Edward IV Plantagenet King of England [3089] ^24,25

   FamilySearch ID: 9H58-PGC.

  General Notes:

Acceded: 28 Jun 1461, Westminster Abbey, London, England
Burke say he was born 29 Apr 1441. Deposed 1470-1471. The Comple te Peerage v.XIIpII,pp.909-910.
http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/PLANTAGENET3.htm#EDWARD IV PLANTAGENET (Ki ng of England)
http://www.hull.ac.uk/php/cssbct/cgi-bin/gedlkup.php/n=royal?royal00991

King of England 1461-1470 & 1471-1483
King Edward IV was the eldest son of Richard, Duke of York (son of Prince Richard of Conisburgh, Earl of Cambridge ) and Cecily Neville. He was born at Rouen and shared, from 1455, in his father's vicissitudes at the commencement of the War of the Roses. We find him in the neighbourhood of St. Albans, at Ludlow, an exile in Ireland, Guernsey and Calais. His first title was Earl of March and it was by that title that he was attainted by a Lancastrian Parliament in 1459. From Calais, in 1460, he came to England, and helped the Yorkists to win the Battle of Northampton. When his father was defeated and slain at Wakefield, he resolved on claiming the Crown for himself. He defeated the Western Lancastrians at Mortimer's Cross in February 1461, pushed on to London, where he was received as King, and then, without waiting to be crowned, hurried northwards and annihilated Queen Margaret's great Northern army at the Battle of Towton. This left him in secure possession of all England but a few Northern castles which were gradually taken.
Fresh risings of Lancastrians were easily defeated in 1464, and in the next year the captive Henry VI was sent to the Tower. But Edward, though owing his victories in the field wholly to his own excellent grasp of strategy and tactics, had really owed his throne to the support of the powerful family of Neville, with which he soon managed to quarrel. Richard 'the Kingmaker' Neville <http://www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/rneville_eofw.html>, Earl of Warwick, the head of this family, expected Edward to be guided by his counsels in the matter of his marriage as in everything else. Edward, however, fell in love with the lowly Elizabeth Woodville, widow of Sir John Grey, and secretly married her. When the marriage was declared to the World at Reading Abbey <http://www.berkshirehistory.com/churches/reading_abbey.html>, Warwick chose to be offended, and he was still more offended by Edward's zeal for a Burgundian as opposed to a French alliance. He thereupon determined, in 1469, to upset his puppet King, and the first tool of which he made use was Edward's vain and foolish brother, the Duke of Clarence. Edward, who, in spite of his military talents, was slow to take the field in person, was captured and imprisoned. Yet Warwick hesitated to put Clarence on the throne and was, therefore, obliged to release his captive. A fresh treason of Warwick opened the King's somewhat sleepy eyes and he defeated Warwick and Clarence at Stamford in 1470. They thereon fled to France, and Warwick at last threw himself into the arms of the Lancastrians.
On the news of this, other partisans of the Nevilles in England rose in arms and forced Edward to flee to the Low Countries. Warwick returned to England and put Henry VI again upon the throne. But the Duke of Burgundy who, much as he hated Edward, hated France more, looked upon the Lancastrian Restoration wholly as a French job, and supplied Edward with money for a fresh attempt upon England. Edward landed in Yorkshire and professed, at first, only to claim his own Duchy of York. However, being gradually better and better received as he marched southwards, soon resolved to claim the Crown again. Warwick was no match for Edward as a general, was defeated and slain at Barnet in April 1471 and, three weeks later, Queen Margaret and the true Lancastrians were equally annihilated at Tewkesbury. Bloody reprisals followed these victories, as indeed they followed the victories of each side in these horrible wars. Among Edward's victims were King Henry VI and his only son, Prince Edward of Lancaster.
The rest of Edward's reign was tranquil. He invaded France with a very large army in 1474, but he early let the King of France understand that he was not very much in earnest, that it was the sort of thing a spirited King of England was expected to do, but that a round sum of money, which the English could call a tribute and the French a pension, would buy his retreat. The wily Louis XI agreed to these terms and even promised to wed his son, the Dauphin, to Edward's eldest daughter. Edward put his brother, Clarence, to death in 1478. The motive seems to have been jealousy, whether ill or well founded it is difficult to say. He even managed to quarrel to some extent with his surviving brother, Richard of Gloucester , who had been perfectly loyal to him, before the end of his reign. He died in his forty-first year in 1483 and was briefly succeeded by his young son, Edward V .
All that we know of Edward's character is entirely to his discredit. His only ability was that of the soldier and his laziness, at the times when he should have been most active, decidedly counterbalanced his military talents. He was sensual and immoral to a flagrant extent, and drink and debauchery probably hastened his end. He was also vindictive, suspicious and cruel to a degree remarkable even in that age of blood. He professed some interest in letters and allowed Caxton to set up a press at Westminster. In person, he was, for that age, a giant, being six feet three inches tall, and was considered, although his portraits belie it, to have been of great personal beauty. It is easy for kings to be thought handsome.
Edited from CRL Fletcher's 'Historical Portraits' (1909)


