Lady Mary Woodville, Countess of Pembroke

Female 1456 - 1481  (~ 25 years)


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  • Name Mary Woodville 
    Title Lady 
    Suffix Countess of Pembroke 
    Birth ~1456  [1, 2
    Gender Female 
    Death ~1481  [2
    Person ID I49923  The Hennessee Family
    Last Modified 26 Apr 2019 

    Father Sir Richard Woodville, Knight, 1st Earl Rivers,   b. 1405-1412, Maidstone, Kent, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 12 Aug 1469, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 57 years) 
    Mother Jacquetta of Luxembourg, Countess Rivers,   b. 1415-1416, Palace of Westminster, London, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 30 May 1472 (Age 56 years) 
    Marriage Bef 23 Mar 1437  Grafton Regis, Northamptonshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [3, 4, 5, 6, 7
    Residence (Family) England Find all individuals with events at this location  [5
    Family ID F17137  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Sir William Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke,   b. 5 Mar 1451   d. 0___ 1490 (Age 38 years) 
    Marriage 0Jan 1467  St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, Windsor, Berkshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2
    Children 
     1. Lady Elizabeth Herbert, 3rd Baroness Herbert,   b. ~ 1476   d. 27 Aug 1507 (Age ~ 31 years)
    Family ID F18468  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 30 Apr 2023 

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsMarriage - 0Jan 1467 - St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, Windsor, Berkshire, England Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 

  • Notes 
    • Mary Woodville, Countess of Pembroke (c. 1456–1481) was a sister of Edward IV's Queen consort, Elizabeth Woodville, and of Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers. She later became the first wife of William Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, by whom she had one daughter.

      Countess of Pembroke
      Born 1456
      Died 1481 (aged 24-25)
      Spouse(s) William Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke
      Issue
      Elizabeth Herbert, 3rd Baroness Herbert
      Father Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers
      Mother Jacquetta of Luxembourg

      Biography

      She was born in about 1456 to Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers and his wife, Jacquetta of Luxembourg. After King Edward IV's public recognition of Elizabeth Woodville as his wife, the new queen sought to raise her family's standing by arranging a series of advantageous marriages for her five brothers and seven unwed sisters. In September 1466, Mary was betrothed to William Herbert, the eldest son and heir of the first Earl of Pembroke. Lord Herbert had been Henry VII's guardian. The young William was recognized as Lord Dunster in view of his approaching marriage (a grant of the lordship of Dunster and all the possessions of its attainted lord, James Luttrell, in Somerset, Devon and Suffolk, had been secured by his father in June 1463).

      In January 1467, Mary Woodville was married to Lord Dunster at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle "amid profuse magnificence."[citation needed] The bride was about ten or eleven years old; her groom, aged fifteen.

      Two years later, Lord Dunster's father, the first Earl of Pembroke, was executed on the orders of Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick. Nothing seems to have aggravated Warwick more than the marriage of the Lady Mary, the Queen's sister, to Herbert's eldest son. Dunster became the second Earl of Pembroke following the death of his father in 1469 and henceforth Mary was styled Countess of Pembroke.

      Pembroke proved rather ineffectual in governing South Wales. Mary's death in 1481 considerably weakened her husband's links with the Prince of Wales's associates, and he was forced to give up the earldom of Pembroke for that of Huntingdon, and a less valuable endowment in Somerset and Dorset. In 1484, he took as his second wife, Katherine Plantagenet, the illegitimate daughter of King Richard III; however, this marriage failed to produce offspring.

      Ultimately, Herbert only had one child, a daughter by his first marriage, Elizabeth Herbert, 3rd Baroness Herbert, who later married Charles Somerset, later Earl of Worcester. Elizabeth was of great importance to the Somerset family, as she brought to them wealth and a legitimate relationship to royalty.[citation needed] The barony of Herbert was created by patent in favour of her husband, although during her lifetime she held the barony of Herbert in her own right. [2]

  • Sources 
    1. [S11770] "Elizabeth Somerset, Baroness Herbert", Biography, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Somerset,_Baroness_Herbert, r.

    2. [S11771] "Mary Woodville, Countess of Pembroke", Biography, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Woodville, revisited or retrieved,.

    3. [S10004] "Elizabeth Woodville" biography, accessed & downloaded Sunday, November 20th, 2016 by David A. Hennessee, https://en.wik.

    4. [S10009] "Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers" biography, accessed & downloaded Monday, November 21st, 2016 by David A. Hennessee,.

    5. [S10143] "Jacquetta of Luxembourg" biography, abstracted, downloaded & published Thursday, December 15th, 2016 by David A. Hennes.

    6. [S11756] "Family Tree of Elizabeth Woodville", https://www.thoughtco.com/family-tree-elizabeth-woodville-3528162, forwarded Thur.

    7. [S14020] "Richard (Wydeville) Woodville of Grafton (abt. 1310 - aft. 1378)", Profile & Descendants, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki.