Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers

Arms of Woodville: Argent, a fesse and a canton conjoined gules

Richard Woodville (or Wydeville), 1st Earl Rivers KG (1405 – 12 August 1469) was an English nobleman, best remembered as the father of Queen consort Elizabeth Woodville and the maternal grandfather of Edward V and the maternal great-grandfather of Henry VIII.

Life

Born at Maidstone in Kent, he was the son of Sir Richard Wydeville (Woodville), chamberlain to the Duke of Bedford, and Joan Bittlesgate (or Bedlisgate), the daughter of Thomas Bittlesgate of Knighteston, Devon.^[1][2] He was also grandson to John Wydeville who was Sheriff of Northamptonshire (in 1380, 1385, 1390).^[2]

Following the duke's death, the younger Richard married the widowed duchess, Jacquetta of Luxembourg (1416–1472). This was initially a secret marriage, for which the couple were fined when it came to public notice.

He was a captain in 1429, served in France in 1433 and was a knight of the regent Duke of Bedford in 1435. He was at Gerberoy in 1435 and served under William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, in 1435–6. He then fought under Somerset and Shrewsbury in 1439 and the Duke of York in 1441–2, when he was made captain of Alençon and knight banneret. He was appointed seneschal of Gascony in 1450 (but failed to reach it before its fall), lieutenant of Calais in 1454–5, and to defend Kent against invasion by the Yorkist earls in 1459–60 (but was captured at Sandwich). He was created Baron Rivers by Henry VI on 9 May 1448. Two years later, as Sir Richard, he was invested as a Knight of the Garter in 1450. He was appointed Warden of the Cinque Ports in 1459.

In the Wars of the Roses, he was initially a Lancastrian, but he became a Yorkist when he thought that the Lancastrian cause was lost. He reconciled himself to the victorious Edward IV, his future son-in-law. On 1 May 1464, Edward married his daughter Elizabeth, widow of Sir John Grey of Groby. Richard was created Earl Rivers in 1466, appointed Lord Treasurer in March 1466 and Constable of England on 24 August 1467.

The power of this new family was very distasteful to the old baronial party, and especially so to the Earl of Warwick. Rivers was regarded as a social upstart, and in an ironical episode, his future son-in-law in 1459, while accepting his submission, had rebuked him for daring, given his lowly birth, to fight against the House of York. The Privy Council, in its horrified response to the King's marriage, said bluntly that her father's low social standing in itself meant that the King must surely know "that Elizabeth was not the wife for him". Early in 1468, the Rivers estates were plundered by Warwick's partisans, and the open war of the following year was aimed at destroying the Woodvilles. After the Yorkist defeat at the Battle of Edgecote Moor on 26 July 1469, Rivers and his second son John were taken prisoners at Chepstow. Following a hasty show trial, they were beheaded at Kenilworth on 12 August 1469. His eldest son Anthony succeeded him in the earldom.

Lord Rivers had a large family. His third son, Lionel (d. 1484) became the Bishop of Salisbury. All his daughters made great marriages: Catherine Woodville, his eighth daughter, was the wife of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham.

It is worth noting that "Woodville" is the modern spelling of the name and was not so spelled at the time, even though uniform spelling was not established for almost two centuries. The spelling used at the time was "Wydeville" or "Wydville".

Children of Richard Woodville and Jacquetta of Luxembourg

They had at least 13 children:^[3]

• Elizabeth Woodville (c. 1437–1492), married Edward IV of England.
• Lewis Woodwille (c.1438?), died in childhood.
• Anne Woodville (1439–1489). Married first William Bourchier, Viscount Bourchier, and second George Grey, 2nd Earl of Kent.
• Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers (1442–1483), married Elizabeth Scales, 8th Baroness Scales.
• Mary Woodville (1443–1481), married William Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke.
• Jacquetta Woodville (1444–1509), married John le Strange, 8th Baron Strange of Knockin.
• John Woodville (1445–1469), married Catherine Neville, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk.
• Lionel Woodville (1447–1484), Bishop of Salisbury.
• Eleanor Woodville (1452–1512), married Sir Anthony Grey.
• Richard Woodville, 3rd Earl Rivers (c. 1453–1491).
• Edward Woodville, Lord Scales (d. 1488), soldier and courtier.
• Margaret Woodville (1454–1490), married Thomas Fitzalan, 17th Earl of Arundel.
• Catherine Woodville (c.1458^[4]-1497^[5]), married first Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, second Jasper Tudor, 1st Duke of Bedford.

Robert Glover, Somerset Herald, noted another 'Richard' who would seem to have been born before Richard the 3rd Earl.^[6] It should also be noted that a 'Richard Woodville, esquire for the body' was present at the christening of Prince Arthur (son of Elizabeth and Henry VII) on 24 September 1486 in Winchester Cathedral; Arthur's grandmother, Elizabeth Woodville, served as his Godmother, and her younger brother Edward was also present at the ceremony.

In fiction

Woodville is a primary character in Philippa Gregory's 2011 novel about Jacquetta of Luxembourg, The Lady of the Rivers.

Ancestry

Notes

References

• Hicks, Michael. "Woodville, Richard". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/29939.  (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Cokayne, George E. Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct, or Dormant. London: G. Bell & Sons, 1887. (p. 207) googlebooks Retrieved 4 May 2008
• See 1911 Encyclopedia.
• Chambers Dictionary of World History edited by Bruce Lenman, ISBN 0-550-13000-4
• The Princes in the Tower by Elizabeth Jenkins