On "the Monday next after Saint Valentine", almost certainly of the year 1465 - which means on 20th February 1465 - John Wykys wrote a letter to John Paston, in which he informed him of some news.Among these news was the information of two marriages which had been made since the yhad last been in contact:
"Item, the Erle of Arundell ys son hath weddyd the Quyne ys suster."
"Item, the Lord Lovell ys son hath weddyd my Lady FytzHugh ys doghter."
In modern English, it naturally means:
"Item, the Earl of Arundel`s son has wedded the Queen`s sister."
"Item, the Lord Lovell`s son has wedded my Lady FitzHugh`s daughter."
The Queen`s sister Wykys mentioned was Margaret Woodville, Elizabeth Woodville`s next oldest sister, and her new husband was Thomas FitzAlan, the oldest son and heir of William FitzAlan, earl of Arundel. He was also, through his mother Joan, a nephew of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick`s. Interestingly, this means he was also a cousin of the other bride mentioned in Wykys`s letter, Lady FitzHugh`s daughter, Anne. Her bridegroom was, of course, Francis.
It is curious that Wykys identifies him as "Lord Lovell`s son", despite the fact that his father was dead at that point and Francis himself, despite his youth, was therefore Lord Lovell. Since John Lovell had only died five weeks before this letter was written, this may have been for distinction and to avoid confusion though.
Another interesting point is that Wykys does not specify which of Lady Alice FitzHugh`s daughters had married Francis. Since all three of her daughters were still unmarried at that point, it was far from self-evident. It is, however, possible that Wykys was not certain himself which of the FitzHugh daughters had been Francis`s bride, or was uncertain about their names.
In fact, it is rather curious that Francis was married to Anne, the youngest, rather than to one of her older sisters, Alice or Elizabeth, as it was rather out of the ordinary for a younger sister to be married
before a match for her older sister had been arranged. We have no
knowledge why the FitzHughs choose to do it that way, and why Alice,
then around eighteen, was only married to in November 1466, and then
"only" to Sir John Fiennes, the heir to a barony, and therefore for the
time being of lesser status than Anne`s youthful husband. Perhaps Henry
and Alice decided that, while age gaps in arranged marriages were hardly
out of the ordinary, it would be better to marry Alice to Sir John, who
was her age, and Anne to a boy only four years older than her, rather
than marry Alice to a boy eight years her junior and Anne to a man
twelve years her senior. Perhaps, despite the fact that Francis was
already a baron and stood to inherit lots of lands in due time, Henry
and Alice also saw that he had probably inherited massive debts from his father
and considered him a less good prospect than Sir John. Perhaps it was a
mixture of these reasons, or something else entirely. It is all
speculation, as is any explanation why Elizabeth, the second sister, was
apparently not considered for either match, and was only married years later, to William Parr.
Nor do we know where Anne and Francis`s marriage took part. It seems likely it happened at Middleham, where the little boy was staying with the Earl of Warwick`s household, since the earl had also arranged the marriage, but we do not know for certain, and Wykys`s letter gives no hint. Nor does he give any indication on what day exactly the wedding took place.
All we know is that at some point, probably in mid-February 1465 and definitely before 20th February 1465, Francis was married to Anne FitzHugh.
No comments:
Post a Comment