The White Queen -The White Queen

Westminster Palace, London, England, Spring 1470

I take what I can get from Warwick stay with the family. Grumbling will not bring my cousin and my uncle back and so I must make the best of the current situation. As part of the peace agreement Warwick agrees to give me his eldest daughter Alice to serve as my lady and waiting and gives me free reign over a match for her. Perhaps he thinks that I shall spite him by keeping her a spinster forever and that it will be a way to get his daughter off of his hands with as little pain to him as possible. I do the exact opposite. Instead, when I see Alice and my cousin Richard were getting along grandly I arrange a marriage for the both of them.

So, they are married in February right before the Neville family leaves for their estates back up north. Warwick reluctantly gives his Alice a large dowry and several northern manors. It is a great victory for me. I have always liked the eldest Warwick girl, and now she is part of my family. It is sad for the other daughters however who I have always liked and now I have to go back up north, Isabel with her troublesome husband and the rest of them with their father who seems hellbent on creating more disruption. 

Edward, also knowing the humiliation he caused my family when he refused to execute Warwick and George or punish them in anyway for the murder of my uncle and cousin, tries to make amends. He creates my male cousins earls, with the exception of Lewis Who has received an earldom from his late father. Anthony is created Earl of Grafton, Henry Earl of Camden, Richard Earl of Manchester, and Edward Earl of Hereford. As a tribute to my late cousin John, Edward creates his eldest boy Henry, the Earl of Portland and agrees to his mother's request that her second child John will receive the title Earl Morley on her death. Ella stands and watches the ceremony with all the dignity she can muster. Her daughter Alice clings to her skirts and her newborn daughter Jane (1470) stays quiet in her arms, as though she has already been trained to know that those around her will be sad. 

I also take this time to further secure my family fortunes. My intentions turn toward Elizabeth's children from her first marriage. Her sons have been named knights by my husband and her daughter is a valued member of our household, but I think that their futures need to be more secure so that after I am gone they are able to protect my children and create a power base for the future York dynasty that Edward and I are creating.

For her sons Thomas and Richard I secure matches to very young and wealthy heiresses. Annie Holland, Countess of Huntington will go to Thomas. She is my niece through my husband's older sister and I have to pay her mother 15,570 marks for her hand. It will be worth it when my godson controls the Holland fortune. Cecily Bonville, Baroness Bonville and Harrington, is one of my wards. She is one of the wealthiest girls in the kingdom, her rich father having been slaughtered by Margaret of Anjou along with my good friend Sir Kyriell, and her money will make my nephew Richard a very wealthy young man. 

Another bonus to these marriages is that Thomas and Richard have grown up beside these young ladies and they know each other very well. I will not marry these children to strangers. I will marry them to people that they know and people that in time they will grow to love. It also helps that Warwick wanted to secure these matches for some of his lesser-known Neville nephews and I have snatched them away from him. Annie Holland however is a steal. She was supposed to Mary Claire son George until Warwick broke off their engagement so that my daughter Annie might marry him. I simply was able to outbid everybody else who wanted the young girl after the engagement was broken off. 

Since Annie and Thomas are 15 and 14 now and Elizabeth and I start to plan the wedding. We both agree that it should not take place until Thomas has reached the age of 17 or 18 and so we plan it for around his 18th birthday in about 3 1/2 years from now. It suits both of the young people just fine. They are handsome and pretty and they think that the match suits both of them very much.