Anne of York, Duchess of Exeter

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Anne of York
Duchess of Exeter
Spouse 1) Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter
2) Sir Thomas St. Leger
Issue
Anne Holland
Anne St. Leger
Titles and styles
HRH The Duchess of Exeter
Royal house House of York
Father Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York
Mother Cecily Neville
Born 10 August 1439(1439-08-10)
Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire
Died 1 February 1476 (aged 37)
St. George's Chapel, Windsor

Anne of York, Duchess of Exeter (August 10, 1439, Fotheringhay – January 14, 1476) was the second child and eldest surviving daughter of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and Cecily Neville.

She was an older sister of Edward IV of England, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, Elizabeth, Duchess of Suffolk, Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, George, Duke of Clarence and Richard III of England.

In 1447, Anne was married to Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter. They had one daughter:

In the Wars of the Roses, Exeter sided with the House of Lancaster against the House of York despite Anne being a member of the latter. He was a commander at the great Lancastrian victories at Wakefield and St Albans. He was also a commander at the Lancastrian defeat at the Battle of Towton. He fled to the Kingdom of Scotland after the battle, and then joined Margaret of Anjou, Queen consort of Henry VI of England in her exile in France.

On March 4, 1461, her younger brother was declared King Edward IV in London. Exeter was attainted but the king gave his estates to Anne, with remainder to their daughter Anne. They were separated in 1464 and divorced in 1472.

The daughter, now a wealthy heiress, was married off (as mentioned above) to the king's stepson the Marquess of Dorset. The younger Anne, however died soon afterwards without children.

The king had, in 1467, extended the remainder of most of the Exeter lands to Anne and any heirs of her body (that is, if she remarried any future children could inherit them).

Anne married secondly Sir Thomas St. Leger c. 1474. She died giving birth to their only daughter:

Thus this daughter was heiress to the Exeter estates. She was contracted to marry Thomas Grey, grandson of the queen and son of the 1st Marquess of Dorset who had earlier been married to her half-sister.

In 1483 by act of parliament Anne St. Leger was declared heiress to the entire Exeter estate, except for a portion which was given to the queen's son Richard Grey. This act, by which the lands of the Exeter dukedom fell into the hands of the last duke's stepdaughter and his daughter's brother-in-law, along with a number of similar acts, is thought to be a cause of difficulty in maintaining noble support for the reign of Edward IV.[1][2]

The marriage with Thomas Grey never happened, and Anne St. Leger later married George Manners, 12th Baron de Ros.

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[edit] References

  1. ^ for this and the previous paragraphs regarding the Exeter inheritance see Edward IV by Charles Ross, ISBN 0300073720, pp. 336-337
  2. ^ The proper heir, if the usual inheritance customs had been adhered to, would have been Ralph Neville, 3rd Earl of Westmorland.

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