Anne Neville is most often remembered as the tragic queen consort of Richard III. But before she wore the English crown, she held a title now largely forgotten: Princess of Wales. Her short and politically fraught marriage to Edward of Westminster, the only son of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou, placed her at the heart of one of the bloodiest and most turbulent chapters of the Wars of the Roses.
The early history of a forgotten Princess of Wales
Born at Warwick Castle in June 1456, Anne Neville was the younger daughter of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick—known to history as the “Kingmaker.” As a scion of the powerful Neville family, Anne’s life was always destined to be shaped by political alliance and dynastic ambition. Yet few could have predicted the dramatic twists her path would take.
By the mid-1470s, England was once again divided between the rival houses of Lancaster and York. Warwick, once a key supporter of Yorkist king Edward IV, had turned against the monarch after a series of political slights. Seeking to restore the Lancastrian dynasty, he allied himself with his former enemy, Margaret of Anjou. To seal this alliance, Warwick offered his daughter Anne as bride to Margaret’s son, Edward of Westminster.
The match was one of expediency. The teenage Anne—just 14 years old—was effectively a pawn in a high-stakes game of dynastic chess. She married Edward of Westminster in December 1470 in Angers, France. With the union, Anne became Princess of Wales, consort to the Lancastrian heir apparent.
A queen in waiting
For Warwick, the marriage was meant to symbolise the reconciliation of England’s two great noble houses and rally support for the restoration of Henry VI. But to many in England, Anne’s new title was contentious. Her father had once been the architect of Yorkist power, and now his daughter was aligned with the enemy. Nonetheless, the young couple were hailed by Lancastrian loyalists as a beacon of legitimacy.
Yet Anne’s time as Princess of Wales was brief and overshadowed by the brutal realities of civil war. By April 1471, Warwick had fallen in battle at Barnet, and the Lancastrian cause was crumbling. Just weeks later, Anne’s husband was killed at the Battle of Tewkesbury—either in the fighting or murdered shortly afterward, aged just 17.
Edward’s death marked the end of the direct Lancastrian male line. For Anne, it marked the beginning of an uncertain and dangerous period. She was captured and brought to the court of her Yorkist enemies. There, she was held in the custody of her brother-in-law, George, Duke of Clarence—who was married to her sister Isabel. Anne’s position was now perilous. Her marriage to the late prince made her both a valuable prize and a potential threat.
Did love help Anne actually become queen?
Eventually, Anne was married to Richard, Duke of Gloucester, the youngest brother of Edward IV. This second union has often been interpreted as a love match, though it, too, was not without political implications. Richard, like others, stood to gain from Anne’s considerable inheritance as co-heiress of the Neville estates. Yet it is a testament to Anne’s resilience that she survived the fall of the Lancastrians and emerged as Duchess of Gloucester, and later, Queen of England.
Anne’s brief time as Princess of Wales is easily overshadowed by her later roles, but it reveals much about the volatility of 15th-century politics and the instrumental role noblewomen played in the struggle for power. Her story illustrates how marriage could be both a weapon and a survival strategy—and how the title of Princess of Wales, though prestigious, offered little protection in an age of dynastic warfare.
