Richard Woodville (died 1441) Richard Woodville (died 1441) Richard Woodville (also written contemporaneously as Wydville and Wydeville) (died 1441) was an English landowner, soldier, diplomat, administrator and politician. His son married an aunt of King Henry VI and they were the parents of the wife of the next king, Edward IV. He was the younger son of John Woodville (died before 1401), a Northamptonshire landowner with a long career as administrator and politician, and his second wife Isabel, widow of Robert Passelow, of Drayton Parslow. The heir to the family lands was his elder brother from his father's first marriage, Thomas Woodville (died about
Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers 1385, 1390). Woodville followed his father into service with the Duke of Bedford. In 1433 the Duke had married the 17-year-old Jacquetta of Luxembourg; she was the Duke's second wife and he was significantly older and in ill health. When the Duke died in 1435, Jacquetta was left a childless and wealthy widow. She was required to seek permission from King Henry VI before she could remarry, but in March 1437 it was revealed that she had secretly married Richard Woodville who was far below her in rank and not considered a suitable husband for the lady still honoured as