| Notes |
- Jacquetta de Luxembourg (1415/1416 May 30, 1472) was the elder daughter of Pierre de Luxembourg, Comte de Saint Pol, Conversano et Brienne and his wife Margaret de Baux (Margherita del Balzo of Andria).
On April 22, 1433 at 17 years of age, Jacquetta married John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford at Therouenne. The Duke was a son of King Henry IV of England and Mary de Bohun. Sigismund of Luxembourg was Jacquetta's cousin, the reigning Holy Roman Emperor, and King of Bohemia and Hungary. The marriage was meant to strengthen England's ties with the Imperial family and to increase English influence in Continental affairs. Through her mother, Jacquetta could trace her ancestry back to Guy de Montfort, the only child of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester and his wife, Princess Eleanor of England. Through her father, Jacquetta was also descended from the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelus, Louis VI of France, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa and Henry III of England.
The marriage was childless and the Duke died on the night of September 14/15, 1435 at Rouen. Sir Richard Woodville, the son of the late Duke's chamberlein, was commissioned by Henry VI to bring the young widow to England. During the rough journey, the couple fell in love and married in secret (before March 23, 1436/1437), without seeking the king's permission. Enraged, Henry VI refused to see them but was mollified by the payment of a fine.
By the mid-1440s, the Woodvilles were in ascendency. Queen Marguerite influenced her husband to create Richard Woodville 1st Earl Rivers in 1448. Jacquetta was related to both the Queen and the King. Her sister, Isabelle de Saint Pol, married the brother of Queen Marguerite, while Jacquetta was herself the erstwhile widow of the uncle of Henry VI. As royalty, she outranked all ladies at Court with the exception of the Queen herself. As a personal favourite and close relative of the Queen, she also enjoyed special previleges and influence at court. Happily married to the love of her life, Jacquetta bore Richard sixteen children, among them Elizabeth Woodville who was to become the wife of King Edward IV of England, and mother of Elizabeth of York (in her turn mother of King Henry VIII, thus making Jacquetta his great-grandmother).
The death of her son-in-law John Grey (Elizabeth's husband) in the second battle of St. Albans against King Edward IV brought out the strong calculating and manipulative mind in Jacquetta. Following her mother's directives, in 1464, Elizabeth (with her two minor sons) accosted Edward (out on a hunt) at Whittlebury Forest near the family home and pleaded with the King to return the confiscated estates of her husband to her sons. Thoroughly bewitched by her beauty, Edward offered to make her his mistress, but she held out for marriage. A desperate Edward married Elizabeth in secret, but the marriage was not disclosed as it would mean difficulty for the House of York. Once it became common knowledge, however, the alliance displeased Warwick, the King's most trusted ally, and his friends.
With Elizabeth as Queen of England, Jacquetta managed to find rich and influential spouses for all her children and helped her grandchildren achieve high posts. Devoid of scruples, she arranged for her 20-yr-old son, John Woodville, to marry the widowed and very rich dowager Duchess of Norfolk, Catherine Neville. The bride was 85 yrs old at the time of the wedding. The marriage caused a furore and earned the Woodvilles considerable unpopularity. Catherine Neville's son, the Duke of Norfolk, especially, turned against the Queen and her family and vowed vengence against the Yorkist allies for the slur on his family honour.
Sadly, the Woodvilles' luck soon ran out. The Lancastrian side (on which the Woodvilles found themselves) was the losing side in the the War of the Roses. In 1466, Richard Woodville was captured by Warwick and executed subsequently in 1469. A broken hearted Jacquetta survived her beloved husband by six years and died in 1472, at about 56 years of age.
Jacquetta was as influential in death as she was in life. She is credited with being the ancestress of most of present day European monarchs. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
|
1415 - 1472 (~ 57 years)
, d. 31 Aug 1433, Rambures, Somme, France