In-Law: Jacquetta of Luxembourg, 1415-1472

The typical process for royal or noble women who were widowed young in the Medieval era was to be recycled back onto the marriage market.  Their child-bearing and alliance-building capabilities were too valuable to waste on rebound marriages.  Some women, though, weren't content to play the game.  Having made one marriage where their family needed it, they saw nothing wrong with following their heart the second time around.  And, some of them had the connections and strength of personality to get away with it.

Jacquetta of Luxembourg, 1415-1472, immortalized in the Philippa Gregory series on the Plantagenets and the movies spawned from it, was one such woman.  She was the daughter of Peter of Luxembourg, Count of St. Pol, but she had lion's blood.  Through her father, she descended from Henry III through his daughter Beatrice of England.  Through her mother, she descended from Simon de Montfort and Eleanor of England, daughter of King John.  To Medieval minds, though, she held a more important connection.  Like the Plantagenets, the Luxembourg royal family claimed descent from Melusine, a water-spirit said to have tempted and mated with several mortal noble men.  Melusine lives on today as the Starbucks goddess.  Perhaps because of all those connections, she was thought to be a suitable bride for John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford.  Bedford had already been married once.  He was a childless widower and much older than Jacquetta.  They were married in 1433, when she was 17.  Bedford died in 1435, leaving Jacquetta a young widow.

Her nephew by marriage, Henry VI, accorded Jacquetta her late husband's title, income and estates to insure a comfortable retirement.  He continued to view her as his aunt and treated her well.  Because Jacquetta was in France at the time of Bedford's death, Henry assigned Sir Richard Woodville, Bedford's former chamberlain, the escort Jacquetta back to England.  Woodville and Jacquetta fell in love and married around 1437.  When Henry found out, his Plantagenet temper boiled over and he refused to receive the couple at court.  They paid a fine, and although Jacquetta lost her title, she kept her status in the family and most of her late husband's income and property.  Jacquetta and Sir Richard had fourteen children, most of whom lived to grow up.  This was the "pack" of Woodvilles that would later swarm the court of Edward IV after he married their sister, Elizabeth, said to be a great beauty like her mother.

Though Bedford had been a staunch Lancastrian and Henry VI was personally kind to her, Sir Richard and Jacquetta believed their best chance lay with the Yorkists.  Much as her mother had done, Elizabeth was involved in a secret romance with the future Edward IV.  When he won the Battle of Towton in 1461 and was acclaimed as King, he secretly married Elizabeth and later proclaimed her openly as queen, infuriating some of his supporters.  Jacquetta and two of her ladies were the only witnesses to the secret marriage, which took place in 1464.  Sir Richard became 1st Earl Rivers and there were titles, honors, marriages, land and privileges galore for the extended Woodville clan.  Several of Elizabeth's siblings arranged advantageous marriages into the higher nobility, with Jacquetta's maneuvering and Edward IV's blessing. 

Who to blame for all this good luck?  The mother-in-law, of course.  When Warwick the Kingmaker threw his support behind the deposed Henry VI, Richard Woodville was arrested and executed, leaving Jacquetta a widow.  Warwick came into possession of a sort of voodoo doll fashioned in the shape of a soldier almost cut in two at the middle.  According to witnesses arranged by Warwick, Jacquetta kept other dolls resembling Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou.  Jacquetta was in danger of being brought to trial as a witch, but Edward IV's victory and an inquiry by the royal council cleared her of all charges.  She died in 1472.  Years later, Richard III revived the witchcraft allegations, stating that Jacquetta had helped Elizabeth seduce Edward by witchcraft.  Jacquetta reputation as a conniver with a whiff of the supernatural has survived ever since.