Individual Details

Woodville also spelled WYDEVILLE, WYDVILLE, or WYDEVILL. Father-in-law of the Yorkist king Edward IV of England (reigned 1461-70, 1471-83). Nobles opposed to Rivers initiated the uprising that temporarily drove Edward into exile in 1470. Woodville fought with distinction during the last two decades of the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) against France and in about 1436 married the wealthy Jacquetta of Luxembourg, Duchess of Bedford. He was created Baron Rivers in 1448. In the opening years of the Wars of the Roses (1455-85), Rivers supported the Lancastrian king Henry VI against his Yorkist opponents. Rivers was present when the Lancastrian army was annihilated at Towton, Yorkshire, in March 1461; and he then shifted his allegiance to the newly crowned Yorkist monarch Edward IV. On May 1, 1464, Rivers married his daughter Elizabeth to Edward. Through royal favour most of his five surviving sons and eight daughters were married into noble families. Rivers himself was created Earl Rivers in 1466 and constable of England in 1467. Meanwhile, the older nobility eyed the upstart Woodvilles with hatred. The destruction of the family's influence was one of the aims of the rebellion against Edward instigated by Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, in 1469. After the defeat of Edward at Edgecote, Northamptonshire (July 1469), Rivers and one of his sons were captured and beheaded.

Birth	12 Aug 1405	Maidstone, Kent, England
Military	1429	Captain
Military	1433	served in France - France
Military	From 1435 to 1436	served under William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk
Military	1435	knight of the regent Duke of Bedford
Military	1439	fought under Somerset and Shrewsbury
Military	From 1441 to 1442	fought under Duke of York
Title (Nobility)	9 May 1448	named Baron Rivers by Henry VI
Occupation	1450	appointed seneschal of Gascony (but failed to reach it before its fall)
Military	From 1454 to 1455	lieutenant of Calais - Calais, Pas de Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France
Occupation	1459	appointed Warden of the Cinque Ports
Title (Nobility)	1466	1st Earl Rivers
Occupation	Mar 1466	appointed Lord Treasurer - England
Death	12 Aug 1469	Executed / Beheaded Gosford Green, Coventry, Warwickshire, England
Burial		Maidstone, Kent, England
Occupation		Earl of Rivers
Occupation		Constable of England, Earl of Rivers
Occupation		Treasurer of England
Occupation		Baron Rivers 1448, - Knight of the Garter 1450
Kinship		best remembered as the father of Elizabeth Woodville and the maternal grandfather of Edward V and the maternal great-grandfather of Henry VIII

Child

Elizabeth WOODVILLE (1437 - 1492)