ISABEL NEVILLE is one of the most frequently forgotten women of the Wars of the Roses; the multi-generational battle for the crown between different branches of the Plantagenet family, the Yorks and the Lancasters, which took place in 15th century England. Born at Warwick Castle in 1451, she was the eldest daughter of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (known as the King-maker) and Anne de Beauchamp. This made her a member of one of the most powerful and influential families of the day and a great heiress, but it also left her vulnerable to the changing fortunes of that family as her father’s shifting loyalties upended her life again and again.

In 1469 she was married to the King-maker’s first cousin, George, Duke of Clarence who was the younger brother of Edward IV and older brother of the future Richard III making Isabel the King’s sister-in-law. The marriage went expressly against the orders of King Edward though his mother, Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, may have agreed to it. The following year her husband and father were forced to flee England in 1470 after a failed coup against Edward. Isabel went with them and tragically lost her first child on the journey. This baby was either stillborn at sea outside Calais, or was born and died very quickly on the boat. She would go on to have two surviving children; a daughter named Margaret, later Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury who was executed by Henry VIII and a son named Edward, Earl of Warwick, who was executed by Henry VII.

Her younger sister was Anne Neville, who became the Lancastrian Princess of Wales through her first marriage. When she was widowed just weeks after the death of their father however, Anne was sent to live with George and Isabel with George keen to avoid her remarrying and taking her half of the Warwick inheritance to her second husband. Remarry she did though, to his brother, then known as Richard, Duke of Gloucester, making Isabel and Anne both sisters and sisters-in-law. Isabel didn’t live to see her sibling become Richard III’s queen however. She died in December 1476 at the age of just 25, probably from delayed childbirth complications. Her baby (a boy named Richard) died on 1 January 1477.

This video from History Calling will cover the life of Isabel Neville, Duchess of Clarence, England’s tragic and forgotten royal duchess and will help you with understanding the Wars of the Roses.

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Britain’s Bloody Crown Presented by Dan Jones (2016) [Documentary covering the Wars of the Roses] https://amzn.to/2TPep8i
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THUMBNAIL: Wikimedia Commons, Wolfgang Sauber, CC BY-SA 3.0, 2.5, 2.0 and 1.0 (detail)

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