The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1897-07-24
AN UNHAPPY DUCHESS
Cecily Of York, Mother of TIVE Kings
Of England.

peareS ame, and before ms time, II
history tells the truth; probably it lies
uneasily eve now. But it wasn't only
the actual head which wore a crown
that was uneasy in time past; the head
which came too near to wearing a
crown had its own sorrows. The Wars
Of the Roses wiped out most of the no
bility of England, though the plain
people suffered little; and many we'll
born mothers mourned husbands and
sons slain in the wars. But few, if any
of them, had such a succession of sor-
rows as mi who might have seemed
born only to enjoy the days of her life
-Cecily, wife of Richard Plantagenet,
duke of York, and leader of the White
Rose
Cecily Nevil was granddaughter Of
'Old John of Gaunt, time-honored Lam
CASTER" and so great-granddaughter Of
King Edward I'LL; her father was
Ralph Nevil, earl of Westmorland, her
mother Joan Beaufort, the duke of
L~ancaster's daughter. Cecily Nevil
married Richard PIantagenet when she
was about 20 years old, in 1440; and
they had FOUR sons and two daughters,
Edward, Edmund, George, Richard,
Anne and Margaret. For Is years no
especial sorrows reached her; her sons
were strong. her husband was the
principal subject in the kingdom.
But in 1855 the Wars of the Roses be-
gan with the bloody battle at st. AL
bans, on May %, and the earl of Stat
ford, the nephew of Duchess Cecily,
was killed there. At Northampton, on
July 10, 1860, her brother-in-law, Stat
ford, duke of Buckingham, was killed;
and the terrible fight at Wakefield on
December 80, 1850, robbed her at once
of two nephews, a brother, a son and
a husband. In the battle fell Sir
Thomas Nevil and Sir Edmund
Bourchier, nephews, and her husband,
Richard. Immediately after the battle
her brother Ralph, earl of Salisbury,
vas executed, and her son Edmund,
earl of Rutland, only II years old, was
murdered by John, Lord Clifford, in
cold blood, in revenge for the death of
his father in battle.
When SORROWS came to Duchess Ce-
ely, they did not come alone. Another
nephew, Sir John Nevil, fell at Towton,
March 90, 1461. Then came n breathing
spell; but in 1869 Sir Henry Nevil was
executed, and ut Barnet, April II, 1471,
fell still other nephews-John Neyil,
marquis Of Montague, and Richard
Neyil, earl of Warwick, famous as 'the
King Maker" On May 4, 1471, the bat
tie of Tewkesbury was fought, and i'm
nediately afterward Edward, prince of
NGles, who, though a Lancastrian, had
married the duchess niece, the King
Makers daughter Anne, was murdered
by her sons, the dukes of Clarence and
Gloucester. They kept the killing in
the family, but it was killing just the
same.
Two years later, so that the duchess
should not get unaccustomed to grief,
her ~son-in-law, Thomas Holland, duke
of Exeter, who had had to beg his
bread in exile, was found dead on the
seashore at Dover, and in 1+TS her son,
the duke of Clarence, was drowned in
n butt of Malmsey, his wife Cecily hav-
ing been poisoned previously; her SON.
Charles the Bold, duke of Bur-
had been killed in battle in
1477. Then there was a little respite
for the poor duchess. In 1883 died her
son, Edward ", only fl years old,
the first one of her descendants to die
Il natural death since 1865 years.
In the same year her two grandsons,
V. and Richard, duke of York,
murdered by their uncle and her
king as Richard Ill, and in
his turn was killed at Bosworth field
August %, 1855, when only IS years
Did. Her son-in-law, Sir Thomas St.
was executed in 1883, and a
a second Henry Stat
ford, duke of Buckingham, was exc
,uted in 1887.
Except for a few small deaths, ouch
as two husbands of a niece. Catherine
.evil, and a grandson, John, earl of
and a grandson, Edward,
prince of Wales, the duchess lost no
more relatives, and died peacefully in
I495. All but the prince of Wales, of
.hese four, died by violence. OF her
.hildren, Margaret, duchess of Bur-
was the only n who survived
During the 40 years, 1865, she
rad seen 25 OF her relatives die by vio-
ence and three by disease.
But she herself did not rest ever
.fter death. When Henry VIII. de-
the monasteries, the Collegiate
'hurch of Fotheringay was RACED to
he ground, and the bodies of Richard
'lantagenet and Cecily Nevil, duke and
duchess of York, were exposed to view
n their graves. They lay so for several
ears, until Elizabeth, their great
reat-granddaughter, queen of Eng
ind in her own right, caused them to
e reinterred, with the soleInpities be
Itting the funeral of two such distin-
persons.
So Cecily Novel, mother of twoslings
nd grandmother of one king, having
led, at last found rest.-N. Y. SCh
His Point of view.
"After all, boomers serve a very3use-