Richard’s Family

Shown above is an overview of the lines of descent from Edward III that played a key part in the formation of Richard’s life and the world in which he lived. The tree is interactive, with the ability to zoom in and out to understand how each line links to Richard himself.

The tree has been simplified to make it easier to read, not every member of Richard’s immediate or connected family has been included.

Introduction

Richard III was a member of the Plantagenet family, who had ruled England for almost 300 years by the time of his birth. The Plantagenet family tree is a complex one, which in part explains some of the causes of the Wars of the Roses, the conflict which overshadowed Richard’s life and ultimately ended with his death at Bosworth in 1485. 

The conflict has more recently been dubbed the ‘Cousins War’ because of the competing claims to the throne made by those descended from the sons and daughters of Edward III (r. 1327-1377). Infamously, the Wars of the Roses is described as a fight between York and Lancaster. These terms were appended to the families involved based on their ducal titles (for example, Henry, Duke of Lancaster and Richard, Duke of York), rather than being a direct fight between the cities of York and Lancaster. 

House of Lancaster

The senior male line for the throne ended when Edward III’s grandson, Richard II (r. 1377-1399), was deposed in 1399 by another grandson, Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster. Henry was the son of John of Gaunt, who was the 3rd son of Edward III. 

With the accession of Henry Bolingbroke as Henry IV, the House of Lancaster held the throne of England for three successive generations. The early death of Henry IV’s warrior son, Henry V, in 1422 left England with an infant king in his son Henry VI (r. 1422-1461 and 1470-1471). 

Henry VI acceded to the throne at the age of just 9 months. Until he reached his majority, the business of governing the realm, and continuing England’s claims to France, devolved to a regency council headed by his uncles, John, Duke of Bedford and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. Over time, court factions developed which saw the gradual disintegration of the regency council as ambitious men struggled for power and influence, which the naïve young king was unable to see were eroding his popularity with the populace and his nobles. 

One such noble was Richard, Duke of York. 

House of York

Richard, Duke of York was descended from Edward III’s 2nd son, Lionel of Antwerp, and 4th son, Edmund of Langley, which gave him a strong potential claim to the throne. Strategic marriages made before his birth meant that, with the death of his uncle Edmund Mortimer in 1425, Richard became the premier noble in the realm, second only to the King himself. As tensions rose in the years to come, both of these factors would play a key role in the development of a struggle for control of the crown itself. 

In 1460, Richard outlined his right to be designated heir to the throne upon Henry VI’s death, his basis for which was his great-great-grandfather, Lionel, being the 2nd son, whereas Henry’s great-grandfather, John of Gaunt, was the 3rd son of Edward III. In his petition, Richard made it clear that if John of Gaunt’s son, Henry IV, had not deposed Richard II, then, in default of heirs, Lionel’s children would have been next in line to the throne. Times being as they were, a perceived weakness in Richard’s argument lay in his claim to royal seniority being through the female line, as Lionel had fathered only one child, Philippa; and Richard’s mother, Anne Mortimer, had inherited her son’s rights to the titles of the earldom of March upon the death of her brother. 

His claim was not unsupported, with the Neville family being prominent allies. Richard had married a scion of this family, Cecily Neville, in around 1429. Cecily herself was a grand-daughter of John of Gaunt through her mother Joan Beaufort. The marriage of Richard and Cecily was a fruitful one, with 7 of their 12 children surviving into adulthood. Upon Richard, Duke of York’s death in 1460, their eldest son Edward, Earl of March became torch-bearer for the York claim to the throne. In 1461, at the age of 18, Edward successfully won the crown from Henry VI after victory at the battles of Mortimer’s Cross and Towton, acceding to the throne as Edward IV. 

York, Neville and beyond

The Neville family were further linked to Edward IV’s immediate family through his brothers’ marriages to Richard, Earl of Warwick’s daughters. Edward’s eldest surviving brother, George, Duke of Clarence, was married in 1469 to Warwick’s eldest daughter Isabel, in an act of disobedience that would have wide ranging repercussions for George in the years to come. Edward’s youngest surviving brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, married Warwick’s youngest daughter, Anne, in around 1473, much to the chagrin of George who resented the challenge this posed to him inheriting all of Warwick’s lands. 

