I watched The White Queen in its mother language and maybe I didn't get all the points or maybe my historical memories need to be refreshed but what kind of disease killed King Edward and Queen Anne? They seemed to suffer the same symptoms even if Anne Neville died after a while.
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When people start coughing up blood, you can bet they're in the later stages of pulmonary tuberculosis (called 'consumption' in those days).
Historically though, while Anne Neville did actually die of tuberculosis, Edward IV died of something similar to pneumonia, which does not quite have the same symptoms.
"To you, Baldrick, the Renaissance was just something that happened to other people, wasn't it?"
Just in case people are still interessted in the dry facts
Edward IV spent his last years practically gorging on any foodstuff he could find as well as wine and yes also women.
As far as we historians are concerned Edward suffered from Gout or Dropsy both run in the Plantagenet family and also Henry VIII suffered from it. The cause of his death however seemed to have been a heartattack due to stuffed up arteries caused by high colesterol due to his overly active eating.
Anne Neville's cause is somewhat trickier. The tuberculosis/pneunomia theory seems quite legit with the pneunomia being the more likely since in thoses days tb was an already quite easily detected sickness. Others say she died of a broken heart after Edward Middleham died and indeed after his death her health rapidly detoriated as she was deeply attached to her son. She might also have caught a simple flu which in her frail state would have had the same effects. The truth is that Anne was never a healthy woman. Even as a child she often had colds and was prone to other health problems.
Edward of Middleham died from Leukemia as people now agree
The father and brother Edward, George and Richard keep referring to fell at the battle of Wakefield 31.12.1460 with their brother Edmund beeing just 16 and after having surrendered was slaughered by Lord Clifford That was also when Warwick's father Salisbury fell.
AND George of Clarence wasn't drowned in a wine barrel that is simply legend. His brother gave him the choice of hanging, decaptaion and poison. He chose poison which was adminstered in a goblet of wine. Afterwards his body was put into an empty wine barrel to preserve it during the trip to Gloucester where he is buried
So all deaths I can think about now. Hope I could help a little
Thanks c-balluseck. You have been very enlightening!
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You are very welcome!
There are few historical things that went wrong in the series or were left open.
And well they had to make Edward's death and suffering interesting to watch what is more boring than someone just dropping down and be dead?
They all were. Just from another branch same as the Nevilles, Staffords (Buckingham), Pole and many other families.
Their common ancestor is Edward III. He had five sons surving into adulthood. Edward the Black Prince died before he was crowned and so the crwon passed on to his son Richard II who left no issue. After that Henry Bolingbroke the eldest son of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster and 3rd son to Edward III. This was because the second son Lionel had only one daughter who married into the Mortimer family (keep her in mind though she's going to be important. The crwon went to Bolinkgbroke's son the famous Henry V and then to his son Henry VI. Meanwhile the Mortimer claim had been passed into another line originating from the loins of Edward III. The fourth son Edmund of York had a son Richard of Cambridge who had married the granddaughter of Lionel of Clarence. So he had two claims on the crown. His son Richard of York took them quite seriously and rebelled against his cousin Henry VI thus igniting the Wars of the Roses.
York died in Wakefield Battle alongside with his second son Edmund of Rutland and his best friend and General Richard Neville Earl of Salisbury and father to Richard Neville Earl of Warwick. York left three sons and two daughters. Edward IV, George of Clarence, Richard III, Mary and Margaret.
The Poles who later take up the last Yorkist and Plantagent claim against Henry VIII decent from Mary Plantagenet. They were able to do so because Henry VII beheaded Edward "Teddy" Plantagenet the Earl of Warwick and son to George of Clarence.
The Nevilles on the other hand are of Lancastrian descent. They were born from the union of John of Gaunt's daughter Joan Beaufort and Ralph Neville Earl of Westmoreland. And believe it or not they had 14 children of whom the oldest, said Richard Neville Earl Salisbury had another ten among them as said our dear Earl Warwick
The Staffords come from the attainted line of the fifth son Thomas of Gloucester who like George rebelled many times and was ultimately executed at Calais. But with all lines before them extinguished they were heir apparent to the english throne.
