Richard duke of York

York, Richard Plantagenet, duke of (1411–60), earl of Ulster, lord of the liberty of Meath and chief governor 1449–50, 1459–60. Descended on both sides from Edward III (through Lionel, duke of Clarence, and Edmund, duke of York), he inherited his dukedom from his paternal uncle Edward in 1415, and his Irish lands, with others in England and Wales, from his maternal uncle Edmund, earl of March, in 1425. Previously Henry VI's lieutenant in France (1436–7, 1440–6), he was appointed lieutenant of Ireland in 1447. The truth behind contemporary rumours that this was an attempt to exile York (then the king's nearest, but unacknowledged, heir) from English politics has been much debated. In fact he exercised the office mainly by deputy and found it advantageous to retain it, notwithstanding his preoccupations as leader of the Yorkist faction in the early stages of the Wars of the Roses. Except when briefly displaced (1453–4) by James, earl of Wiltshire and 5th earl of Ormond, he remained lieutenant until his death.

York's two personal visits to Ireland are amongst the best known of late medieval chief governorships. The appointment of such a highranking lieutenant was well received. After his arrival at Howth in July 1449, a minimal show of force in the north and Leinster achieved, shortlived though they proved, the most impressive series of Gaelic submissions since Richard II's expedition of 1394–5. Financial difficulties and news of political crisis in England prompted his departure at the end of August 1450, but the strength of the support York won in Ireland was proved in 1459, when he took refuge there after fleeing on 12 October from a prospective battle against a royal army near Ludlow, Shropshire. Despite his attainder for treason in England in November, a parliament at Drogheda confirmed York as lieutenant, protected him from English jurisdiction by the declaration of 1460, and created a separate Irish coinage. The successful Yorkist invasion of England that summer was planned in Ireland.

Although York was killed in a battle at Wakefield, Yorkshire, on 30 December, the lasting sympathy in Ireland for his cause was demonstrated by the support later given to Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck.

Bibliography

Johnson, P. A. , Duke Richard of York, 1411–1460 (1988)

Elizabeth Matthew

Richard York, duke of 1411-60, English nobleman, claimant to the throne. He was descended from Edward III through his father, Richard, earl of Cambridge, grandson of that king, and also through his mother, Anne Mortimer, great-granddaughter of Lionel, duke of Clarence, who was the third son of Edward III. Richard was brought up as a royal ward, having become duke of York on the death of his uncle Edward in 1415. He inherited (1425) the vast estates of another uncle, Edmund de Mortimer, 5th earl of March, which made him the richest landholder in England. He served in the retinue of Henry VI in France (1431) and was lieutenant general of France and Normandy (1436-37). In 1438 he married Cecily Neville, daughter of the earl of Westmoreland. He served again as lieutenant general in France from 1441 to 1445 but became increasingly discontented with the English government, which diverted men and funds from his operations to those of John Beaufort, 1st duke of Somerset. The death of the king's uncle Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, in 1447 made York heir presumptive to the throne, and the government, to get him out of the way, promptly ordered him to Ireland as lieutenant. He did not go until 1449 and returned in 1450 to struggle against the growing power of Queen Margaret of Anjou and Edmund Beaufort, 2d duke of Somerset . In 1453 a son born to Henry VI displaced York as heir to the throne, but the onset of the king's insanity enabled York to secure control of the government as protector (1454). Dismissed when the king recovered, York resorted to arms (see Roses, Wars of the ) and, with the help of his wife's relatives, most notably Richard Neville, earl of Warwick , won the first battle of St. Albans (1455), in which Somerset was killed. After this victory York once more became protector, but by 1456 the queen's faction had regained power. Forced to flee to Ireland in 1459, York returned after the victory of his supporters at Northampton (1460) and for the first time laid claim to the throne. A compromise was arranged by which York was recognized as protector and heir apparent to the throne, but Margaret (whose own son had thus been disinherited) gathered her forces and defeated the Yorkists at the battle of Wakefield, in which York was slain. His son, Edward of York, however, was to secure the throne as Edward IV.

Bibliography: See E. F. Jacob, The Fifteenth Century (1961).

York, Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of (1411–60) The son of Richard, Earl of Cambridge, and Anne Mortimer. Until 1453 he was heir to the throne of England and led the opposition to HENRY VI, especially after the death of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester in 1447. In 1455 he captured Henry at the first Battle of St Albans and became Protector of the kingdom. In October 1460 he claimed the English throne, but two months later he was defeated and killed by LANCASTRIAN forces in the Battle of WAKEFIELD. The YORKIST party survived him, and triumphed at the second Battle of St Albans.