Anne Neville spent most of her short life as someone else’s asset. Born into the richest family in England below the crown, she was moved, married and hidden according to what the men around her wanted from her inheritance. She ended it as a crowned queen, and in her last weeks she was the subject of a rumour that her own husband was hastening her death.
The Horror
Anne was born on 11 June 1456 at Warwick Castle, the younger daughter of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, the man later called the Kingmaker. In July 1470 she was betrothed to Edward of Westminster, son of the deposed Henry VI, as part of her father’s switch from the Yorkist cause to the Lancastrian one. They were probably married at Angers on 13 December 1470. She was fourteen.
The marriage lasted months. At Tewkesbury on 4 May 1471 the Lancastrians were beaten, Prince Edward was killed and Anne was taken prisoner. She was a widow, still in her teens, and co-heiress with her sister Isabel to the Warwick estates. Isabel’s husband was George, Duke of Clarence, who stood to gain most if Anne stayed unmarried and her share stayed within reach.
Accounts differ on what followed. The documented outline is that Clarence kept Anne under his control and that Richard, Duke of Gloucester, Clarence’s younger brother, found her in London. The Croyland Chronicle supplies the best-known detail, that she was disguised as a cookmaid. That detail comes from one chronicle and is presented as one account among several, so the kitchen scene should be read as reported rather than proven.
Anne and Richard were married in 1472. The exact date is unknown. A papal dispensation was issued on 22 April 1472, and most accounts place the wedding in late spring or early summer, though the Lenten prohibition makes a spring date debatable. They lived much of their time in the north, and had a son, Edward of Middleham. In 1483 Richard took the throne, and Anne was crowned beside him on 6 July.
The crown brought grief. Edward of Middleham died suddenly at Middleham Castle in April 1484, aged about seven. His birth year is uncertain, 1473 or more probably 1476. Anne’s own health then declined, and she died at Westminster on 16 March 1485, probably of tuberculosis. A solar eclipse occurred that day, and some contemporaries saw it as an omen.
The Legend
The rumour that Richard poisoned her is a rumour, not a finding. It said that, with Anne dying and no surviving child, Richard meant to marry his niece Elizabeth of York. The Crowland Chronicle claims he was forced to deny it, and Anne’s biographers record a public denial on 30 March 1485 before an assembly of lords. Tuberculosis is the probable cause of death, and there is no reason to doubt that Richard’s grief was genuine. The story survives because of what people already thought of Richard, not because of any evidence of poison.
The Modern Relic
Anne was buried on 25 March 1485 in Westminster Abbey, in an unmarked grave near the High Altar. Nothing marked the spot until 1960, when the Richard III Society erected a bronze memorial tablet on a wall near her grave. Richard himself died in battle five months after her.
