Cecily Neville, Duchess of York
(1415-1495)
BIRTH
May 3, 1415
PLACE
Raby, England
DEATH
May 31, 1495
PLACE
Berkhamsted, England
FAMILY
MOTHER
Richard III of England
(1452-1485)
HOMES
RELIGIOUS VIEWS
CHRISTIAN
CATHOLIC
MEMBERSHIPS
AWARDS
Cecily Neville (1415–1495), Duchess of York, was the wife of Richard, Duke of York, and mother of Edward IV and Richard III. Her marriage placed her at the center of the Wars of the Roses. After Richard and their son Edmund were killed at Wakefield in 1460, she witnessed the rise and collapse of successive Yorkist kingships. She managed substantial estates and spent her later years at Berkhamsted in a household marked by religious devotion. She was buried at Fotheringhay.
EARLY LIFE
Cecily Neville was born on May 3, 1415, at Raby Castle in County Durham, England, the youngest daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, and his second wife, Joan Beaufort, a daughter of John of Gaunt. Through her mother she was a great-granddaughter of Edward III. She was later called the Rose of Raby, a romantic nickname first found in an 18th-century novel. Her father arranged her marriage to Richard, Duke of York, who was his ward, and the couple married in about 1429. Richard held a strong claim to the English throne, and the marriage linked the powerful Neville family to the house of York.
Cecily and Richard had many children, including the future kings Edward IV and Richard III, and George, Duke of Clarence. She accompanied her husband to France and Ireland during his service there.
During the Wars of the Roses, her husband and son Edmund were killed at the Battle of Wakefield in December 1460. Her eldest son, Edward, took the throne as Edward IV in 1461. Cecily remained an influential figure at court and was known as Proud Cis. In 1483 her youngest son took the throne as Richard III.
Cecily lived to see her granddaughter Elizabeth of York become queen as the wife of Henry VII. She died at Berkhamsted Castle on May 31, 1495, and was buried with her husband at Fotheringhay.
CAREER
DEATH
Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, was the wife of Richard, Duke of York, and mother of Edward IV and Richard III. Cecily remained an influential figure at court and was known as Proud Cis. Cecily Neville died on May 31, 1495, in Berkhamsted, England. The available biographical account does not describe a continuous final medical course. It gives no dependable sequence of treatment and last symptoms from which to reconstruct a more detailed bedside narrative.
POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
Five dedicated biographies were not identified. These editorial selections include biographies where available, with personal writings, biographical reference and related studies clearly labelled.
1. Cecily Duchess of York — J. L. Laynesmith. Find on Amazon
2. Cecily Neville: Mother of Kings — Amy Licence. Find on Amazon
3. Cecily Neville: Mother of Richard III — John Ashdown-Hill. Find on Amazon
4. The Nevills of Middleham: England’s Most Powerful Family in the Wars of the Roses — K. L. Clark. [Family biography] Find on Amazon
5. Richard Duke of York: King by Right — Matthew Lewis. [Related biography of her husband] Find on Amazon
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