Childhood and Upbringing
As an orphan, the income and management of Richard's lands became the property of the crown. Even though many of the lands of his uncle of York had been granted for life only, or to him and his male heirs, the remaining lands, concentrated in Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, Yorkshire, and Wiltshire and Gloucestershire were considerable. The wardship of such an orphan was therefore a valuable gift of the crown, and in October 1417 this was granted to Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmoreland, with the young Richard under the guardianship of Sir Robert Waterton. Ralph Neville had fathered an enormous family (twenty-three children, twenty of whom survived infancy, through two wives) and had many daughters needing husbands. As was his right, in 1424 he betrothed the 13-year-old Richard to his daughter Cecily Neville, then aged 9.
In October 1425, when Ralph Neville died, he bequeathed the wardship of York to his widow, Joan Beaufort. By now the wardship was even more valuable, as Richard had inherited the Mortimer estates on the death of the Earl of March. These manors were concentrated in Wales, and in the Welsh Borders around Ludlow.
Little is recorded of Richard's early life. On 19 May 1426 he was knighted at Leicester by John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, the younger brother of Henry V. In October 1429 (or earlier) his marriage to Cecily Neville took place. On 6 November he was present at the formal coronation of Henry VI in Westminster Abbey. He then followed Henry to France, being present at his coronation as King of France in Notre Dame on 16 December 1431. Finally, on 12 May 1432 he came into his inheritance and was granted full control of his estates.
Read more about this topic: Richard Of York
Famous quotes containing the words childhood and, childhood and/or upbringing:
“Having a child is the great divide between one’s own childhood and adulthood. All at once someone is totally dependent upon you. You are no longer the child of your mother but the mother of your child. Instead of being taken care of, you are responsible for taking care of someone else.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“Modern children were considerably less innocent than parents and the larger society supposed, and postmodern children are less competent than their parents and the society as a whole would like to believe. . . . The perception of childhood competence has shifted much of the responsibility for child protection and security from parents and society to children themselves.”
—David Elkind (20th century)
“A good upbringing means not that you won’t spill sauce on the tablecloth, but that you won’t notice it when someone else does.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)