George Plantagenet: Who’s Who in the Wars of the Roses

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George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, was a brother of Edward IV and Richard III. His changing allegiances and ambitions helped turn a struggle between rival dynasties into a conflict within the Yorkist royal family.

George Plantagenet’s Family and Early Ambitions

Born October 21, 1449, to Richard, Duke of York, and Cecily Neville, George was originally one of four sons of the couple who survived to adulthood. The second son, Edmund, died in battle along with their father, shortly before the Yorks saw their most important victory yet in the Wars of the Roses. After losing their father and Edmund, that left only three York brothers… Edward, George, and Richard. As the eldest, Edward became king when the Yorks had their decisive victory. George and Richard were instrumental in securing that victory for Edward, and they worked hard on their brother’s behalf to keep his rule secure and accepted by the English people.

George’s ambitions brought him into conflict with Edward IV. Accounts describing him as Cecily’s favorite, or treating childhood indulgence as the cause of his later choices, are interpretations rather than securely documented explanations.

George was always jealous of Edward, who became King Edward IV, but he was unquestioningly loyal to him at the beginning of his reign. This loyalty seems to have begun to waver when Edward revealed he had married one of his own subjects in secret, the Lady Elizabeth Woodville. George became jealous over the influence Elizabeth and her many relations had on the king once the marriage was made public. When their cousin, Richard Neville, a man who almost single-handedly made conditions perfect for Edward to take the throne, became infuriated at the secret marriage, when he had been working hard to secure marriage to a foreign princess for the king, he believed since he had put Edward on the throne, he could remove him. As the next eldest brother, Richard looked to George as the potential new king.

Marriage and the Challenge to Edward IV

With his cousin, Richard whispering promises of power in his ear, George demanded his brother Edward allow him to marry Richard’s daughter, Isabel. Edward refused because he knew George had the potential to be problematic. He wanted to marry George to a foreign noblewoman or minor royal and get him out of the country. George was furious at the royal refusal of his marriage request, not only because Isabel and her sister, Anne, were heirs to a vast fortune, but because he wanted the marriage and the influence it would bring. So, with his cousin Richard’s encouragement, George left for France with Richard and his family and married Isabel abroad.

Warwick and Clarence used rumors about Edward IV’s legitimacy in their struggle against him. That does not establish that Cecily approved an allegation against her own reputation. Her supposed silence cannot safely be treated as consent.

A planned invasion of England with an army that would support George did not take shape as everyone hoped in France. George fully planned to march against his brother, the thought of being king too enticing to resist. He was bitterly disappointed when he found not enough military force would support him to make him a viable candidate for the throne. Leaving Richard and the rest of Richard’s family in France, George went back to England and reconciled with his brother.

George Plantagenet’s Return to England

Queen Elizabeth Woodville was against this reconciliation, as one of the initial skirmishes George had been involved in with his cousin Richard, before they left for France, resulted in the capture and beheading without trial of her father and one of her brothers by Richard and George’s small army, on their orders. An illegal execution, yes, but the king insisted George was better as an ally than an enemy and forgave him.

George never made any secret of his dislike of the queen, however, and, despite the reconciliation, he remained aloof and distant with her and the king, ruling his own large estate and the people on it as if he were their king instead of Edward. When his wife, Isabel, died a few months after giving birth to their fourth child, he accused a local woman of poisoning her and had her condemned and executed after a coercive, irregular trial. This illegal act, along with George’s continuing to talk about Edward’s supposed illegitimacy, and his intimations that the queen and her mother may engage in witchcraft, eventually forced Edward’s hand. As a brother, he could deal with George’s bad attitude, but as a king, he could not. He had to set an example for the people of England that the rule of law applied to everyone, regardless of who they were.

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Feeling he had no other choice, Edward ordered George to be executed. It is not known how their mother, Cecily, reacted, but as George was her known favorite child, it can not have been a pretty scene when she found out the news that one of her sons was going to have another one killed. Edward did afford George the dignity of a private execution, within the tower, with no crowds watching. Legend says George was allowed to choose his own method of execution, and that he chose drowning in a barrel of his favorite Malmsey wine. There is some credible historical evidence that this may have been true. However, since it was done in private and no records survive (or have been found) describing it, many historians believe George was simply beheaded privately within the Tower.

The Clarence Family and Its Descendants

As much as George wanted to be king, it is ironic that his older and younger brother both became kings, while he himself did not. After Edward’s death a few years after George’s, their youngest brother, Richard, declared Edward’s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville invalid and their children ineligible for the throne, then took the throne himself as King Richard III. Richard was the only king for two years, however, before being killed in battle against Henry Tudor, who married one of Edward’s daughters and began the Tudor dynasty. The later royal line descends from Henry VII and Elizabeth of York through their children, including Henry VIII and Margaret Tudor. Through Elizabeth of York, that ancestry also reaches Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville.

George and Isabel do have descendants today, including lines that remained within the nobility. Two of their children died as infants, and their surviving son was put in the Tower by Henry Tudor when he was ten years old, because he was a legitimate royal claimant whose right to the throne was arguably greater than Henry’s. Henry had him executed fourteen years later, for no other reason than being someone the people liked and supported, and might get behind to put on the throne in Henry’s place.

George and Isabel’s daughter Margaret married Sir Richard Pole. She later became Countess of Salisbury and served as governess to Princess Mary, Henry VIII’s daughter. Her son Reginald opposed Henry’s religious policies. Margaret was imprisoned and executed in 1541, aged sixty-seven; her descendants continued the family line.

George’s surviving descendants do not have a legally established claim to replace the reigning monarch. Television theories about an alternative heir depend on disputed assumptions about Edward IV’s parentage and ignore later parliamentary settlements of the succession. They make interesting counterfactual stories, rather than proof of a present entitlement to the Crown.

Learn More

For a closer look at the evidence and historical context, explore these resources:

• Richard III Society: chronology of Clarence’s rebellion and trial
• Historic Royal Palaces: Margaret Pole’s life and execution

You can also read Who’s Who in the Wars of the Roses (free eBook) and browse the Wars of the Roses articles.