Jacquetta of Luxembourg and Bedford, mother of Elizabeth Woodville (1415/16-1472)

[p.annaliesse]

I am quite surprised that there isn't a thread about her already!

As the great-grandmother to King Henry VIII and great-great-grandmother to Mary I and Elizabeth I, I would have thought that would give her some merit for a thread let alone she was the first lady of England before Henry married Margaret of Anjou. Then she became her closest friend and confidant.

I would like to know what everyone thinks of her. Was she a power ambitious woman for her and her own or was she just dealing with the luck that she had (her daughter becoming queen).

 

[TLLK]

IMO it was a little of both. She was adept at using her talents and making the best of a situation to further her family's rise. She is a very interesting woman.

 

[An Ard Ri]

Jacquetta is someone I would like to read more about

Jacquetta of Luxembourg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Baroness of Books]

Fascinating woman who also had charges of witchcraft leveled against her.

 

[p.annaliesse]

Yes, the witchcraft charges probably didn't help her case but keep in mind that in those days anything that they didn't like or couldn't explain was brought down to witchcraft.

I doubt it was that. I just think she had some wicked awesome lick when it came to how she made it through the years as first lady then mother of the queen. Not to mention the period in between the lancaster york rule.

 

[Kataryn]

She was discussed on other Threads, though.

 

[An Ard Ri]

I often also wondered where Jacquetta was buried ?

 

[p.annaliesse]

Oh true but she wasn't given her own thread. Maybe this won't last at all but she was, at one point, wife to the heir to throne which made her possibly the next queen of england. How different her life would have been? How different history would havde been? She wouldn't have married Richard Woodville so Anthony, John, Edwardm, Lionel all her boys... wouldn't have been born. Would Henry still have been able to claim the throne? Would Richard of York have been given royal cousin and heir apparent thus eliminating all the fighting? Edward from the throne? So many if's I know but gosh!!! How exciting!!

Ya! That too! I haven't much about her tbh here, I was really into the Tudors before I found out the Princes in the Tower and by proxy: the yorks (my favorite) but Jacquetta sounds really interesting. She was wife to the heir to the throne once. How different would history be if that had come to pass...

 

[Lumutqueen]

Oh true but she wasn't given her own thread.

Now she has two threads in separate locations.

 

[p.annaliesse]

Because I gave her two one as an english royal and one as the daughter of the ducal house of Luxembourg

 

[Lumutqueen]

Because I gave her two one as an english royal and one as the daughter of the ducal house of Luxembourg

She doesn't need two. Both threads discuss the same thing.

 

[p.annaliesse]

Different opinions

 

[Warren]

She married her British Duke at the age of 17 and this is when her public life began.
As there is no purpose served in having a duplicate thread in the Luxembourg forum (more so considering the opening posts are not only identical but ask for members' opinions without offering your own) the threads have been merged.

 

[p.annaliesse]

I was at one time a staunch tudor follower as I had a read a book about poor Jane, the nine days queen. Ever since then I had become an avid reader of that time period (and that specific book about 11 times)

Turns out I've come full circle. I read Anne Easter Smith's "Queen by Right" the story of the Duchess Cecily of York and I turned coat so fast it was sad lol! I am such a York fan now! Granted the Tudors I love are half York, but they still carry the name Tudor.

To my point though, I had heard of Jacquetta and read of her through Annes books but since she wasn't a York relative of any sort she wasn't given her own book so I got the distant version. It wasn't until I had read Phillipa Gregory's book "Lady of the Rivers" that I got to know the dowager duchess in a way and I slowly became intrigued. I love thinking about how close to the crown she was since her first marriage was to the kings eldest uncle and the king without an heir made his uncle the heir apparent and her; his maybe queen. Wow! Just imagine how different life would have been then if they had got the throne..

 

[CyrilVladisla]

When Jacquetta and John, Duke of Bedford married in 1432, John was the closest blood relative to King Henry VI.
​

 

[Blog Real]

Where is Jacquetta buried from Luxembourg? I've been doing an internet search, and I didn't find anything.

 

[An Ard Ri]

Jacquetta of Luxembourg, Countess Rivers died in 1472 but there are no surviving records of her burial,her husband and sons were buried at All Saints Church in Pontefract but that was devastated and left a ruin during the English Civil War.

 

[Countessmeout]

There is some suggestion that she died and was buried in Grafton. Considering her and her husband's home was Grafton Regis, its not hard to believe.

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Jacquetta-of-Luxembourg/

The church there St Mary the Virgin has a historical link to her husband's family. Her husband's grandfather has a tomb there.

St Mary the Virgin Church History - Grafton Regis

Its odd that there is no surviving record of where she was buried though.

 

[An Ard Ri]

Very strange but hadn't she been charged with witchcraft shortly before her death and perhaps the church denied her a Christian burial?

 

[Heavs]

She was cleared of witchcraft, which was the usual medieval politicking against female enemies. Although if you believe Phillipa Gregory she was indeed a practicing witch and descended from a water goddess.

She was a very interesting woman and considering how prominent she was in her own right and of course her daughter and granddaughter and thus every other monarch, it's surprising that there doesn't seem to be more information about how she died or where she's buried.

 

[An Ard Ri]

Unless the records or burial were lost during the dissolution of the Monasteries but it is still very strange that there's literally no information on her burial/funeral.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Jacquetta of Luxembourg was suppose to have lived in Brienne, though little record of that part of her life survives.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

The real life of Jacquetta of Luxembourg

 

[An Ard Ri]

Jacquetta of Luxembourg was suppose to have lived in Brienne, though little record of that part of her life survives.

Her father Pierre was also Count of Brienne

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Jacquetta of Luxembourg was admitted to the prestigious Order of the Garter in 1434.