Reminder: King Edward III started the 100 Years War -- war between English and French kings for throne of England / France, or at least more lands of France for the English kings.
Reminder: the 100 Years War ended, but with a gap of a couple of years morphed into the War of the Roses.
Reminder: Neville's father was a great-great-grandson of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland and Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmoreland, the daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, by Katherine Swynford.
John of Gaunt was certainly in the middle of the Wars of Roses and it makes sense why Sir Henry Neville wrote the history plays!
When one re-reads this family history of Sir Henry Neville, it's not hard to see why Shakespeare wrote:
- King John (1594 - 1596)
- Richard II (1595 - 1596)
- Henry IV, parts one and two (1597 - 1598)
- The Merry Wives of Windsor (1597 - 1601)
- Henry V (1599)
- Henry VI, parts one, two and three (1590 - 1592); a trinity of plays, followed by
- Richard III (1593) -- becoming a tetralogy; and then finally,
- Henry VIII (1613 -- co-written with Fletcher)
Still no explanation why Shakespeare made Richard III look so bad when his wife was a Neville: Anne Neville --> Queen Anne.
Sir Henry Neville was not that far removed from the first baron Neville ... Ralph de Neville.
Sir Henry Neville, Shakespeare, d. 1615, elder son of Sir Henry Neville, d. 1593; and, Elizabeth Gresham, who in turn was granddaughter of Sir Richard Gresham, Lord Mayor of London. Family roots: Yorkshire.
Sir Henry Neville, d. 1593; Billingbear House, Berkshire, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to King Henry VIII. So, Shakespeare's father was in King Henry VIII's privy chamber. Older brother of Sir Thomas Neville, Speaker of the House of Commons.
The Neville surname by this time was "noble in blood, distinguished in
chivalry, eminent in counsel, and celebrated in the historic annals of
Britain."
Sir Edward Neville, d 1538; Addington Park, Kent. Brother of George Nevill (sic) 5th Baron Bergavenny; the two brothers became close to King Henry VIII (their distant cousin) and the queen, Catherine of Aragon. Esquire of the Body and Sewer Keeper (official overseeing service to Henry VIII's household. Knighted in 1513; by 1516, Master of the Hounds and Gentleman of the Privy Chamber. Shakespeare's grandfather was in privy chamber.
George Neville, 4th Baron Bergavenny, d. 1492, English nobleman. Knighted by Edward IV (Richard III's brother) in 1471 after fighting for the King at the Battle off Tewkesbury. Wow.
Edward Neville, de facto 3rd (de jure 1st) Baron Bergavenny, d. 1476. Seventh son of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmoreland and Joan Beaufort, daughter of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford -- John of Gaunt ... third son of King Edward. In 1436 he married daughter of Richard de Beauchamp, 1st Earl of Worcester, and the former Isabel le Despenser. Wife died in 1448 and he married again -- more daughters.
1428 - 1472, the "kingmaker." Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, eldest son of 5th Earl of Salisbury (thus, became the 6th Earl of Salisbury; married into Warwick to become 16th Earl of Warwick. Married Anne Beauchamp, 16th Countess of Warwick, three children including Queen Anne of England; before marrying Richard III had been married to Prince Edward, only heir to King Henry VI, but that Prince killed at Battle of Tewkesbury, age 17.
Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmoreland, d. 1425, an English nobleman of the House of Neville. His mother was a Percy, Maud Percy [Yorkshire]. Mentioned in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part One, Act 1, scene 1, lines 30 -33. In that play, King Henry addresses Westmoreland (Neville) as his cousin -- Neville had been a follower of Thomas of Gloucester, one of the later sons of John of Gaunt, and likely killed by Richard II or Henry of Bolingbroke or even Thomas Mowbray (Duke of Norfolk and an admirer of Richard II from the very beginning).
Asimov: "Young Neville showed a masterly ability to choose the winner. When the showdown came between Thomas of Gloucester and King Richard II, Neville was on the side of the King and against his earlier patron. In 1397 [two years before Richard II was deposed] after Gloucester's imprisonment and death, Neville was rewarded with the earldom of Westmoreland [link here] -- far northwest England, half Scottish and half Yorkshire. So, we see the Yorks. Percys were in this area.
The Percys' castle: Alnwick Castle, Northumberland -- Alnwick on the coast, about midway between Edinburgh and Harrogate -- closer to Edinburgh than to Harrogate (Yorkshire).
John Neville, 3rd Baron Neville, d. 1388 and Maud Percy, d. 1379. Maud Percy was a daughter of Henry de Percy, 2nd Baron Percy of Alnwwick, Northumberland. English peer, naval commander, and soldier. Eldest son.
