Jacquetta of Luxembourg

1416 - 1472  (56 years)

• Name	Jacquetta of Luxembourg
  Born	1415/1416	Luxembourg
  Gender	Female
  Died	30 May 1472	Northamptonshire, England
  Notes	Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacquetta_of_Luxembourg She was the eldest daughter of Peter I of Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol, Conversano and Brienne and his wife Margaret of Baux (Margherita del Balzo of Andria). Jacquetta's paternal great-grandmother, Mahaut of Châtillon, was descended from Beatrice of England, daughter of King Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence. Jacquetta's mother, Margherita del Balzo, was a daughter of Francesco del Balzo, 1st Duke of Andria, and Sueva Orsini. Sueva descended from Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester and Eleanor of England, the youngest child of King John of England and Isabella of Angoulême. The Luxembourgs claimed to be descended from the water deity Melusine through their ancestor Siegfried of Luxembourg (AD 922-998). Jacquetta was a fourth cousin twice removed of Sigismund of Luxembourg, the reigning Holy Roman Emperor and king of Bohemia and Hungary. At age 17, Jacquetta married John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford. The Duke was the third son of King Henry IV of England and Mary de Bohun, and thus the grandson of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, himself the third son of Edward III. The marriage was childless. As was customary at the time, after her second marriage Jacquetta retained the title of her first husband and was always known as the Duchess of Bedford, this being a higher title than that of countess. Jacquetta inherited one-third of the Duke's main estates as her widow's share. Sir Richard Woodville, son of Sir Richard Wydevill, who had served as the late Duke's chamberlain, was commissioned by Henry VI of England to bring Bedford's young widow to England. During the journey, the couple fell in love and married in secret (before 23 March 1437), without seeking the king's permission. Jacquetta had been granted dower lands following her first husband's death on condition that she did not remarry without a royal licence. On learning of the marriage, Henry VI refused to see them, but was mollified by the payment of a fine of £1000. The marriage was long and very fruitful: Jacquetta and Richard had fourteen children, including the future Queen Consort Elizabeth Woodville. By the mid-1440s, the Woodvilles were in a powerful position. Jacquetta was related to both King Henry and Queen Margaret by marriage. Her sister, Isabelle de Saint Pol, married Margaret's uncle Charles du Maine while Jacquetta was the widow of Henry VI's uncle. She outranked all ladies at court with the exception of the queen. As a personal favourite, she also enjoyed special privileges and influence at court. Margaret influenced Henry to create Richard Woodville Baron Rivers in 1448, and he was a prominent partisan of the House of Lancaster as the Wars of the Roses began. The Yorkists crushed the Lancastrians at the Battle of Towton on 29 March 1461, and Edward IV, the first king from the House of York, took the throne. The husband of Jacquetta's oldest daughter Elizabeth (Sir John Grey) had been killed a month before at the Second Battle of St. Albans, a Lancastrian victory under the command of Margaret of Anjou. At Towton, however, the tables turned in favour of the Yorkists. Edward IV met and soon married the widowed Elizabeth Woodville in secret; though the date is not accepted as exactly accurate, it is traditionally said to have taken place (with only Jacquetta and two ladies in attendance) at the Woodvile family home in Northamptonshire. The marriage, once revealed, ruined the plans of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, Edward's cousin, who had been negotiating a much-needed alliance with France via a political marriage for Edward. With Elizabeth now Queen of England, the Woodvilles rose to great prominence and power. Jacquetta's husband Richard was created Earl Rivers and appointed Lord High Treasurer in March 1466. Jacquetta found rich and influential spouses for her children and helped her grandchildren achieve high posts. The rise of the Woodvilles created widespread hostility among the Yorkists, including Warwick and the king's brothers George and Richard, who were being displaced in the king's favour by the former Lancastrians. In 1469, Warwick openly broke with Edward IV and temporarily deposed him. Earl Rivers and his son John were captured and executed by Warwick on 12 August at Kenilworth. Shortly after her husband's execution by Warwick, Thomas Wake, a follower of Warwick?s, accused Jacquetta of witchcraft. The case fell apart when Warwick released Edward IV from custody, and Jacquetta was cleared by the king?s great council of the charges. Richard III revived the allegations of witchcraft against Jacquetta when he claimed that she and Elizabeth had procured Elizabeth's marriage to Edward IV through witchcraft; however, Richard never offered any proof to support his assertions. Jacquetta had much sorrow during this time including the execution of her son, Anthony, the 2nd. Earl Rivers, and her two grandsons, Edward V and Richard, the Two Princes in the Tower, presumably murdered by their uncle, Richard II. Jacquetta survived her husband by three years and died in 1472, at about 56 years of age. Through her daughter Elizabeth, Jacquetta was the maternal grandmother of Elizabeth of York, wife and queen of Henry VII, and therefore an ancestor of all subsequent English monarchs.
  Person ID	I35231	Master File
  Last Modified	25 Jun 2016

  
  

  Father	Pierre/Peter I de Luxembourg-Saint Pol,   b. 1390, Luxembourg ,   d. 31 Aug 1433, Rambures, Somme, Picardie, France  (Age 43 years)
  Mother	Marguerite/Margaret de Baux, Countess of Saint-Pol, of Brienne, and of Conversano,   b. 1394, Provincia di Bari Puglia, Italy ,   d. 15 Nov 1469, France  (Age 75 years)
  Family ID	F14544	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Richard WOODVILLE, Earl of Rivers,   b. 1405, Maidstone, Kent, England ,   d. 12 Aug 1469, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England  (Age 64 years)
  Notes	"Woodville" is the modern spelling of the name and was not so spelled at the time, even though uniform spelling was not established for almost two centuries. The spelling used at the time was "Wydeville" or "Wydville".
  Children	1. Jacquetta WOODVILLE,   b. ca 1437, Grafton, Northhamptonshire, England ,   d. ca 1475, England  (Age ~ 38 years)
  Last Modified	25 Jun 2016
  Family ID	F14543	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart