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George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence

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George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence (21 October 1449 – 18 February 1478) was the third son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville, and the brother of kings Edward IV and Richard III. He played an important role in the dynastic struggle known as the Wars of the Roses, but is better remembered as the character in William Shakespeare's play Richard III who was drowned in a vat of Malmsey wine.

Life

George was born on 21 October 1449 in Dublin, at a time when his father was beginning to challenge King Henry VI for the crown. He was the third of the four sons of Richard and Cecily who survived to adulthood. Following his father's death and the accession of his elder brother, Edward, to the throne, George was created Duke of Clarence in 1461. (He was not actually the first Duke of Clarence. The first one, Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence (1338-1368), was a brother of the Black Prince, and the second, Thomas, a brother of Henry V.)

On 11 July 1469, George married Isabel Neville, elder daughter of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick ("Warwick the Kingmaker"). Following her father's death, Clarence was jure uxoris Earl of Warwick.

Clarence had actively supported his elder brother's claim to the throne, but, following his marriage, he began to play a dangerous game. When his father-in-law, the Earl of Warwick, became discontented and jealous, and deserted Edward to ally himself with Margaret of Anjou, consort of the deposed King Henry, Clarence joined him in France, taking his pregnant wife, Isabel. She gave birth to their first child, Anne, (who died shortly afterwards) on 16 April 1470, in a ship off Calais. After a short time, Clarence realised that his loyalty to his father-in-law was misplaced, for Warwick proceeded to marry his younger daughter, Anne, to Edward of Westminster, King Henry's heir, and it became evident that he was placing his own interests before those of Clarence and Isabel. There now seemed little chance that he intended to place Clarence on the throne instead of his elder brother; so Clarence changed sides. Henry VI rewarded Clarence by making him next in line to the throne after Henry's son Edward (justifying the exclusion of Edward IV either by attainder for his treason against Henry or on the grounds of his alleged illegitimacy).

Warwick's efforts to return Henry VI to the throne having failed, and Warwick himself having been killed in battle, George was restored to royal favour, but now saw his main rival as his younger brother, Richard Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Gloucester, who had married the widowed Anne Neville. In 1475, his wife Isabel, Anne's sister, finally gave birth to a son, Edward, later Earl of Warwick.

Like the first lords of Richmond, Peter II of Savoy and Ralph de Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland before him, George was endowed with the lordship of Richmondshire but without the peerage.

Death

The Neville sisters were heiresses to their mother's considerable estates, and their husbands vied with one another for pride of place, with Richard eventually winning out. Clarence, who had made the mistake of plotting against his brother Edward IV, was imprisoned in the Tower of London and put on trial for treason. Following his conviction, he was "privately executed" at the Tower on 18 February 1478, and the tradition grew up that he had been drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine. The tradition may have originated in a joke, based on his reputation as a heavy drinker. However, a butt was equal to two hogsheads—105 imperial gallons— (477.3 litres) enough to easily drown in. A body, believed to be that of Clarence, which was later exhumed, showed no indications of beheading, the normal method of execution for those of noble birth at that time.

Clarence's wife, Isabel, had died in 1476, two months after giving birth to a short-lived son, Richard (6 October 1476 - 1 January 1477), and they are buried together at Tewkesbury Abbey in Gloucestershire. Their surviving children, Margaret and Edward, were cared for by their aunt, Anne Neville, until she died in 1485, when Edward was 10 years old.

Portrait?

  • Allegedly a drawing of the 1st Duke of Clarence and his wife Isabella are on a copy of the Rous Roll together with his parents in law-the Kingmaker and his wife-and his brother Richard III and his wife and son. It is unknown if these were actual portraits from life.

References

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