From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cecily of York (March 20, 1469 - August 24, 1507) was the third daughter of Edward IV of England and his Queen consort Elizabeth Woodville.

Cecily was a younger sister of Elizabeth of York and Mary of York, and an older sister of Edward V of England; Margaret of York; Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York; Anne of York; George Plantagenet, Duke of Bedford; Catherine of York; and Bridget of York. She was a niece of Richard III of England.

She was born in Westminster Palace. In 1474, Edward IV contacted a marriage alliance with James III of Scotland, whereby Cecily was betrothed to the future James IV of Scotland. This agreement was unpopular in the Kingdom of Scotland, and later military conflicts between Edward IV and James III would negate the agreement.

With her older sisters, Cecily was present at the wedding of their brother the Duke of York in 1478. In 1480, Cecily was named a Lady of the Garter, along with her sister Mary.

In 1482, Cecily was betrothed to Alexander Stewart, 1st Duke of Albany, the younger brother of James III, who had recently allied with her father and had personal ambitions for the Scottish throne. He was killed on August 7, 1485, without the marriage having taken place, but the death of Edward IV in 1483 had already changed the marriage prospects for his daughters. After the usurpation of the throne by their uncle Richard III and the death of Richard's wife Anne Neville, it was rumored that Richard was considering marriage with one of his nieces. These rumors included Cecily, who by now was the second oldest surviving daughter of Edward IV.

In 1487, after the accession of Henry VII of England accession and his marriage to her older sister Elizabeth, Cecily was married to John Welles, 1st Viscount Welles, the son of Lionel Welles, 6th Lord Welles and Margaret Beauchamp of Bletso. Her new husband was a maternal half-brother of Margaret Beaufort, and thus an uncle of Henry VII. By this marriage Cecily had two children, Elizabeth and Anne Welles, both of whom died young.

Viscount Welles died on February 9, 1499. Cecily's second marriage, to Thomas Kyme or Kymbe, a Lincolnshire squire, took place without the King's permission, with the result of Cecily being sent from court and her estates confiscated. It took intervention from Margaret Beaufort for Cecily to be forgiven and have most of her lands restored.

This second marriage also produced no surviving children, and Cecily is believed to have died a few years afterward, around 1507. According to Edward Hall's Chronicle, she was buried in Quarr Abbey, Isle of Wight.

Cecily played a role in some major royal ceremonies during Henry VII's reign. She carried her nephew, Arthur, Prince of Wales, at his christening; attended her sister Elizabeth of York at her coronation; and bore the train of Catherine of Aragon at her wedding to Prince Arthur. There is also record of her lending money to her sister the Queen in 1502. But her life proved much more obscure than might have been expected from her early betrothals. It is perhaps with this in mind that Thomas More, in his History of King Richard III, described Cecily as "not so fortunate as fair."

A stained glass portrait of Cecily, originally from a larger "royal window" depicting Edward IV's family in the north transept of Canterbury Cathedral, is now in the Burrell Collection.