Richard woodville de woodville

1st Earl Rivers and Jacquetta of Luxembourg

Richard Woodville, first of the Woodville family to step out onto the pages of history, was born in 1405 at Maidstone in Kent, the son of Richard Wydeville, a soldier and politician and Joan Bittlesgate, the daughter of Thomas Bittlesgate of Knightstone.

Wydeville himself was the son of John Wydeville, a Northamptonshire landowner.

Richard was chamberlain to John, Duke of Bedford, (a younger brother of King Henry V) On the death of the Duke of Bedford, he secretly married the widowed Duchess Jacquetta, news of which caused a scandal at the time.

Jacquetta of Luxembourg (1415/1416 - 30 May 1472), whose social standing was far above her new husband's, was the elder daughter of Peter I, Count of Saint-Pol, Conversano and Brienne and his wife Margaret de Baux and was descended from Beatrice of England, daughter of King Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence.

The marriage produced 14 children:-

(1) Elizabeth