Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York

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Richard of Shrewsbury
Duke of York; Duke of Norfolk
Spouse	Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk
House	House of York
Father	Edward IV
Mother	Elizabeth Woodville
Born	17 August 1473(1473-08-17) Shrewsbury, Shropshire
Died	unknown and disputed

Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York and 1st Duke of Norfolk (17 August 1473 – 1483?) was the sixth child and second son of King Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville. He was born in Shrewsbury. He was a younger brother of Elizabeth of York, Mary of York, Cecily of York, Edward V of England and Margaret Plantagenet (Princess of York). He was also an older brother of Anne of York, George Plantagenet, Duke of Bedford, Catherine of York and Bridget of York.

[edit] Dukedoms

He was created Duke of York in 1474. From this time on, it became a tradition for the second son of the English sovereign to be Duke of York. On 15 January 1478, when he was about 4 years old, he married the 5-year-old Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk, who had inherited the vast Mowbray estates in 1476. Because York's father-in-law's dukedom had become extinct when Anne could not inherit it, he was created Duke of Norfolk in 1481.

[edit] Heir presumptive

Edward V and the Duke of York in the Tower of London by Paul Delaroche

His father died on 9 April 1483. Thus his brother Edward, Prince of Wales, became King of England and was acclaimed as such, and Richard his Heir Presumptive. This was not to last. Robert Stillington, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, testified that Edward IV had agreed to marry Lady Eleanor Talbot in 1461. Lady Eleanor was still alive when Edward married Elizabeth Woodville in 1464. The Regency council under Richard Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Gloucester, concluded that this was a case of bigamy, invalidating the second marriage and the legitimacy of all children of Edward IV by this marriage. Under Richard's influence, both Edward and Richard were declared illegitimate and removed from the line of succession on 25 June 1483. The Duke of Gloucester, as a surviving younger brother of Edward IV, became Richard III.

[edit] Later life

The Duke of York was sent to the Tower of London by King Richard in mid-1483. What happened to him and his brother—the Princes in the Tower—after that has been the subject of much speculation and debate. The view of some professional historians is that they were murdered not long afterwards on Richard's orders, but various alternative views have been put forward. In the 1490s, Perkin Warbeck claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, but he is generally considered to have been an imposter, and was labelled thus by the Tudor regime. The skeletons of two children discovered in a chest in the Tower in 1674 were presumed to be the princes, but the evidence is not conclusive.

Coat of arms of Richard, 1st Duke of York

[edit] Titles, styles, honours and arms

[edit] Arms

As son of the sovereign, Richard was granted use of the arms of the kingdom, differentiated by a label argent, on the first point a canton gules.^[1]

[edit] Ancestry

[edit] In popular culture

The comedy series The Black Adder features an alternative history where Richard succeeded his uncle King Richard III to the throne as King Richard IV of England (reigned 1485–1498, though Richard has two grown up sons in The Black Adder in 1485, when in reality he would have been twelve years old) before being poisoned and succeeded by King Henry VII.

[edit] See also

• Princes in the Tower

[edit] References

• Ashley, Mike (2002). British Kings & Queens. Carroll & Graf. ISBN 0-7867-1104-3.  page 218
• Weir, Alison (1995). The Princes in the Tower. Ballantine Books.. ISBN 0-3453-9178-0. 

[edit] External links

• The Peerage.com
• The Princes in the Tower
• stirnet.com
• Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York at Find a Grave