The main Plantagent line ended on th Field of Bosworth on 22.8.1485 when Richard III fell. His niece and daughter of Edward IV married the victor Henry Tudor who was crowned Henry VII of England.
But up to this day there are descendants from Margaret Plantagenet living both in Beligium and ENgland and it was with this genetic material that Richard III's bones were indentified.
So this is about as summned up as I could make it after all its about 150 years of history ;)
Thanks for the summary. But I have a question.
Edward IV had a claim to the throne because he was a great-great-grandson of Edward III. Likewise, Henry VI had a claim to the throne because he was also a great-great-grandson of Edward III.
Henry VI's parents were Henry V (great-grandson of Edward III) and Catherine of Valois. After Henry V died, Catherine of Valois had a child with Owen Tudor. The child was Edmund Tudor, father of Henry Tudor (Henry VII). Since Catherine of Valois had married into the House of Lancaster and wasn't a descendant of Edward III, her descendants with Owen Tudor weren't part of the royal bloodline. So what was Henry Tudor's initial claim to the throne based on?
After defeating Richard III's army, Henry Tudor married Elizabeth of York (who was Edward IV's eldest daughter and thus a part of the royal bloodline) so that solidified Henry Tudors' claim to the throne. But at the beginning of the series, Margaret Beaufort kept saying that her son Henry Tudor would be King someday. But since Henry Tudor wasn't a descendant of Edward III and thus wasn't part of the royal bloodline, what was the basis for Margaret Beaufort thinking that her son Henry Tudor should be King?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD0vARpus-g
It's all sort of murky really.
From Wikipedia-
Edmund was created Earl of Richmond in 1452, and "formally declared legitimate by Parliament".
Basically Margaret was right because her son's claim comes from her and not from his father. Edmund Tudor might have been the son of a former Queen consort but he never had a claim (except maybe on the french throne because his mother a daughter of the french king, Henry VIII used that claim as an excuse to invade France)
The claim of Henry Tudor comes from the bastard line of John of Gaunt. The same line Bolingbroke, Henry V and VI come from. Only when John of Gaunt married his longtime mistress Katherine Swynford their issue was legitimized. But by royal degree (issued by their half brother) they and their heirs were banned from ever inheriting the throne.
The Beauforts therefore had no claim. But Margaret and later Henry simply decided to ignore that. Maybe it just had been forgotten.
But yes HT's claim comes from his mother not his father. Therefore the only competition he had to fear was the equally banned Pole family (descended from George of Clarence through his daughter (sorry my mistake up there mixed them up) and George's son Edward Warwick. And Richard III's illegitimate son John Plantagenet. Henry had Edward and John executed and the Poles banished to the countryside.
But since their claim had been denied by royal decree after their father's treason they had exactly the same claim as Henry. Bad idea he thought.
Henry was a child of his upbringing. He learned that only a dead enemy is a good one and therefore executed every one that might have a similar of better claim. Even if Edward was autistic and John a bastard.
Your attention for detail is impressive.
Dropsy does run in the Plantagenet family but gout is not entirely congenital; more often than not it is an indirect result of being overweight, consumption of red meat and beer. Henry VIII definitely did not suffer from dropsy. He did definitely suffer from type II Diabetes, which was the cause of a myriad of his health problems.
Jack's not dead! Jack would never die without telling me, first!
Ah I just spent a lot of time with those old boys...
I know of several cases of dropsy in the Plantagenet family. I only know of one gouty person John of Gaunt. Henry VIII is a Tudor and very far out of the line. What is interesting though is the reoccurence of children dying from leukemia. Like Edward of Middleham and Edward VI.
What also ran through Tudor and Lancaster alike (More Lancaster) was mental instability. Inherited through the Valois line via Queen Katherine de Valois. Her father, she herself in her late years, her grandson Edward the Swan Prince.