Cecily Bonville, 7th Baroness Harington, 2nd Baroness Bonville (30 June 1460 – 12 May 1529)Faris. Plantagenet Ancestry of Seventeenth-Century Colonists. 2nd ed. (1999): p. 160 [see GREY 5]. (author states, "'Cecill Bonville, Marquess Harrington and Bonvill' died testate (P.C.C., 22 Jankyn) at Shacklewell in Hackney, Middlesex. on 12 May 1529, and was buried with her first husband."). was an English peer, who was also Marchioness of Dorset by her first marriage to Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset, and Countess of Wiltshire by her second marriage to Henry Stafford, 1st Earl of Wiltshire.
The Bonvilles were loyal supporters of the House of York during the series of dynastic civil wars that were fought for the English throne, known as the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487). When she was less than a year old, Cecily became the wealthiest heiress in England after her male relatives were slain in battle, fighting against the House of Lancaster.
Cecily's life after the death of her first husband in 1501 was marked by an acrimonious dispute with her son and heir, Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset. This was over Cecily's right to remain sole executor of her late husband's estate and to control her own inheritance, both of which Thomas challenged following her second marriage to Henry Stafford; a man many years her junior. Their quarrel required the intervention of King Henry VII and the royal council.
Lady Jane Grey, Lady Catherine Grey and Lady Mary Grey were her great-granddaughters. All three were in the line of succession to the English throne. Jane, the eldest, reigned as queen for nine days in July 1553.
Bonville inheritance
Cecily Bonville was born on or about 30 June 1460Bye, Arthur Edwin (1956). History of the Bye Family and Some Allied Families. p. 275. Google Books. Retrieved 28 March 2011 at Shute Manor in Shute near Axminster, Devon, England. She was the only child and heiress of William Bonville, 6th Baron Harington of Aldingham, and Lady Katherine Neville, a younger sister of the military commander Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, known to history as "Warwick the Kingmaker". Her family had acquired the Barony of Harington through the marriage of her paternal grandfather William Bonville to Elizabeth Harington, daughter and heiress of William Harington, 5th Baron Harington of Aldingham.Richardson, Douglas; Everingham, Kimball G. (2004). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, pp.109–110
When Cecily was just six months old, both her father, Lord Harington, and grandfather, William Bonville, were executed following the disastrous Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460. The Bonvilles, having fought with the Yorkist contingent, were shown no mercy from the victorious troops of Margaret of Anjou (wife of King Henry VI of England), who headed the Lancastrian faction, and were thus swiftly decapitated on the battlefield. Cecily's maternal grandfather, Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, was also executed after the battle which had been commanded on the Lancastrian side by Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, while Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, had led the Yorkists and was consequently slain in the fighting. Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England, was in Scotland at the time raising support for her cause and so had not been present at Wakefield. In less than two months, the Yorkists suffered another major defeat at the Second Battle of St Albans on 17 February 1461, and the Lancastrian army's commander Margaret of Anjou, in an act of vengeance, personally ordered the execution of Cecily's great-grandfather, William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville, the next day.Costain, Thomas B. (1962). The Last Plantagenets. New York: Popular Library (originally published by Doubleday and Company, Inc.). pp. 315–316 These executions left Cecily Bonville as the wealthiest heiress in England,Britannia: Lympstone From Roman Times to the 17th Century. The Early History of Lympstone in Devon, edited by Rosemary Smith. Retrieved 31-10-10W. H. Hamilton Rogers (2003). The Strife of the Roses and Days of the Tudors in the West. p. 52. Google Books. Retrieved 28 March 2011. having inherited numerous estates in the West Country,Backhouse, Janet (1997). The Hastings Hours. San Francisco: Pomegranate Artbooks. p. 34.Google Books, retrieved 31-10-10 as well as manors in Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and Cumberland.John Burke, A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerages of England, Ireland, and Scotland, Extinct, Dormant and in Abeyance, p. 251, published by Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, London, 1831, Google Books, retrieved on 12 June 2009 She succeeded to the title of suo jure 7th Baroness Harington of Aldingham on 30 December 1460,Mosley, Charles (2003). Burke's Peerage, Vol.2, p. 1789 and the title of suo jure 2nd Baroness Bonville on 18 February 1461.Cokayne, G. E. (2000). The Complete Peerage. Vol. II. p. 219. Gloucester, UK: Alan Sutton Publishing
Stepfather Her mother remarried shortly before 6 February 1462. Cecily's stepfather was William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings, one of the most powerful men in England, serving as Lord Chamberlain and a personal advisor to her first cousin once removed,Cecily's maternal grandfather and Edward IV's mother, Cecily Neville were siblings King Edward IV, who by that time sat upon the English throne, having been proclaimed king in London on 4 March 1461. Edward had strengthened his claim with the resounding Yorkist victory on 29 March at the Battle of Towton where he as overall commander of the Yorkist army had overwhelmingly defeated the Lancastrians who suffered heavy losses including the deaths of two of their commanders Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland and Sir Andrew Trollope.Ross, Charles (1997). Edward IV. Yale English Monarchs (revised ed.). Connecticut:Yale University Press. p. 37
In addition to her own dowry, Katherine brought the wardship of Cecily to her new husband.Backhouse, p. 34
By her mother's marriage to Lord Hastings, Cecily would acquire three surviving half-brothers: Edward Hastings, 2nd Baron Hastings, who married Mary Hungerford, Baroness Botreaux; Richard Hastings; and William Hastings, who married Jane Sheffield. In addition, there was a half-sister, Anne Hastings, who married George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury.
