturally' and legally dead. Gloucester had now learned another valuable political lesson: that Parliament could be manipulated to pass legislation that took no account of the principles of established law.
4. Clarence and the Wydvilles
Edward IV may have been a licentious man, but his court was decorous and ceremonious. From the beginning his aim was to emulate Burgundy, whose court was then the model for Europe. Thereafter, for several decades, Burgundian influence was to be detected in all aspects of court life.
Visually, Edward's court was magnificent -- a Bohemian visitor, Gabriel Tetzel, described it in 1466 as 'the most splendid court that could be found in all Christendom'. The King favoured and refurbished the palaces of the Thames Valley -- Westminster, the Tower, Greenwich, Sheen, Eltham and Windsor. In all of
Richard and Anne were married in the spring or summer of 1472 at Westminster, either in the Abbey or in St Stephen's Chapel. Richard was so anxious for the marriage to go forward that he did not wait for a papal dispensation -- which was necessary, as he and Anne were second cousins. After the wedding the couple lived chiefly at Middleham Castle, a massive eleventh-century stronghold on high ground overlooking the River Ure in Yorkshire, which had been previously owned and enlarged by the Nevilles. Although primarily built for defence, the castle was in Richard's day extremely comfortable, with luxurious private apartments, fireplaces in the domestic ranges, and communal latrines. The Duke himself built a new great hall with spacious windows above the old keep. There was a chapel, and plenty of accommodation for the many scores of retainers a royal duke needed in his retinue. Middleham is now a ruin, but enough remains to give a good impression of the splendour that once earned it the name 'the Windsor of the North'.
We know nothing at all about Richard and Anne's personal life, nor whether they were happily or unhappily married, nor what they felt about each other. Anne's health seems to have been delicate, and they had one child only, named Edward of Middleham after the place of his birth, who was probably born in the spring of 1476, as Rous states he was seven and a half in August 1483. He seems to have been a frail boy as he rarely left Middleham, where he was nursed as a baby by one Jane Collins, who earned 100s. per annum, and he was later tutored by a Master Richard Bernall.
In the summer of 1473 Gloucester arranged for his mother-in-law, the Countess of Warwick, to join the household at Middleham. This unfortunate lady, still in her forties, had been living in the Sanctuary at Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire since Warwick's death, occupying herself by sending urgent petitions for the restoration of her lands to the King, the Queen, the King's mother the Duchess of York, and even the young Princess Elizabeth, but to no avail. On 13th June, 1473, the Paston Letters record that 'the Countess is now out of Beaulieu sanctuary, and Sir James Tyrell conveyeth her northward, men say by the King's assent'. Tyrell was one of Richard's most trusted retainers. Rous later stated that the Countess had fled to Gloucester 'as her chief refuge', only to find herself'locked up for the duration of his life'. As Rous had always taken such a particular interest in the Beauchamp and Neville families, and made it his business to record their deeds, it is quite possible that this was the Countess's fate. Certainly she made no public appearances after this time. Indeed, both Gloucester and Clarence were instrumental in bringing about the passing, in 1474, of an Act of Parliament settling all the Warwick estates upon themselves in right of their spouses, and ignoring the rights of the Dowager Countess, who was deemed to be 'naturally' and legally dead. Gloucester had now learned another valuable political lesson: that Parliament could be manipulated to pass legislation that took no account of the principles of established law.
4. Clarence and the Wydvilles
Edward IV may have been a licentious man, but his court was decorous and ceremonious. From the beginning his aim was to emulate Burgundy, whose court was then the model for Europe. Thereafter, for several decades, Burgundian influence was to be detected in all aspects of court life.
Visually, Edward's court was magnificent -- a Bohemian visitor, Gabriel Tetzel, described it in 1466 as 'the most splendid court that could be found in all Christendom'. The King favoured and refurbished the palaces of the Thames Valley -- Westminster, the Tower, Greenwich, Sheen, Eltham and Windsor. In all of
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