Anne of York, Duchess of Exeter
Anne of York, Duchess of Exeter ( * August 10 1439 in Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire, † January 14, 1476 ) was the second child and eldest surviving daughter of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville. She was the older sister of Edward IV of England; Edmund, Earl of Rutland, Elizabeth of York, Duchess of Suffolk, Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence and Richard III of England.
Marriages and descendants
In 1447, Anne married Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter. They had a daughter, Anne Holland (* circa 1455, † between August 26, 1467 and June 6, 1474 ). During the Wars of the Roses, Exeter was on the side of the House of Lancaster against the House of York, although Anne was a member of the latter. Exeter was the commander at the great victories of the Lancasters in Wakefield and St Albans. He was also a commander in the defeat of the Lancastrians at the Battle of Towton. He fled after the battle the kingdom of Scotland, and then joined Margaret of Anjou, wife of King Henry VI, in their exile in France.
On March 4, 1461 her younger brother in London was declared Edward IV as king. Exeter was outlawed, the king his goods to Anne, her daughter Anne Holland was used as heiress. Anne and Exeter separated in 1464 and were divorced in 1472.
Her daughter Anne, now a rich heiress, married in October 1466 at the Palace of Placentia Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset, son of the wife of Edward IV Elizabeth Woodville, from her first marriage. Lady Dorset died sometime between August 26, 1467 and June 6, 1474, leaving no descendants. Grey later married Cecily Bonville, 7th Baroness Harington, another rich young heiress, by whom he had children.
The king conferred in 1467 the rights to the rest of the most Exeter lands to Anne and all originating from their heirs (in the case that they would remarry and thus could inherit future children).
During the takeover by Henry VI, Anne was loyal to her brother Edward, at this time it was probably the only time politically active you convinced her brother George, Duke of Clarence to abandon the cause of Lancaster. If this was not decisive, their arguments had some effect and thus played a role in the restoration of Edward.
1474 Anne was a second marriage to Thomas St. Leger and died giving birth to her only daughter Anne St. Leger (* January 14, 1476, † April 21, 1526 ). Anne St. Leger was the heiress of the Exeter possessions.
DNA and Richard III
In September 2012, researchers at the University of Leicester found on the site of the now deserted single part of a former Franciscan monastery, the grave of Richard III. The mitochondrial DNA found in the bones was that of a direct descendant of Richard's sister Anne of York in the 17th generation, the London-based Canadian Michael Ibsen compared. This is related through his mother Joy with Richard about his mother Cecily Neville in purely maternal line.