Richard Woodville, 3rd Earl Rivers Richard Woodville, 3rd Earl Rivers Richard Woodville, 3rd Earl Rivers (1453 – 6 March 1491) succeeded his brother, Anthony Woodville, as the third Earl Rivers. He was the son of Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers, and Jacquetta of Luxembourg, and was the brother of the English queen Elizabeth Woodville. Richard was born in 1453. During the Readeption of Henry VI in 1470 he might have accommodated himself to the short-lived restoration of the Lancastrian regime, as Richard was pardoned by King Edward IV, the husband of his sister Elizabeth, on his return to power in 1471. Unlike his older brother
Edward IV of England of Warwick, due primarily to his marriage. Warwick, acting on Edward's behalf, made preliminary arrangements with King Louis XI of France for Edward to marry either Louis' daughter Anne or his sister-in-law Bona of Savoy. He was humiliated and enraged to discover that, while he was negotiating, Edward had secretly married Elizabeth Woodville, the widow of John Grey of Groby, on 1 May 1464. Edward's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville has been criticised as an impulsive action that did not add anything to the security of England or the York dynasty. A horrified Privy Council told him with unusual frankness, when