George (York) of Clarence KG KB (1449 - 1478)

Born 21 Oct 1449 in Dublin Castle, Ireland

Ancestors

Husband of Isabel (Neville) of Clarence — married 11 Jul 1469 in Calais, France

Descendants

Died 18 Feb 1478 at age 28 in Tower of London, London, England

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Medieval Project WikiTree [send private message]

George (York) of Clarence KG KB is a member of the House of York.

George (York) of Clarence KG KB is managed by the Medieval Project. Pre-1500 certified? Join: Medieval Project Discuss: Medieval

Biography

Titles (Royal Ancestry)

Duke of Clarence

Lord of Richmond

Lieutenant of Ireland 1462-70, 1471

Privy Councillor 1462

Joint Lieutenant for King Henry VI 1470

Councillor to the Prince of Wales 1471

Great Chamberlain of England 1472

Constable of Queensborough Castle

and in the right of his wife:

sometime lord of Glamorgan and Morgannwg

Vitals

b. 21 Oct 1449, Dublin Castle, Ireland

d. 18 Feb 1478 (age 28) Tower of London

Buried: Tewkesbury Abbey, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire

Titles

George (21 Oct 1449 – 18 Feb 1478)

1st Duke of Clarence

1st Earl of Salisbury

1st Earl of Warwick

KG

Family

3rd son of Richard, 3rd Duke of York and Cecily Neville

bros. of Edward IV and Richard III.

Played both sides during Wars of the Roses.

Death and burial

(Royal Ancestry) George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, Lord of Richmond, was accused of high treason against his brother, King Edward IV, found guilty, and attainted 8 Feb, 1477/8, whereby all his honours were forfeited. He was executed in the Tower of London 18 Feb. 1477/8, and was buried in Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire.

(Royal Tombs of Medieval England) In 1477/8 Clarence was attainted, accused of 'a much more malicious, more unnaturall and lothely Treason, than atte eny tyme heretoform hath been compassed'. The principal charges were that the duke had spread rumors that Edward IV was illegitimate, used sorcery to get the support of the people, and, most damning of all, secretly kept a copy of the ruling made by the Readeption Parliament of 1470 recognizing the duke as next in line to the English throne after Edward, Prince of Wales. The leading prosecution witness was Edward IV himself, leaving no doubt about the verdict. Clarence was found guilty and executed in the Tower of London around 18 February 1478.

A letter to the prior of Canterbury Christ Church dated 20 February 1478 records the king's instructions for 'certen Lords to go with the body of the Dukys of Clarence to Teuxbury, where he shall be beryid....' There is no record in the abbey chronicles of the duke's burial, but most likely he was interred beside his wife in the vault to the east end of the high altar. At his death the duke owed the Tewkesbury monks 560 marks, possibly for work on a tomb, but the debt more likely reflected financial irregularities. Edward IV had it repaid as well as compensating John, Lord Dynham, for money allegedly extorted by the duke.

Around 1610 Lancaster Herald Nicholas Charles recorded Clarence's arms behind the Tewkesbury high altar, and noted that he was buried in a vault and without a tomb. The Tewkesbury vault measures 9ft by 8 ft and has a barrel ceiling 6ft 4in at the apex. In the eighteenth century the vault was opened at least three times for the burial of a local official (Samuel Hawlings) and his family. In 1826 the vault was opened again and found to contain the Hawlings family's coffins along with two unidentified skulls and other bones lying in the north west corner. At that point the vault was sealed with a large flat blue slab. In 1829 the Hawlings family's coffins were removed from the vault and the remaining bones placed in a stone coffin found in 1775. In 1876 the vault was opened again with the coffin found to be flooded, with the bones later placed in a wall cabinet where they lie today. Clarence and Isabel would most likely have been buried in lead coffins with outer wooden coffins, which may have been removed to accommodate the Hawlings family burials, or stripped at a later date. There is no record of what eventually happened to their remains or where they were buried.

Sources

• Source: Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham (Salt Lake City, Utah: the author, 2013), Vol II page 399.

Alice Langford, married John Stradling. They had one son, Edward, Esq., and one daughter Anne. John Stradling died in 1471. Alice, married (2nd) before 28 June 1483 (as his 1st wife) Richard Pole (or Poole), K.G. They had no known issue. Richard Pole, son and heir of Geoffrey Pole, Esq., by Edith, daughter of Oliver Saint John, Knt. He married (2nd) in or about Nov. 1487 Margaret Plantagenet, daughter of George Plantagenet, K.G., K.B., by Isabel, elder daughter and co-heiress of Richard Neville, K.G. Sir Richard Pole died shortly before 15 Nov. 1504.

• Source: Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham (Salt Lake City, Utah: the author, 2013), Vol IV page 129.

Isabel Neville, daughter and co-heiress, born at Warwick Castle 5 Sept. 1451. She married at Calais, France 11 July 1469 George Plantagenet, 6th but 3rd surviving son of Richard Plantagenet, by Cecily, daughter of Ralph Neville. He was born in Dublin Castle, Ireland 21 October 1449. They had two sons, Edward, Knt. [Earl of Warwick], and Richard, and two daughters, Anne and Margaret. He was created Duke of Clarence by his brother King Edward IV 28 June 1461. His wife, Duchess Isabel, died at Warwick Castle 22 Dec. 1476. George Plantagenet, was executed in the Tower of London 18 Feb. 1477/8.

• Royal Ancestry by Douglas Richardson Vol. V page 458
• Royal Tombs of Medieval England M. Duffy 2003 p. 253-255
• S648. Eileen McKinnon-Suggs (suggs1[at]msn.com). Our Kingdom Come. updated Oct 10, 2004. Accessed Dec 2, 2005.
• Hope, Sir William Henry St. John. The Stall Plates of the Knights of the Order of the Garter, 1348-1485 (A. Constable and Co., ltd., Westminster, 1901) Plate LXIV
• [http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ENGLAND,%20Kings%201066-1603.htm#Georgedied14771478 Medieval Lands
• "Edward IV: January 1478," in Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, ed. Chris Given-Wilson, Paul Brand, Seymour Phillips, Mark Ormrod, Geoffrey Martin, Anne Curry and Rosemary Horrox (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2005), British History Online, accessed March 8, 2021, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/parliament-rolls-medieval/january-1478.

__________