Name: Anne of the Tower
DOB/DOD: 4 April 1393 - 29 September 1447
Title(s): Princess of England (4 April 1393 - 19 December 1408) | Princess of Wales (19 December 1408 - 20 March 1413) | Queen of England (20 March 1413 - 31 August 1422; coronation 9 April 1413) | Queen Dowager of England (31 August 1422 - 29 September 1447)
Parents: Richard II of England and Anne of Bohemia
Spouse: Henry V, King of England (m. 19 December 1408)
Children: Edward IV of England (2 January 1410 - 11 May 1460), Mary of Lancaster (14 February 1411 - 22 June 1435), Richard, Duke of Lancaster (31 October 1414 - 13 December 1459), John (8 June 1416 - 23 July 1416), Anne of Lancaster (8 June 1416 - 26 March 1465)
Biography: Anne of the Tower was the only child of Richard II of England and his first wife, Anne of Bohemia. The long-awaited child of their marriage, many nobles were disappointed in her sex, having preferred that a boy be born to secure the succession. Richard and Anne seemed to have not shared the nobility's disappointment, however, as they spared no expense in doting on their daughter. The princess was afforded a lavish baptism, and her household was a large and expensive one. The royal couple were very attached to the child, but their happiness did not last long when Queen Anne died the following year of plague on 7 June 1394. The young princess remained her father's only heir and many officials and nobles urged Richard to remarry as quickly as possible so as to have a son and secure the succession. Richard did eventually remarry, but it was to the young Isabella of Valois, who was only three years older than the young princess and thus incapable of producing children for the next several years.
The death of her mother seemed to have had a destructive influence on Anne's father, and he fell into behaving as a tyrant. His behavior ultimately resulted in his being deposed by Henry Bolingbroke in 1399, who consequently claimed the throne as Henry IV of England. This began a tumultuous period in young Anne's life. Though she was never officially deprived of her title as a Princess of England, Anne was deprived of many of the trappings of her childhood and was even kept separate from Henry IV's daughters, who were close to Anne in age and were elevated to the same title upon their father's succession. Anne spent much of her time held in the custody of one supporter of Henry or another out of fear she would become the focus of a rebellion to put her on the throne as her father's only heir. This eventually became one of the goals of the Percy Rebellion, which lasted from 1402 to 1408. It is said that these years in captivity fostered a deep hatred of Henry IV in Anne, one that never abated even after the man's death.
Perhaps the only solace Anne had during the years of her incarceration was her close friendship with Henry of Monmouth, Henry IV's eldest son and heir. Before his father's coup against Richard II, the young Henry, often called Harry, had been in Richard's custody and given that Anne was often in her father's proximity as well, the two grew very close. Harry continued that friendship even after his father's usurpation, and often visited her. When speaking of that time years later, Anne is claimed to have said of her husband, "He was my only joy in a time of unending misery." This devotion to Harry would last for the rest of their lives.
Because of Anne's status as Richard II's only child, the question of her marriage was a delicate one. Henry IV seems to have considered a number of options, from having her remain unmarried for the rest of her life (much as King John had his niece, Eleanor of Brittany, remain for the duration of her life), to marrying her to himself to further secure his reign (despite the enormous age difference), to marrying her to his eldest son. He ultimately chose the third option, though his consideration of having Anne marry him appeared to have become public knowledge, and was met with considerable disapproval from noble and commoner alike. Anne herself is said have threatened to have Henry's blood on the wedding sheets instead of hers, if it came to that, a comment which could easily be taken as treason, but seems to have been ignored.
Subsequently, Anne, now aged fifteen, married Harry of Monmouth, Prince of Wales, on 19 December 1408, becoming the first Princess of Wales since her grandmother, Joan of Kent. At this point, Henry IV was beginning to suffer from ill health, which forced Prince Harry to take over many of his father's duties. This was also the beginning of a great deal of conflict between father and son, and many claim that Anne did her best to encourage the breach between the two men. For a period of eighteen months, from 1410 to 1411, Harry had full control of the government while his father suffered through another illness, and took full advantage of his newfound power, imposing his own foreign and domestic policies, policies that Anne herself agreed with. However, when Henry IV recovered, much of these policies were reversed and Harry was dismissed from his council. The conflict between father and son continued until the death of Henry IV in 1413, which catapulted Harry and Anne to the throne. They were crowned together on 9 April 1413.
Anne and Harry's relationship seems to have remained a close one from its early childhood beginnings. Despite the many male relatives he had surrounding him, he frequently asked her advice and listened to her suggestions on policy, many of which he fused with his own ideas and implemented. However, they disagreed on one particular subject - the re-conquest of the lost Plantagenet lands in France. Anne appears to have had little liking for France, possibly stemming from their lack of help provided to her father after he was deprived of his throne, and had no desire to spend English resources on re-conquering it. Harry, and indeed many in England, disagreed and war was eventually declared on the basis of England's ancestral claim to France, as well as several old commercial disputes and the support the French had given to a Welsh rebellion some years before. Whatever her own feelings, Anne eventually supported her husband's efforts, and was left as regent when Harry set sail for France in 1415.
