Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick
Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick (25 February 1475 – 28 November 1499) was the son of Isabel Neville and George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, and a potential claimant to the English throne during the reigns of both his uncle, Richard III (1483–1485), and Richard's successor, Henry VII (1485–1509). He was also a younger brother of Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury. Edward was tried and executed for treason in 1499.
Edward Plantagenet
25 February 1475
Warwick, Warwickshire, England
28 November 1499 (aged 24)
Tower of London, London, England
Imprisonment and execution[edit]
Following the death on 16 March 1485 of Richard III's queen, Anne, young Edward Plantagenet was vested as Earl of Salisbury by right of his mother Isabel, who had been a co-heiress with Anne to the abeyant earldom.[7] This provided Edward and thus his wards with more wealth and potential power. Following King Richard's death on 22 August 1485, Warwick, only ten years old, was kept as a prisoner in the Tower of London by Henry VII acting as his ward. His claim to the throne, albeit tarnished, remained a potential threat to Henry, particularly after the appearance of the pretender Lambert Simnel in 1487. In 1490, he was confirmed in his title of Earl of Warwick despite his father's attainder (his claim to the earldom of Warwick being through his mother). But he remained a prisoner until 1499, when he became involved (willingly or unwillingly) in a plot to escape with Perkin Warbeck.
On 21 November 1499, Warwick appeared at Westminster for a trial before his peers, presided over by John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford. A week later, Warwick was beheaded for treason on Tower Hill. Henry VII paid for his body and head to be taken to Bisham Abbey in Berkshire for burial,[8] using funds derived from Warwick's estate. It was thought at the time that Warwick was executed in response to pressure from Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, whose daughter, Catherine of Aragon, was to marry Henry's heir, Arthur. Catherine was said to feel very guilty about Warwick's death, and believed that her trials in later life were punishment for it.[9]
A number of historians have claimed that Warwick had a mental disability. This conclusion appears entirely based on the chronicler Edward Hall's contention that Warwick's lengthy imprisonment from a young age had left him "out of all company of men, and sight of beasts, in so much that he could not discern a goose from a capon."[10]
Upon Warwick's death, the House of Plantagenet became extinct in the legitimate male line. However, the surviving sons of his aunt Elizabeth, Duchess of Suffolk, continued to claim the throne for the Yorkist line.