Anne Beauchamp, Countess of Warwick (Mother in Law)

by Sheilah O’Connor

Anne Beauchamp was the daughter of the powerful Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and Isabel Despenser, granddaughter of Edward III. She was born in July 1426 and both she and her brother Henry were married into the Neville family while still children. Anne to Richard Neville (later the Kingmaker) and Henry to Richard’s sister Cecily. Henry died when he was 20 and his heir died 4 years later, leaving Anne not only the Despenser lands but the Warwick earldom making her husband the 16th Earl of Warwick.

Her first child was Isabel, born in 1450 when the countess was 24. Her daughter Anne was born 6 years later. It is believed that they split their time between Warwick Castle – a Beauchamp stronghold, and Middleham – a Neville inheritance, with Richard, Duke of Gloucester joining them in Middleham.

By 1470, the Earl of Warwick had revolted against Edward IV and the entire family escaped to France. Isabel was married to George, Duke of Clarence by now, and pregnant, losing her child while at sea. Isabel’s sister Anne was with them as well and soon to be married to Edward of Lancaster, son of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou. Nothing survives to tell us what Anne Beauchamp thought of all this. Certainly it looked as though one or the other of her daughters would become Queen of England, but at what cost? The women stayed with Queen Margaret while Warwick and Edward of Lancaster took an army back to England. The result is well known. Margaret and Anne sailed back on the day of the Battle of Barnet while Anne Beauchamp took another ship. Hearing her husband had died, Anne immediately took sanctuary in Beaulieu Abbey where she stayed for two years. As the wife of a traitor, she had lost everything to the Crown.

But Anne Beauchamp, Countess of Warwick, did not accept this. Protesting that she was the king’s true liege woman, she petitioned the king and parliament for her rights and her inheritance, which had been divided between Clarence and Gloucester by Edward IV. Clarence wanted far more than he had been given, and it eventually went to parliament which decided the following: The king,—, has ordained, decreed and enacted that George, Duke of Clarence, and Isabel, his wife, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and Anne, his wife, daughters and heirs of Richard Neville, late Earl of Warwick, and daughters and heirs apparent of Anne, Countess of Warwick, widow of the said earl, shall henceforth have, possess, inherit and enjoy in the right of their said wives all the honours, lordships, castles, towns, manors, lands, tenements, liberties, franchises, possessions and hereditaments which did or do belong to the said Anne, Countess of Warwick,…in the same manner and form as if the said countess were now naturally dead.

By now, the countess was probably living with her daughter Anne and Richard in Middleham. After the death of Richard III, she was again left without a home. She petitioned Henry VII for the restoration of her lands and titles. Instead, in return for giving up her claim to the inheritance, he rescinded the law which had made her legally dead. Her grandchildren were thus disinherited. She lived until 1492, dying at the age of 66.