While also supporting her husband's continental ambitions, Anne worked hard at maintaining his domestic policies at home, and also seeing to the care of their children. Over the course of their entire marriage, she bore Harry a total of five children, four of which lived to adulthood - their heir, the future Edward IV of England, Mary of Lancaster, Richard, Duke of Lancaster, and Anne of Lancaster. There was also a John of Lancaster, the twin to young Princess Anne, who lived only a month after his birth. Much has been made of the fact that none of Anne and Harry's children bore the name Henry, with many claiming that Anne pointedly refused to name any child of hers after the man who deposed her father, even if that name was shared by the husband she adored. However, the records of such claims did not appear until nearly a century after Anne's death.
Being busy with the English regency and the care and upbringing of her children, Anne was only peripherally involved in Harry's foreign adventures, such as his smashing victory at Agincourt, or the darkening of his own reputation due to his harsh behavior against French prisoners of war and innocent women and children. She was, however, given the custody of Catherine of Valois, the daughter of Charles VI of France, whom Harry had contracted to marry to their eldest son, Edward, despite the eight-year difference in their ages. Anne was not pleased by the marriage, and made no secret of her dislike of the French princess. Nonetheless, the marriage went ahead, and Catherine and Edward were married on 13 July 1420 - the bride being aged eighteen and the groom being aged ten. It was hardly an ideal match, but given that Harry sought to unite the English and French crowns, it seemed the best course. Historians have argued that Harry would have married Catherine himself if he had not already been married to Anne, but given what was to come, it has been thought to have been for the best that such a course of events did not come about.
By 1421, the English forces had taken a good portion of north-eastern France (along with keeping Gascony, which they had already), though not without cost. When Harry's brother, Thomas, Duke of Clarence, was killed during the Battle of Baugé, Harry returned to France after having spent some time in England to take command. He would not return home alive, dying suddenly on 31 August 1422 of dysentery. Before he succumbed to the illness, Harry named his brother, John, Duke of Bedford as the regent of France for his twelve-year-old son. He also directed that Anne continue as regent in England, a position she had been filling for the better part of several years.
By all contemporary accounts, Anne was devastated by Harry's death. She is said to have flouted convention by attending his funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey, even weeping over his coffin. Still, she spent the next several years as the regent for the English affairs, though she faced several challenges from some of her brothers-in-law, who wished to control England themselves. Nonetheless, Anne kept a firm hand on controlling English affairs, and was able to pass a fairly stable realm to her son in 1428 when Edward reached his majority. Anne was aged thirty-five by then as the Queen Dowager might have been expected to retire comfortably, but she remained at the center of political affairs, advising her son. She was thus present when in 1430 a great scandal erupted.
The marriage between Edward IV and his wife, Catherine of Valois, had not been a fruitful one. Being eighteen and ten when they married did not make for an easy match, and although the marriage was consummated by 1425, when Edward reached the age of fifteen, no child was born of the union. In 1429, Edward crossed into France for the first time, seeking to view his French possessions, but did not take Catherine with him. Thus, many were shocked when in late 1430, Catherine went into labor and gave birth to a son - eleven months after Edward had left. Things came out quickly after that, the revelation that Catherine had become involved with a member of her household, a Welshman named Owen Tudor. Tudor was quickly captured, tried, and executed. Many called for Catherine to be forced to walk the path of the penitent, that is walk barefoot through the streets in only a chemise and bearing a candle, but surprisingly enough, Anne herself vetoed such a measure. Anne herself had been furious over the revelation of her daughter-in-law's affair, bemoaning the fact that her late husband had saddled England with a "French slut who had no concept of duty". Nonetheless, she stated that forcing Catherine through such an ordeal would only serve to inflame the French against the English even more than they already were, whatever her crimes. Instead, Catherine was thrust into a convent and told that it would be the best for her to take vows and renounce the outside world, including her own marriage vows. There may have even been threats made against the life of her infant son if she did not comply. To which she did. Anne also sought the aide of the Pope for a divorce for her son so that the might remarry. Catherine's son, who was christened Edmund, was raised quietly and then given to a monastery so that he might take orders. The boy died sometime after 1456.
After the Queen's Scandal, as the affair came to be called, Anne seems to have decided to settle in to a quiet life. She did see Edward IV remarry in 1432, but also saw the marriage too go childless. Occasionally she served to advise her son, and also watched from afar as the French began to push the English back. She died on 29 September 1447 and was buried in Westminster Abbey next to Harry. Anne did not live to see the dynastic wars that would ultimately come to engulf the country after both of her sons die childless.