First marriage Cecily was considered as a possible marriage candidate for William, the eldest son and heir of the Earl of Pembroke, who approached her influential uncle the Earl of Warwick with his proposal in about 1468. Warwick turned his offer down, as he considered the Earl's son to have been lacking in sufficient noble birth and prestige to marry a member of his family. About six years later, another spouse was found for Cecily; however, Warwick, who by then was dead (he was slain at the Battle of Barnet in 1471 by the forces of King Edward having two years earlier switched his loyalties to the Lancastrians), had had nothing to do with the bridegroom that was chosen for her.Hicks, Michael A. (1998, 2002). Warwick the Kingmaker. UK: Blackwell Publisher's, Ltd. p. 270. Google Books. Retrieved 9 February 2011.
She married Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset, on 18 July 1474, just over two weeks after her fourteenth birthday. He was the eldest son of King Edward's queen consort, Elizabeth Woodville, by her first husband, Sir John Grey of Groby (a Lancastrian knight who had been killed in combat at the Second Battle of St Albans, the site of Cecily's great-grandfather's execution). It was Thomas's second marriage. His first wife, whom he had married in October 1466, was Anne Holland, the only daughter and heiress of Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter, and Anne of York. Anne Holland had died childless sometime between 26 August 1467 and 6 June 1474.Collectanea Topographica Genealogica, Vol. 1, XL, Harleian MS 1074, No. IV, p. 297. retrieved on 28 August 2012 Cecily's marriage had been proposed and arranged by Queen Elizabeth Woodville, who, with assistance from King Edward, persuaded Cecily's stepfather and legal guardian, Baron Hastings, to agree to the marriage, despite the latter's dislike of Thomas and the opposition of her mother, Lady Hastings, to the match.Ross, Charles Derek (1974). Edward IV. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. p. 336. Google Books, retrieved 31-10-10. Corbet, Anthony, Dr. (2015). Edward IV, England's Forgotten Warrior King: His Life, His People And His Legacy. Bloomington:iUniverse. p. 368 The Queen had that same year bought Cecily's wardship from Hastings to facilitate the marriage.Richmond, Colin (2000). The Pastons of the Fifteenth Century: Endings. UK: Manchester University Press. p. 151. Google Books. Retrieved 28 March 2011 The marriage accord stipulated that, were Thomas to die prior to the consummation of the marriage, Cecily would then marry his younger brother Sir Richard Grey.Ross, p. 336Church Law forbade a man to marry the widow of his dead brother, but only if the union had been consummated. Fifty years later, when Henry VIII applied to the Pope seeking an annulment from Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn, he would use this very law, which was written in the Book of Leviticus, to insist that his marriage to Catherine had been invalid from the beginning. This accord was confirmed by an Act of Parliament. The marriage had cost Elizabeth Woodville the sum of £2,500. She in turn, held on to Cecily's inheritance until the latter turned 16 years old.Hicks, Michael A. (1991). Richard III and his rivals: magnates and their motives in the Wars of the Roses. London: Hambledon Press. p. 220. Google Books. Retrieved 9 February 2011 Cecily Bonville and Thomas Grey shared a common ancestor in the person of Reginald Grey, 3rd Baron Grey de Ruthyn, who married twice; firstly to Margaret de Ros, and secondly to Joan de Astley. At the time of Cecily's marriage to Thomas, the latter held the title of Earl of Huntingdon; he resigned this peerage a year later in 1475, when he was created Marquess of Dorset. Being that women were not permitted to sit in Parliament, Thomas sat in Cecily's place as Baron Harington and Bonville.
Cecily's husband, a notorious womaniser, shared the same mistress, Jane Shore, with his stepfather, King Edward.Costain, pp. 394–395 When the King died in April 1483, Jane then became the mistress of Cecily's stepfather, Baron Hastings.Kendall, Paul Murray. Richard The Third. p. 204 This new situation only deepened the sour relations between Hastings and Thomas. Together with his mother, Thomas attempted to seize power immediately following the King's death, as the new king, Edward V, was a minor of 12. Thomas had stolen part of the royal treasure from the Tower of London, dividing it between his mother and uncle Sir Edward Woodville, who used his portion to equip a fleet of ships at Thomas's instigation; ostensibly to patrol the English coasts against French pirates, but in fact it was a Woodville fleet to be used against their enemies within England.Kendall, pp.168; 180 Jane Shore was instrumental in Hastings's defection from the side of King Edward's youngest brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who had been made Lord Protector of the realm by the will of Edward IV. In this position of authority, Richard had gathered a force of friends, local gentry and retainers, headed south in an armed cavalcade from his Yorkshire stronghold of Middleham Castle to take into protective custody and separate the young king from the Woodvilles, putting a prompt end to their ambitions and long dominion at court. Jane persuaded Hastings to join the Woodville family in a conspiracy aimed at removing the Lord Protector; and when Richard was apprised of Hastings's treachery, he ordered his immediate execution on 13 June 1483 at the Tower of London. Hastings was not attainted, however, and Cecily's mother was placed under Richard's protection.Kendall, pp.209–210