2 - THE SECOND AND THIRD DUKES OF BUCKINGHAM, 1460–1521

Summary

When, on 28 February 1464, Edward IV purchased the wardship and marriage of Henry, second Duke of Buckingham, from the first Duke's executors, he may already have intended him as a husband for Elizabeth Wydeville's younger sister, Katherine. The match took place some months before Henry and his brother became members of the new Queen's household in August 1465, and is said to have caused particular offence to Richard, Earl of Warwick, and also to Buckingham himself in later life. Whereas the former probably regarded his own daughter, Isobel, as a more suitable bride for the young Duke, the latter had less cause for resentment. There is certainly no reason to believe that his subsequent hostility to the Wydevilles sprang from a sense of bitterness at being forced to marry beneath him. Although no new estates or titles came to him through his connexion with the Queen, he was at least £3,000 richer as a result of the royal licences which enabled him to enter his inheritance three years before coming of age, and to recover the lordship of Cantref Selyf. He had a more genuine cause for complaint in his permanent exclusion from power and the business of government: his duties at court were purely ceremonial, while his official appointments, such as his brief tenure of the High Stewardship of England for the Duke of Clarence's trial, were largely formal.