George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence by being drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine). He appears as a character in William Shakespeare's plays "Henry VI, Part 3" and "Richard III", in which his death is attributed to the machinations of Richard. George was born on 21 October 1449 in Dublin at a time when his father, the Duke of York, had begun to challenge Henry VI for the crown. His godfather was James FitzGerald, 6th Earl of Desmond. He was the third of the four sons of Richard and Cecily who survived to adulthood. His father died in 1460. In 1461 his elder brother, Edward,
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