From Jone Johnson Lewis,
Your Guide to Women's History.
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For basic facts about Cecily Neville, see her profile: Cecily Neville -- includes a list of her children and other family members.

Cecily Neville

(May 3, 1415 - May 31, 1495)

Cecily Neville's husband was Richard, Duke of York, the heir to King Henry VI and protector of the young king in his minority and later during a bout of insanity. When Henry's wife, Margaret of Anjou, gave birth to a son, this son supplanted Richard as the heir to the throne. When Henry recovered his sanity, the Duke of York fought to regain power, with Cecily Neville's brother, the Duke of Warwick, one of his strongest allies.

Winning at St. Albans in 1455, losing in 1456 (by now to Margaret of Anjou leading the Lancastrian forces), Richard fled to Ireland in 1459 and was declared an outlaw. Cecily with her sons Richard and George were put in the care of Cecily's sister, Anne, the Duchess of Buckingham..

Victorious again in 1460, Warwick and Edward, Earl of March, (son of Cecily and Richard and the future Edward IV) won at Northampton, taking Henry VI prisoner. Richard, Duke of York, returned to claim the crown for himself. Margaret and Richard compromised, naming Richard protector and heir apparent to the throne. But Margaret continued to fight for the right of succession for her son, winning the battle of Wakefield. In this battle, Richard, Duke of York, was killed. His severed head was crowned with a paper crown. Edmund, son of the Richard and Cecily, was also caught and killed in that battle.

In 1461, Cecily and Richard's son, Edward, Earl of March, became King Edward IV. She won the rights to her lands, and continued to support religious houses and the college at Fotheringhay.

Cecily was working with her brother Warwick to find a wife for Edward IV, suitable for his status as the king. They were negotiating with the French king when Edward revealed that he had secretly married the commoner and widow, Elizabeth Woodville, in 1464. Both Cecily Neville and her brother reacted with anger.

In 1469, Cecily's brother, Warwick, and her son, George, changed sides and supported Henry VI after their initial support of Edward. Warwick married his elder daughter, Isabel, to Cecily's son George, Duke of Clarence, and his other daughter, Anne Neville, to Henry VI's son, Edward, Prince of Wales (1470).

There is some evidence that Cecily herself helped promote the rumor that began to circulate that Edward was illegitimate, and promoted her son George as the rightful king. For herself, the Duchess of York used the title "queen by right" in recognition of her husband's claims to the crown.

After Prince Edward was killed in a battle with Edward IV's forces, Warwick married his daughter Anne Neville to Cecily's son and Edward IV's brother, Richard, in 1472, though not without opposition by Anne's brother-in-law and Richard's brother, George. In 1478, Edward sent his brother George to the tower, where he died or was murdered -- according to legend, drowned in a butt of malmsey wine.

Cecily Neville left court and had little contact with her son Edward before his death in 1483.

After Edward's death, Cecily supported the claim of her son, Richard III, nullifying Edward's will and asserting that his sons were illegitimate. These sons, the "Princes in the Tower," are generally believed to have been killed by Richard III or one of his supporters, or perhaps during the early part of Henry VII's reign by Henry or his supporters.

When Richard III's brief reign ended at Bosworth Field, and Henry VII (Henry Tudor) became king, Cecily retired from public life -- maybe. There is some evidence that she may have encouraged support for an attempt to dethrone Henry VII, when Perkin Warbeck claimed to be one of the sons of Edward IV ("Princes in the Tower"). She died in 1495.

Cecily Neville is believed to have owned a copy of The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan.

Fictional Depiction

Shakespeare's Duchess of York: Cecily appears in a minor role as the Duchess of York in Shakespeare's Richard III. Shakespeare uses the Duchess of York to stress the family losses and agonies involved in the War of the Roses. Shakespeare has compressed the historical timeline and has taken literary license with how events happened and the motivations involved.

From Act II, Scene IV, on her husband's death and her sons' shifting involvement in the War of the Roses:

My husband lost his life to get the crown;
And often up and down my sons were toss'd,
For me to joy and weep their gain and loss:
And being seated, and domestic broils
Clean over-blown, themselves, the conquerors.
Make war upon themselves; blood against blood,
Self against self: O, preposterous
And frantic outrage, end thy damned spleen...

Shakespeare has the Duchess understanding early the villainous character Richard is in the play: (Act II, Scene II):

He is my son; yea, and therein my shame;
Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit.

And quickly after that, receiving news of her son Edward's death so soon after her son Clarence's:

But death hath snatch'd my husband from mine arms,
And pluck'd two crutches from my feeble limbs,
Edward and Clarence. O, what cause have I,
Thine being but a moiety of my grief,
To overgo thy plaints and drown thy cries!