CP Correction: Marriage Date of 2nd Lord Latimer
Brad Verity
says:
"He m., 1stly, about 1490, Anne, da. of Sir Humphrey Stafford, of
Grafton, co. Worcester, and Blatherwyk, Northants."
Michael Hicks in his article 'Richard Lord Latimer, Richard III and
the Warwick Inheritance' in 'The Ricardian' Vol. XII No. 154
(September 2001), says (p. 317):
"Such a date, however, is highly improbable. Anne's father was
attainted in 1485 and rebelled and was executed in 1486. Why should
Latimer choose to marry the daughter of an alienated traitor, who
could surely have brought him no dowry, and had an unattractive stigma
attached to her?...Why, moreover, should Latimer's guardians leave him
free to marry after coming of age rather than disposing of his hand
themselves, the principal perquisite of such wardships?"
Following the deaths of his father and grandfather in 1469, the
custody of Latimer and his lands and his marriage were granted to his
great-uncle Thomas Bourchier, Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury in
1471. Starting in 1477, Richard of Gloucester tried to secure the
custody of Latimer's person and lands, and enlisted the support of the
boy's widowed grandmother Elizabeth Beauchamp, Lady Latimer, to do so,
but the Cardinal refused to give up his young nephew. It wasn't until
right after his reign began that Richard III finally obtained custody
of Latimer and the lands. And almost immediately he accepted an offer
for the boy's wardship and marriage.
Hicks (p. 317): "Stafford had made a proffer for Latimer that Richard
accepted. Perhaps he paid money down; however £100 still due was
earmarked to pay the heralds officiating at the coronation, on 6 July
1483. No doubt Stafford made the bid with his daughter's interests in
mind and at some point before the battle of Bosworth, probably in
1483, Anne Stafford was married to Richard Lord Latimer. She
personally was provided for when disaster befell her father and her
family."
As the couple are ancestral to so many of the Yorkshire gentry, it's
nice to have the details of their marriage.
Cheers, ----------Brad