Although only 17 years old, Anne’s marriage to Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was her second marriage. Her first, at the age of 14 in 1470, had been to Henry VI’s only son and heir, Edward, Prince of Wales. At the time of this marriage, Henry had lost control of the throne but was about to make a comeback thanks to the machinations of his queen, Margaret of Anjou, and Richard, Earl of Warwick, making this potentially a very advantageous marriage for the Neville family. Edward, Prince of Wales’ death at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471 left Anne an eligible widow, despite her father’s actions against the now restored Edward IV. From her marriage to Richard, Duke of Gloucester there was one surviving son, Edward of Middleham.

The daughters of Richard, Duke of York would also be found advantageous marriages. Anne was married to Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter (a descendant of Henry IV’s sister) in 1446 before their divorce in 1471 and Elizabeth was married to John De La Pole, Duke of Suffolk (a great-grandson of Geoffrey Chaucer), in around 1458. Perhaps the most impressive match was made for Margaret, the youngest surviving daughter who, in 1468 married Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. This marriage brought her brother Edward IV a powerful alliance and a position on the international political stage.

Lancaster, Beaufort and Tudor

During the early 1450s, Henry VI discovered that he had maternal half-brothers, from his mother, Catherine of Valois’ clandestine marriage to a young gentleman of her household named Owen Tudor. Tudor claimed descent from the Welsh princes, most notably Cadwaladr, and with Catherine fathered at least two children. Edmund and Jasper were acknowledged as royal relations in 1452 when created Earl of Richmond and Earl of Pembroke respectively. A marriage appropriate to his newly ennobled status was duly procured for Edmund in the shape of a union with Margaret, sole heiress of the Beaufort family fortune, in 1455. At the time of the marriage Edmund was around the age of 26 and Margaret was 12. 

Margaret Beaufort was a wealthy addition to the family and represented a claim to the throne as the great-grand-daughter of John of Gaunt (3rd son of Edward III). This also makes Margaret the first cousin once removed of Cecily Neville, mother of Edward IV and Richard III.

Edmund Tudor died in 1456, leaving Margaret a widow at the age of just 13; she was also pregnant with their child. In January 1457 Margaret gave birth to what would be her only child, a son she named Henry. This boy would lead a peripatetic existence, as his fortunes were dictated by the back and forth of the crown between York and Lancaster.

With the deaths of Henry VI and his son Edward in the 1470s, the direct Lancastrian line of kings came to an end. In 1483, Edward IV’s death and Richard, Duke of Gloucester’s accession as Richard III made Henry Tudor’s claim to the throne through his mother’s Beaufort blood a useful card to play in order to unseat the new Yorkist king.

However, the Beaufort’s claim was contested. Margaret’s grandfather, John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset, was one of four children born to John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford before their marriage. Although legitimised by their subsequent marriage, the Beaufort line was apparently prohibited from inheriting the crown in acts of Richard II and Henry IV. The wording and manner of inclusion of the prohibitions were uncertain enough to raise questions as to whether the prohibition was strictly enforceable.

The Union of the Most Noble Houses of York and Lancaster

Despite this, by 1485 the leading claimants to the throne had whittled down to Richard III and Henry Tudor. Richard III’s only son and heir, Edward, died in April 1484 and his wife, Anne Neville, died in March 1485, leaving him vulnerable as a king without direct heirs of his body. It is likely that Richard subsequently nominated John De La Pole, Earl of Lincoln, as his heir to ensure Yorkist blood remained on the throne, via the descendants of his sister Elizabeth, Duchess of Suffolk.

Part of Henry Tudor’s strengthening position lay in his promise to marry Edward IV’s eldest daughter, Elizabeth, upon his obtaining the crown. Richard’s 1483 delegitimatising of his Edward IV’s children did little to derail this plan, with the union of the bloodlines of York and Lancaster proving an irresistible draw for many exiled Lancastrians and alienated Yorkists after so many years of conflict.

In January 1486, some 5 months after his victory at Bosworth, the marriage of Henry Tudor (now Henry VII) and Elizabeth of York was conducted at Westminster Abbey, bringing the two houses together and a new dynasty to the throne.