The New Murrey and Blue blog

Reblogged from A Medieval Potpourri @sparkypus.com

The ruins of Astley Castle, Warwickshire. Think fortified manor house more than rugged castle.  One of the homes of Cecilia Bonville and her husband Thomas Grey.   The house came to the Grey family via marriage to a member of the Astley family c.1415. They both lie buried in the nearby church of St Mary the Virgin, Astley.  The church was built in 1343 by by Sir Thomas Astley. photo William Small RIBA 

Cecilia/Cecilie/Cicely Bonville, suo jure Baroness Bonville and Harrington (b.c.1460/61- d.12 May 1529) – an interesting lady who lived in the  maelstrom of many  significant events in the turbulent period that later became known as the Wars of the Roses   A great shame she did not leave a diary!  Researching Cecilia has reminded me of the quote by Historian Linda Pidgeon in her Ricardian article Ties That Bind : ‘Trying to uncover the the lives of medieval women, be they queens or members of the nobility can be difficult; they are usually hidden behind the activities of the men who dominated their lives…’  How true!  I have however given it my best shot and, here, I have tried to tell as much as I can of the story of Cecilia but have of necessity had to stray much into the lives of her contempories that figured so highly in her life.   She was descended from a high status family – her great grandfather,  William Bonville,  Lord Bonville, c.1393-1461,  was executed after the 2nd battle of St Albans on the 19th February  146I after what has been described as ‘mock trial‘ witnessed by Edward, the young Prince of Wales, son of Margaret of Anjou and her rather inadequate husband, the saintly Henry VI.  A short time earlier her father, William, Lord Harington b. c.1442 – d.31 December 1460  had fallen alongside his father, yet another William,  Lord Harington jure uxoris –b.1420 d.31 December 1460 –  at the Battle of Wakefield, fought on the 31 December 1460 for Richard Duke of York (1). These deaths would result in a still infant Cecilia – indeed she may have been born posthumously according to historian David Baldwin –  becoming one of the richest heiresses in England (2).   Her maternal lineage was equally impressive, her mother being Katherine Neville,  whose father was Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, and therefore a sister to the Richard Neville who would later become known as the Kingmaker.  Katherine was to suffer grievous loss in the tumult of the madness that would later become known as the  Wars of the Roses losing both her father and brother as well as her husband and father-in-law at the Battle of Wakefield.  With both her young husband and father-in-law dead Katherine would have found herself and her baby daughter in a vunerable position.  However a solution was at hand no doubt engineered by her brother Richard. In his book on the sisters of the Kingmaker David Baldwin explains the tricky and precarious position Katherine found herself in describing how  ‘Cecilia was heiress to both baronies by the time Edward IV became king and many years of defending the child’s rights against predators stretched before her (Katherine) but few would have dared threaten her after she wed the King’s friend, William, Lord Hastings, only months later. There can be little doubt that Warwick arranged this marriage for his sister, a marriage that provided her with wealth and security for most of the reign’.  

Richard Neville aka ‘The Kingmaker’.  Cecilia’s powerful uncle who would have arranged the marriage between her widowed mother, Katherine Neville and Lord Hastings. Artist Gilbert Bayes.

Lord Hastings‘ story has been told extensively elsewhere – his rise, rise and rise and sudden fall as well as his close friendship with Edward IV who was the font of all of Hastings vast powers.  A member of the Paston household recorded ‘what my seyd lord Chamberleyn may do wyth the Kyng and wyth all the lordys of Inglond I trowe it be not unknowyn to yow, most of eny on man alyve‘(3).    It’s therefore not surprising that in 1474 the king and queen, Elizabeth Wydville/Woodville,  who had known Hastings prior to her ‘marriage’ to the King, would push for a marriage between the queen’s son by her first marriage, the already widowed nineteen year old Thomas Grey –  b. 1455 d. 1501- to Hasting’s immensely rich step-daughter Cecilia Bonville then aged 13.  The marriage was negotiated between the queen and Hastings.  If in the event that Thomas should expire before consummating the marriage, then all would not be lost for Cecilia would then marry his younger brother Richard Grey.   In the event that neither Grey brother lived long enough to consummate the marriage then the queen would be able to choose a husband for Cecilia at her will.  Elizabeth would procure the marriage between her son and Cecilia by undertaking to pay 2500 marks –  which was never actually handed over because the king cancelled the debt which Hastings owed to him which amounted to the  equivalent amount (4).  Bearing in mind the young age of the bride,  according to the usual custom of the times,  the marriage would not have been immediately consummated until Cecilia was older.  It was not until June 1477 Sir John Paston wrote to his brother John ‘‘yisterdaye my lady Marques off Dorset, whych is my lady Hastyngs dowtre, had chylde a son’. 

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