Richmond, Stanley/Derby, Buckingham, Hastings: Who are These Guys? And Why do All Roads Seem to Lead to Either a Beaufort, a Woodeville, or a Neville?

Richmond

The Earl of Richmond, the man who will be the next King of England, Henry VII, is Henry Tudor (1457-1509).  A Lancastrian, Henry’s father was Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond (1430-1456); in turn, Edmund’s parents were Owen Tudor and Catherine of Valois, the widow of Henry V and the mother of Henry VI.  Henry Tudor’s mother was Margaret Beaufort (1443-1509), the great-granddaughter (through two generations of John Beauforts) of John of Gaunt, the head of the Lancastrian line.  Edmund was Margaret’s first husband.

Derby

The 1st Earl of Derby is Thomas Stanley (1435-1504), father of the captive George in Act Five.  Stanley married into this mess, when he became the THIRD husband of Margaret Beaufort (after she was widowed in her SECOND marriage… to Henry Stafford, brother to Humphrey Stafford (1425-1458) Earl of Stafford, and uncle to Henry Stafford (1454-1583) 2nd Duke of Buckingham [yes, THAT Buckingham, the Buckingham of Richard the Third]).

Buckingham

As we just said, the 2nd Duke of Buckingham is Henry Stafford (1454-1483), son of Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Stafford (1425-1458) and Margaret Beaufort (1427-1474).  THIS Margaret Beaufort was the daughter of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset (1406-1455), and Eleanor Beauchamp (1407-1467).  Edmund Beaufort had an older brother, John, 1st Duke of Somerset [1404-1444], who was the father of the OTHER Margaret Beaufort [1443-1509], the mother to Richmond [by Edmund Tudor] and wife in her third marriage to Derby.  Humphrey Stafford was the son of Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham (1402-1460), and Anne Neville (1414-1480), the aunt of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick (“Kingmaker”).

Before 1465, Buckingham married Catherine Woodeville (c. 1458-1497), sister to Elizabeth Woodeville, Edward IV’s Queen Elizabeth.  After Buckingham’s execution for treason, his widow Catherine married Jasper Tudor (c. 1431-1495), brother to Edmund Tudor, and son of the widow of Henry V, AND uncle to Richmond, Henry VII.

Hastings

William, 1st Baron Hastings (1431-1483) was the maternal grandson of Elizabeth Mortimer, widow of Henry “Hotspur” Percy (1364-1403), and her second husband Thomas de Camoys, 1st Baron Camoys. Hastings was also the second husband of Katherine Neville (1442-1503), yet another sister of Richard Neville, “Kingmaker.”  By the way, in Katherine Neville’s first marriage, she bore her husband William Bonville, 6th Baron Harrington (1442-1460), a daughter, Cecily Bonville (1460-1529) who became the second wife of 1st Marquess of Dorset, Thomas Grey (1457-1501)… yes, the son of Elizabeth Woodeville from her first marriage to Sir John Grey, and the only person to make it safely out of the play, avoiding one of Margaret’s Dozen curses.

what a web… I need a nap… or a drink.

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