Edward IV Plantagenet, King of England succeeded to the title of Earl of March between 21 September 1445 and 22 December 1445.¹ On 1448 his name was legally changed to Edward Plantagenet.¹ He fought in the First Battle of St. Albans on 22 May 1455.¹ He held the office of Constable of Bristol Castle on 14 November 1460.¹ He succeeded to the title of 4th Duke of York [E., 1385] on 30 December 1460.¹ He succeeded to the title of Earl of Ulster on 30 December 1460.⁴ He succeeded to the title of 3rd Earl of Cambridge [E., 1414] on 30 December 1460.⁵ He succeeded to the title of 17th Lord of Clare [feudal baron] on 31 December 1460.⁶ He fought in the Battle of Mortimer's Cross on 2 February 1460/61 at Wigmore, Herefordshire, England <pd116.htm>, where he utterly defeated Earls of Pembroke and Wiltshire.⁷ He gained the title of King Edward IV of England on 4 March 1461.⁸ He was crowned King of England on 28 June 1461 at Westminster Abbey, Westminster, London, England <pd168.htm>, and styled 'Rex Angliae et Franciae et Dominus Hiberniae.⁸' He was deposed as King of England on 3 October 1470.⁴ He gained the title of King Edward IV of England on 11 April 1471.⁴ His marriage to Elizabeth Wydevill was annulled on 25 June 1483 by an Act of Parliament, known as the 'Titulus Regius', because of King Edward's alleged precontract to Eleanor Butler. The marriage was ultimately recognised as valid in October 1485 by the first Act of Parliament of King Henry VII.² He has an extensive biographical entry in the Dictionary of National Biography.⁹

1.G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume XII/2, page 909. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.

2. Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Family: A Complete Genealogy (London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999), page 138. Hereinafter cited as Britain's Royal Family.
3. Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Family, page 141

4. Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Family, page 137

5. Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume II, page 495.

6. Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume III, page 246.

7. Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume XII/2, page 910.

8. C.F.J. Hankinson, editor, DeBretts Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, 147th year (London, U.K.: Odhams Press, 1949), page 20 . Hereinafter cited as DeBretts Peerage, 1949.

9. Matthew H.C.G., editor, Dictionary of National Biography on CD-ROM (Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1995), reference "Edward IV, 1442-1483". Hereinafter cited as Dictionary of National Biography.

10. Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume X, page 34.

11. Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume XII/2, page 852.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Acceded, 28 Jun 1461, Westminster Abbey, London, England.

Edward married Eleanor Talbot Bareness of Sudeley [3101] [L7LT-6F5] [MRIN: 855], daughter of John of Shrewsbury Talbot 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury [12409] and Elizabeth Butler Countess Shrewsbury [18138]. (Eleanor Talbot Bareness of Sudeley [3101] [L7LT-6F5] died on 30 Jun 1468.)

Edward next married Elizabeth Woodville Queen of England [3115] [LZPS-YTQ] [MRIN: 857], daughter of Richard Woodville 1st Earl Rivers [9095] and Jacquetta of Luxembourg zu St. Pol [9099], on 1 May 1464 in Grafton Regis, Northants. (Elizabeth Woodville Queen of England [3115] [LZPS-YTQ] was born about 1437 in Grafton Regis, Northants, died on 8 Jun 1492 in Saint Saviour's Abbey, Bermondsey, London, England and was buried on 12 Jun 1492 in St.George's Chapel, Windor Castle, Windsor, Berkshire, England.)

Edward next married Elizabeth Wayte [41977] [MRIN: 551609150], daughter of Thomas Wayte [41978] and Unknown.