Adventures with Cecylee Part I ~ The Portrait

When I research my novels, I travel to the places where they are set to imbibe the scents, sights, and atmosphere of each place. I always find something I don’t expect.

Take my first novel Thwarted Queen, which is a fictionalized autobiography told mostly in the voice of Lady Cecylee Neville, the youngest daughter of Ralph, Earl of Westmorland and his second wife Countess Joan.

We know only two facts about Cecylee’s youth. The first is that she was born in May 1415, although people cannot agree whether she was born on May 3 (also the birthday of one of her daughters) or on May 31. The second is that on St Luke’s Day 1424, she was betrothed to Richard Duke of York. St Luke’s Day is October 18, and so Cecylee would have been nine years old at the time, while Richard would have just turned thirteen. 

It was a splendid match as, upon receiving his inheritance, Richard would be the richest peer in the realm. He was also going to be powerful as he was the closest male relative to the King Henry VI of England, who in 1424, was a mere toddler. Thus Richard of York was also Heir Presumptive to the throne of England.

The collage above shows Cecylee’s girlhood home Castle Raby. But what is so surprising is the image of Cecylee herself, which I touched up and edited from a painting of her in the chapel of Castle Raby.

As it would have been unheard of for a young lady to have had a full length portrait done of herself in the fifteenth century, it is no surprise that this painting, and the accompanying ones of her father and mother and other relatives, were commissioned in 1901 by Henry Vane, the 9th Baron Barnard whose family still owns Castle Raby. The website of Castle Raby describes the ruinous state of the chapel by the late nineteenth century and explains how Lord Barnard, in the course of his renovations, uncovered the medieval arcade and commissioned those portraits. The artists used tomb effigies and stained glass windows as inspiration.

Although many believe that Cecylee and Richard were actually married in 1424, I believe this happened much later, mainly because their first child was not born until 1438. In my novel Thwarted Queen, I put the date of their marriage around 1437, when Cecylee was about twenty-two years old. Interestingly enough, this is borne out by Cecylee’s portrait, whose original is shown just above. The text at the bottom states “Cicely Neville Rose of Raby married in 1438 to Richard Duke of York.” Presumably Lord Barnard agreed with me that Cecylee was married in her early twenties, rather than when she was a child of nine.

Even though this wonderful image was painted 500 years after Cecylee’s death, it so clearly delineates Cecylee’s beauty, with her large eyes demurely lowered, her small nose and her lips curved into a faint smile. It is easy to see why Richard of York was crazy about her, and why she was known as The Rose of Raby.

Cecylee went on to become the mother of two Kings of England ~ Edward IV (1442-1483) and Richard III (1452-1485) ~ as well as great-grandmother to the Tudor Bluebeard Henry VIII (1491-1547). 

If this has whetted your appetite for Thwarted Queen, please click on the image below.

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