Free Anne Neville by Michael Hicks Page A

George Lord Latimer (d.1469) and Edward Lord Abergavenny (d.1476) in succession. Warwick’s two daughters, Isabel and Anne, could divide the rest. By 1464, it therefore appears, the earl and countess were reconciled to the division into three of their great accumulation of property. The Neville lands in tail male, comprising a couple of manors in Essex and the three great northern lordships of Middleham, Sheriff Hutton (Yorks.) and Penrith (Cumbria), were destined to pass to Warwick’s brother John and his son George Neville. All the rest, from Barnard Castle in County Durham, the Welsh marcher lordships, the Warwick and Despenser lands in theWest Midlands, to properties in twenty other counties, would be divided between Isabel and Anne as co-heiresses. 42 Even in three unequal parts, the divided estate was sufficient to make George, Isabel and Anne amongst the greatest heirs (and matrimonial catches) of their time.
    By 1464, if not earlier, it appears that Warwick had resigned himself to never fathering a son. It was in this year, perhaps not for the first time, that he was resettling his estates and most probably writing his will. Thirty-five was not unusually young to be planning for eternity. Actually it was only the year before that he had secured a royal licence to settle £1,000-worth of lands in trust for the payment of his debts and the performance of his will. 43 Early in 1465 he had lands settled on him, not in tail male as on previous occasions, but on his heirs, executors and assigns, clear evidence not only that he was thinking of his soul, but also that he was resigned to lacking a son and was providing for the eventuality that it was daughters whom he wished to inherit. 44 Moreover, in 1466 he compromised with his Beauchamp sisters-in-law. 45 Whilst he was alive, he could continue to frustrate their claims on his estates, but how would his daughters cope should he die? A handful of manors to each sister-in-law and an entail that promised them the succession should his countess die childless were prices worth paying to ensure that his daughters’ tenure of the Beauchamp estates and the earldom of Warwick would not be challenged when he himself was gone. His sisters-in-law did not however give up their claims on their father’s trust: Elizabeth Lady Latimer (d.1480), the youngest sister-in-law, regarded the trust and the Beauchamp Chapel as their family assets. 46 Presumably Warwick felt no need to compensate the powerless St Cross Hospital, Winchester, which he had already wronged, and could not persuade the Nevilles of Abergavenny to abandon their claim to a halfshare of the Despenser inheritance. Warwick had recognisedreproductive reality. He was investing in his heirs and ensuring their future security.
    If Warwick could not himself become a king or indeed a duke as he more feasibly aspired, his heirs could be ducal or royal and could satisfy those ambitions that he yet had to fulfil. That he possessed such exalted ambitions is shown by his decision to marry Francis Lord Lovell, the heir to a decidedly wealthy barony, not to one of his daughters but to his niece, when he was granted the boy’s wardship and marriage in 1465. 47 Anne Neville was the younger, of course. When we think of these two young ladies, Isabel – the eldest – must always have taken precedence and been more important. She would have the pick of their inheritance. Inevitably it was Isabel who embarked first on the marriage market. Nor should we overlook George Neville. Although only a baby, born on 22 February 1465, 48 he and his father were the heirs presumptive and future heads of Warwick’s house of Neville. Warwick was as concerned for the future of the main line, the male line, as for his own daughters.
    Actually it was as early as 1464 that the Burgundian chronicler Waurin located Warwick’s plan to marry his two daughters to their cousins and royal dukes, the king’s brothers George, Duke of Clarence and Richard, Duke of