Anne Woodville of Kent, due to her death in 1489. The marriage produced one son: In 1483, the Woodville family fortunes took a downward spiral with the death of King Edward IV in April. Anne's sister, Elizabeth, as the mother of the new young king Edward V, became the Queen Mother; however, in June 1483, her marriage to the late King was judged to have been invalid because Edward had allegedly been pre-contracted to Lady Eleanor Talbot. King Edward IV's younger brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester and Lord Protector, claimed the crown for himself on 22 June; this claim was supported by
Elizabeth Woodville to the throne with any degree of validity. To strengthen his claim and unite the two feuding noble houses, Elizabeth Woodville and Margaret Beaufort agreed that the latter's son should marry the former's eldest daughter, Elizabeth of York, who upon the death of her brothers became the heiress of the House of York. Henry Tudor agreed to this plan and in December 1483 publicly swore an oath to that effect in the cathedral in Rennes, France. A month earlier, an uprising in his favour, led by Buckingham, had been crushed. Richard III's first Parliament of January 1484 stripped Elizabeth of