Malvasia Malmsey was one of the three major wines exported from Greece in medieval times. (For other examples, see Rumney wine and Cretan wine). It is alleged that when Edward IV of England convicted his brother, George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, of high treason, his private execution consisted of being "drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine," which is dramatized in Shakespeare's "Richard III". Both Monemvasia and Candia have lent their names to modern grape varieties. In Greece, there is a variety known as Monemvasia, evidently named after the port, though now grown primarily in the Cyclades. In western Europe,
Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence English royal family and was the mother of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York. Even though Richard was a descendant in the male line of Edward III, the House of York based its claim to the English throne on descent through the female line from Lionel to establish a lasting blood line. (Edward's first-born son, the Black Prince, had no legitimate descendants past his two sons Edward of Angoulême and King Richard II.) Lionel was the ancestor of Kings Edward IV, Edward V, Richard III and all later British monarchs except for Henry VII, whose wife Elizabeth of York was