Cecily Duchess of York - Hardcover

J. L. Laynesmith

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1474272258 ISBN 13: 9781474272254

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017

Synopsis

This is the first scholarly biography of Cecily Neville, duchess of York, the mother of Edward IV and Richard III. She was said to have ruled Edward IV 'as she pleased' and Richard III made his bid for the throne from her home. Yet Cecily has been a shadowy figure in modern histories, noted primarily for her ostentatious piety, her expensive dresses, and the rumours of her adultery.

Here J. L. Laynesmith draws on a wealth of rarely considered sources to construct a fresh and revealing portrait of a remarkable woman. Cecily was the only major protagonist to live right through the Wars of the Roses. This book sheds new light on that bloody conflict in which Cecily proved herself an exceptional political survivor. Skilfully manipulating her family connections and contemporary ideas about womanhood, Cecily repeatedly reinvented herself to protect her own status and to ensure the security of those in her care.

From her childhood marriage to Richard duke of York until her final decade as grandmother of the first Tudor queen, the story of Cecily Neville's life provides a rich insight into national and local politics, women's power and relationships, motherhood, household dynamics and the role of religion in fifteenth-century England.

About this title

Review:

An important study assessing Cecily in her own right rather than just as a wife, mother and grandmother of royal claimants, kings and queens. Her multifaceted role as a political player, important landowner, a woman of ostentatious piety and the matriarch of the house of York is explored in a judicious, nuanced and accessible way.
James Ross, Senior Lecturer in Late Medieval History, University of Winchester, UK

This is a welcome appreciation of a neglected, yet central figure in the history of fifteenth-century England; a power behind the throne, but also an important and interesting figure in her own right. In restoring Cecily Neville to her rightful place, Joanna Laynesmith has produced a book that is both scholarly and a pleasure to read, and that will surely appeal to a broad readership.
Hannes Kleineke, Senior Research Fellow, The History of Parliament, UK

J. L. Laynesmith's remarkable biographical study shows the duchess as a formidable player in fifteenth-century English political life. She also interrogates the way in which Cecily's career has been portrayed over time, and this historiographical focus will make it useful far beyond the medieval history/women's history classroom. Rarely do we have the source material to present a medieval woman as a fully-fleshed out human being, which is what Laynesmith has accomplished in this work.
Lois L. Huneycutt, Associate Professor, University of Missouri, USA

About the Author:

J. L. Laynesmith is a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Reading, UK. She is the author of The Last Medieval Queens: English Queenship, 1445-1503 (2004), joint winner of the Longman-History Today Book of the Year Award 2005.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1474272258
• ISBN 13: 9781474272254
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288