In 1434 Richard Neville, son of the Earl of Salisbury, was married to Anne Beauchamp, daughter of Richard Beauchamp, the Earl of Warwick, when they were both little more than children; a good marriage for Richard into an aristocratic family but one that would not bring him any true power or wealth. Anne’s father was only 46 years old and she had an elder brother Henry who would be heir to the family’s extensive land and titles. Anne also had three half-sisters from her father’s first marriage. Thus a comfortable marriage for Richard Neville but with no high expectations.
But Death struck quickly and hard at the Beauchamp family.
As expected as his father’s only son, Anne’s brother Henry Beauchamp was the sole heir when their father died on April 30, 1439, in Rouen in Normandy. Henry’s daughter, another Anne, was born in 1443/4, and was the heir in turn to his titles and fortune until a son was born, but Henry died suddenly and unexpectedly in 1446. Then in 1448/9, the young daughter Anne herself died.
Before his death, Richard Beauchamp’s will had specified that if Henry predeceased him, the estate would be split evenly between his three daughters from his first marriage and Anne, daughter of his second marriage. But not only had Henry survived his father and inherited the land and title, his daughter had survived him and inherited until her death. Thus Richard Beauchamp’s will had no bearing on the inheritance.
With the deaths of both Henry and little Anne, this left the elder Anne Beauchamp, 21 years old now and wife of Richard Neville, as the only full-blood survivor of her niece and her brother. The three half sisters were disinherited.
This left her 19 year old husband, Richard Neville, a very fortunate and wealthy man. Anne became the 16th Countess of Warwick by right of inheritance, and her husband became the 16th Earl of Warwick by marriage (jure uxoris), and one of the most powerful landowners in England. It was on this marriage that Warwick’s future power was based.
The three half-sisters with their husbands were not satisfied to have Anne inherit as the sole heir, and fought the inheritance. Eventually the husbands of the half-sisters brought their case to King Henry VI who found for Anne and her husband Richard, casting aside the claims of the sisters and their husbands. The Beauhamp land and titles were theirs. Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, married to one of the older half-sisters, continued to contend for a share of the inheritance, creating a lasting enmity between him and Anne’s husband through the Wars of the Roses.
Nevertheless, Anne had become a most valuable heiress for her young husband who was now the Earl of Warwick, a manwho was to gain a considerable reputation and influence.
