Elizabeth Woodville the realm; Elizabeth's mother, on the other hand, was the widow of the Duke of Bedford, uncle of King Henry VI of England. In about 1452, Elizabeth Woodville married Sir John Grey of Groby, the heir to the Barony Ferrers of Groby. He was killed at the Second Battle of St Albans in 1461, fighting for the Lancastrian cause. This would become a source of irony, since Elizabeth's future husband Edward IV was the Yorkist claimant to the throne. Elizabeth Woodville's two sons from this first marriage were Thomas (later Marquess of Dorset) and Richard. Elizabeth Woodville was called "the
Richard Woodville (died 1441) 1435), who followed his father as an administrator and politician. From at least 1268, the Woodville family had been tenants in the village of Grafton Regis, where they occupied the manor house next to the church, and had acquired lands in neighbouring parishes. According to Hasted, it was John Woodville who acquired the manor of Mote at Maidstone in Kent, which eventually came to Richard. By 1411 he was serving in France in the garrison of Guînes, then part of the English territory of the Pale of Calais, under the Duke of Clarence, King Henry V's brother. In 1415 and