Richard Neville, 2nd Baron Latimer


Richard Neville, 2nd Baron Latimer KB of Snape, North Yorkshire, was an English soldier and peer. He fought at the battles of Stoke and Flodden.
Richard Neville was the eldest son of Sir Henry Neville, who was killed on 26 July 1469 at the Battle of Edgecote Moor, and Joan Bourchier, daughter of John Bourchier, 1st Baron Berners, by Margery, daughter and heiress of Richard Berners, esquire. He had a brother, Thomas Neville, and a sister, Joan Neville, wife of Sir James Radcliffe.
Neville's maternal grandfather, John Bourchier, 1st Baron Berners, was the fourth son of William Bourchier, 1st Count of Eu in Normandy, and his wife Anne of Gloucester, daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, youngest son of King Edward III. By her second husband, Edmund Stafford, 5th Earl of Stafford, Anne of Gloucester was the mother of Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham.
On his father's side, Richard Neville was the grandson of George Neville, 1st Baron Latimer, and Elizabeth Beauchamp, the daughter of Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick.

Career

When he was only a year old, Richard Neville inherited the barony together with lands in 24 counties, including Snape Castle in Richmondshire, at the death of his grandfather, George Neville, 1st Baron Latimer, on 30 or 31 December 1469. His wardship and marriage were purchased for £1000 in May 1470 by his great uncle, Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, while his lands remained in the hands of the crown. He was made a Knight of the Bath on 17 January 1478.
Neville had livery of his lands without proof of age on 8 May 1491. From 12 August of that year until 3 November 1529 he was summoned to Parliament by writs directed to 'Ricardo Nevill de Latimer chivaler'. However, in about 1494 his inheritance was contested by Robert Willoughby, 1st Baron Willoughby de Broke, who although summoned to the 1491 Parliament by writs directed to 'Roberto Willughby de Broke chivaler', nonetheless claimed that he was entitled to the Latimer barony and lands through his great-grandmother's brother, John Willoughby. Neville ultimately prevailed, and a herald recorded that 'the Lord Brooke had made a wrong claim'.
Neville's father-in-law, Sir Humphrey Stafford of Grafton, Worcestershire, was a staunch supporter of King Richard III. After Richard's defeat at Bosworth, Stafford and Francis Lovell, 1st Viscount Lovell, fled to sanctuary at Colchester. In April 1486 they attempted to stir up rebellion against the new King, Henry VII, with Stafford trying to raise forces in the West Midlands, and Lovell in Yorkshire. When the rebellion collapsed, on 11 May 1486 Stafford again fled to sanctuary, this time at Culham, but was not allowed to claim the privilege, and for his part in the insurrection was executed at Tyburn on 8 July 1486.
In contrast, Neville appears to have supported the new regime. According to Ford, Neville's strengths were 'loyalty to the crown and military service'. On 16 June 1487 he fought at the Battle of Stoke with Henry VII's forces which put down the rising of the pretender, Lambert Simnel. He served with the army in the north after the Earl of Northumberland was assassinated in 1489, and was with the King's forces in Brittany in 1492. In 1499 he attended the trial of the pretender, Perkin Warbeck. In 1513 he was with the Earl of Surrey at the Battle of Flodden, where he fought in the vanguard. In September 1522 the Earl of Shrewsbury consulted him regarding war against the Duke of Albany.
Neville also served in non-military capacities. He was appointed to a number of commissions, and is recorded as being in attendance at festivities at court in 1488 and 1499. In 1503 he was among those who escorted King Henry VII's daughter, Margaret Tudor, between Tadcaster and York on her journey to Scotland to wed James IV. In November 1515 he was among those present at Westminster Abbey when Thomas Wolsey was made Cardinal.
On 13 July 1530 Neville was one of the signatories to the letter petitioning Pope Clement VII to grant Henry VIII a divorce from Catherine of Aragon. He died shortly before 28 December 1530 at Snape Castle, and was buried with his first wife, Anne Stafford, in the church of St. Michael at Well, North Yorkshire.

Marriages and issue

Richard Neville married firstly, about 1490, Anne Stafford, daughter of Sir Humphrey Stafford of Grafton, Worcestershire, and Katherine Fray, the daughter of Sir John Fray, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, by Agnes Danvers, the daughter of Sir John Danvers, by whom he had six sons and six daughters:
By licence dated 5 July 1502 Richard Neville married secondly, Margaret Danby, the widow of Sir James Strangways.

Ancestry

Footnotes