Ralph Neville, 2nd Baron Neville of Raby, d. 1367. He led the English forces to victory against King David II of Scotland at the Battle of Neville's Cross, 1346.
Ralph Neville, 1st Baron Neville, d. 1331, Raby Castle, County Durham, an English nobleman and head of the powerful Neville family.
Robert de Neville. Middleham Castle in Yorkshire; born 1223; heir to his grandfather Sir Robert de Neville of Raby, d. 1282. Robert de Neville was the eldest son of Geoffrey fitz Robert (later Geoffrey de Neville, d. c. 1242), and the grandson of Robert fitz Meldred, Lord of Raby. Robert de Neville, 2nd Baron Neville of Raby, d. 1282, a medieval English nobleman. Raby Castle in County Durham — Robert Neville was born about 1217 in Durham, England, son of Geoffrey Neville (~1197–<1242) and Joan Monmouth (~1203–>1247).
Geoffrey FitzRobert de Neville, Baron of Raby Also Known As: "Geoffrey Neville" Birthdate: circa 1197 Birthplace: Raby Castle, Staindrop, County Durham, England (United Kingdom) Death: after September 29, 1242.
Robert fitz Meldred, Lord of Raby. 1170 - 1248.
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Robert FitzMaldred, Lord of Raby Raby Keverstone Castle, Staindrop, Durham, England
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Neville, or Nevill, the family name of a famous English noble house, descended from Dolfin son of Uchtred, who had a grant from the prior of Durham in 1131 of "Staindropshire," co.
Durham, a territory which remained in the hands of his descendants for over four centuries, and in which stood Raby castle, their chief seat. His grandson, Robert, son of Meldred, married the heiress of Geoffrey de Neville (d. 1192-1193), who inherited from her mother the Bulmer lordship of Brancepeth near Durham. Henceforth Brancepeth castle became the other seat of the house, of which the bull's head crest commemorates the Bulmers; but it adopted the Norman surname of Neville (Neuville). Robert's grandson, another Robert, (d. 1282) held high position in Northumbria, and sided with Henry III in the Barons' War, as did his younger brother Geoffrey (d. 1285), ancestor of the Nevills of Hornby.
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Robert, Lord of Raby changed his name to that of his wife because of her high standing and wealth. All sons were to be named Neville after the stipulation of Isabel's grandfather Gilbert Neville that all male issue assume the name Neville.
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Connection With Cecil
In December 1584, Neville married Anne Killigrew (died 1632), the daughter of Henry Killigrew (died 1603) and Catherine Cooke, sister-in-law of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, by whom he had five sons and six daughters:[12]
Robert Cecil (created Earl of Salisbury in 1605) was the younger son of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley by his second wife, Mildred Cooke, eldest daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke of Gidea, Essex. His elder half-brother was Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, and philosopher Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, was his first cousin.
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Gunpowder Plot
Queen Elizabeth 1
2nd Earl of Essex
Sir Henry Neville: during his two years as ambassador of France; came back early, just in time to participate in Gunpowder Plot.
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury
House of Cecil: link here.
- Secretary of State, under both Elizabeth I and James VI (I) and smoothed the transition
- questionable what he knew when he knew of the gunpowder plot
- several executed but Cecil saved the lives of many (most) involved in this plot
- Sir Henry Neville was saved
Neville knighted in 1599 for service as ambassador to France (suggests that Queen Elizabeth I knighted him.
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1565 – 1601 -- executed) was an English nobleman and a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during the Nine Years' War in 1599. In 1601, he led an abortive coup d'état against the government of Elizabeth I and was executed for treason.
In the tower together with Sir Henry Neville:
The Earl of Southampton, most famously Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton (1573-1624), was a prominent English nobleman and a key patron of William Shakespeare, to whom Shakespeare dedicated his poems "Venus and Adonis" and "The Rape of Lucrece".
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Cannon Manufacturing
Neville sat in Parliament as the member for New Windsor (1584, 1586 and 1593), Sussex (1589), Liskeard (1597) and Berkshire (1604, 1614).
He served as High Sheriff of Berkshire in 1595.
Before his father's death, he lived at the old Archbishop's Palace at Mayfield in Sussex, inherited from his great-uncle Sir Thomas Gresham (died 1579), where he ran a highly successful cannon manufactury.
He was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Berkshire in 1596 and moved to Billingbear the next year. He was knighted in 1599.
Gresham: his mother's uncle.
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Other Links
Shakespeare: miscellaneous.
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