The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-05-02
AN UNHAPPY DUCHESS.
CeciIy OF Work. Mother or Two RkinEs OF Eng
NnHea Of the WAR Of tho noaoa.

iaud-hnVnEes or the war; OF the Roses.
Uneasy lies the head that wears a CROWN
It lay unoasily in shakespeare's time. and be-
fore his time. II history tells tho truth; probably
IL lies unoasily oven now. But IL wasn't only
tho actual head which wore n crown that was
uneasy In time past: the hoad which cnmo too
near to wearing n crown had It's own sorrows.
The Wars OF the Roses wiped out most OF the
nobility OF England. though the plain people
suffered little; and many wcll.born mothers
mourned husbands and sons slain in the wars.
But few, II any of them, had such q succession of
sorrows rs ono who might have seemed born
only TO enjoy tho days OF her llfe-Cecily. wife Of
Richard Plantagcnet, Duke of York, and leader
of tho White Rose.
Cecily Ncvil was granddaughter of Old John
OF Gaunt, timo-honorcd Lancaster, - and so great
granddaughter OF King Edward III. her father
was Ralph Nevil, Earl OF Wostmorland, hor
mother Joan Beaufort. the Duke OF Lancaster's
daughter. Cecily Nevil married Richard Plan
taRenet when she was about twenty years old, In
144O; and they had four sons and two daughters,
Edward, Edmund, George, Richard, Anne, and
Margaret. For fifteen years no especial SORROWS
reached her; her sons were strong. her husband
was tho principal subject in the kingdom.
But In l455 the Wars of the Roses began with
the bloody battle at st. Adams, on May 90, and
the Earl Of Stafford. the nephew of Duchess
Cecily, was killed there. At Northampton. on
July 10, AGO, her brothcr.in-law, Stafford,
Duke Of buckingham, was killed; and tho ter
rible fight at Wakefield on Dec. 80. 146O, robbed
md q husband. In the battle fell Sir Thomas
Nevil and Sir Edmund Bourchier, nephews, and
Ssf leqSs sr 6fc;,h aash Rsiph, 1E% %rl % ssliEsb Sa1sr w sss
1 Land G SIiy,d IL years "a soI ala S, wss % N r.HSTo BY &c John In:
death OF his father In battle.
When sorrows came to Duchess Cecilly. they
Nevii, foli at ToWton. March " %. iI6ai pr Them Them
came a breathing, spell; hut in l469 Sir Henry
f ETY., s. THs os sSssn nepbo Sss at dharpSs sv APT Ma l : Oh
Montague, and Richard Nevil, Earl OF Warwick,
famous 9s the King Maker" o May {. l47l,,
mediateiy afterward Edward. Prince Of Wales,
who, though a Lencastrian, had married the
Anne, was murdered by her sons, the Dukes Of
Clarence and Gloucester; They kept the killing
Two years later, so that the Duchess should
not 20 get %nHGcnst9 3n,ta to !, grief. her RS sops,in;lSw
to tn benz his h Sread in exile exile, W was sh faand w dead de on the the
Duke Of ClSsFencSt, was drowned in 3 butt q
soned previously; her son:in.iaw. Charles tho
bold. Duke Of burgundy, had been killed in
for the poor Duchess. In l4s3 died hor son, Ed:
ward ~. only Al years old, the first one Of
s sinos d iassntMsstv to die year. q natural in 4, DEATH ssma
year her two grandsons, Edward Y. and Rich.
ard, Duke of York. were murdered by their
uncle and her son. Richard. Duke Of Gloucester.
turn was killed at Bosworth Field on Aug: %.
LASS. when only 35 years old. Her son-in.law,
Sir, Thomas, st. Leger. was executed In l4s3,
and a grandnephew. a second Henry Stafford,
Duke OF buckingham, was executed in 1887.
Except for q few small deaths. such rs two hus-
bands Of n niece. Catharine Nevil. and u grand
son. John. Earl of Lincoln. and a grandson. Ed
ward, Prince OF Wales, the Duchess lost no more
relatives, and died peacefully In 1895. All but
the Prince Of Wales, of these four. died by vic.
lence. or her children. Margaret, Duchess Of
Burgundy, was the only one who survived her.
During the forty years, 1455-95. she had seen
twenty-five of her relatives die by violence and
three by disease.
But she herself did not rest even after death.
When Henry VIII. destroyed the monasteries,
the Collegiate Church Of Fotheringay was raced
to the ground. and the bodies OF Richard Plan
taRenct and Cecily Nevil. Duke and Duchess OF
York, were exposed to view in their graves.
They lay so for several years, until Elizabeth.
land In her own right. caused them to be re-
inferred. with tho. soIemnities behtting the fu-
neral OF two such distinguished persons,
So Cecily Nevil. mother OF two Kings and
grandmother % ono King, having died. at last
found rest.