Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury
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Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, KG , PC (1400 – December 31, 1460) was a Yorkist leader during the early parts of the Wars of the Roses.
He was the son of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, by his second wife, Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmoreland. His maternal grandparents were John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster and Katherine Swynford.
Despite being a younger son, Richard was able to make a great marriage, to Alice Montagu, Countess of Salisbury, probably due to his royal descent on his mother's side.
After his marriage (1420) Salisbury was given high posts in the north of England, including Warden of the Western March of Scotland 1420 - 1435. He was also Constable at the coronation of his cousin Henry VI.
However Salisbury turned to the cause of Richard, Duke of York, who made him Lord Chancellor in 1455. When King Henry tried to assert his independence and dismiss Richard as Protector, Salisbury joined him in fighting at the First Battle of St Albans, claiming that he was acting in self-defence. After the Battle of Blore Heath, in which he was notably successful, Salisbury escaped to Calais, having been specifically excluded from a royal pardon. He was beheaded the day after the Battle of Wakefield.
His alabaster effigy is in Burghfield Church in Berkshire. He was buried first at Pontefract, but his son transferred his body to the family mausoleum at Bisham Abbey and erected this effigy. It was brought to Burghfield after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The effigy of a lady alongside him wears a headdress which is not thought to be of the right date to be his wife, but she may be one of the earlier Countesses of Salisbury buried at Bisham.
He fathered ten children:
- Cecily Neville, 1424 - 1450, who married Henry de Beauchamp, 1st Duke of Warwick
- Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick 1428 - 1471
- John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu 1431 - 1471
- George Neville 1432 - 1476, who became Archbishop of York and Chancellor of England
- Joan Neville, 1434 - 1462, who married William FitzAlan, 16th Earl of Arundel
- Katherine Neville, 1442 - 1503, who married first William Bonville, 6th Lord Harington and second William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings
- Thomas Neville, 1443 - 1460, who was knighted in 1449 and died at the Battle of Wakefield
- Eleanor Neville, 1447 - 1482, who married Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby
- Alice Neville, c. 1460 - 1503, who married Henry FitzHugh, 6th Lord FitzHugh. They were parents of Elizabeth Fitzhugh, grandparents of Sir Thomas Parr of Kendal and great-grandparents of Katherine Parr. Katherine was the sixth Queen consort of Henry VIII of England.
- Margaret Neville, c1460 - 1506, who married John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford
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