The New Murrey and Blue blog

Reblogged from A Medieval Potpourri @sparkypus.com

Tomb of Anne St Leger and George Manners, 11th Baron de Ros of Helmsley.  Note the brass plaque in the background dedicated to her parents, Anne of York and Sir Thomas St Leger.  Photo with thanks to humphreysfamilytree.com

‘Here lyethe buryede George Maners knyght lord roos who decesede/ the xxiii daye of October In the yere of our lorde god Mi Vc xiii and ladye Anne his wyfe dawghter of anne duchesse of exetur Suster unto/ kyng Edward the fourthe and of Thomas Sentlynger knight/ the wyche anne decessed the xxii day of apryll In the yere of our lorde god MiVc xxvi on whose souls god haue mercy amen’

Because there are several Annes – as well as a couple of Thomas’ mentioned in this post, I will in the interests of lucidity refer to them by their surnames throughout.

Anne St Leger (1475-1526) was the daughter of Anne of York (1439-1476) and Sir Thomas Leger (c.1444-1483) thus she was niece to two kings – Edward IV and Richard III.  Anne St Leger’s mother died, presumably from complications following childbirth, a few weeks after giving life to her daughter at Ulcombe, Kent, one of the St Leger properties while her father would be executed in 1483 after he had rebelled against her uncle, Richard III.    The death of her mother meant that she became the Exeter heiress despite her having not a soupçon of Holland blood running through her veins.   The crux of this rather irregular situation was that her mother’s first husband was Henry Holland,  Duke of Exeter (1430-1475) – an unhappy ‘marriage’  –  not surprising when you consider his atrocious reputation.  This ‘marriage’ – following a long separation – was eventually annulled which according to the canon law of the time meant that it had never actually existed.  Following upon the separation and annulment, in 1462 and 1465,  Anne St Leger’s mother was granted the whole of her ex husband’s Exeter inheritance for life, all his goods as well as a slew of properties (1).  This was where it paid dividends to have a king as a brother, particularly Edward IV, who had a rather cavalier attitude towards other peoples inheritances.  Think the Mowbray inheritance!  In 1475 Henry Holland,  quelle surprise,  came to a sticky end – or rather a wet one – having ended up in the English Channel after managing to  fall – somehow – from a ship returning from France.  Perhaps we should not be too surprised at this ‘accident’ when we recall that also present on board was none other than Sir Thomas Leger –  who it has been speculated was at the time the lover of Anne of York  –  by then of course, Henry’s ex ‘wife’.

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