... was the brother of kings Edward IV and Richard III. He was created Duke of Clarence by Edward IV, in 1461 – the same year that Edward proclaimed himself King in place of their third cousin, Henry VI. Clarence married Isabel Neville, the daughter of Richard Neville – Warwick the Kingmaker, who had supported Edward in his opposition of Henry. But Warwick had since fallen out with Edward, after the King married Elizabeth Woodville, contrary to Warwick's plans for him to marry Bona of Savoy, Duchess of Milan – the sister–in–law of King Louis XI of France. (The marriage had made Edward the first English king since the Norman Conquest to marry one of his subjects.)
It was under Warwick's influence that Clarence switched to the Lancastrian cause. Together they raised a force in the North and led an uprising against Edward, deposing him in 1470. They restored Henry VI to the throne, and used him as a puppet king while they exercised power. Henry made Clarence next in line to the throne after his own son, Edward of Westminster.
When Warwick had his younger daughter, Anne Neville, married to Edward of Westminster, Clarence realised that his loyalty to his father–in–law was misplaced; Warwick was clearly putting his own interests before Clarence's ambitions to gain the throne. Clarence was secretly reconciled with Edward. They soon succeeded in deposing Henry VI, and Edward returned to the throne on 11 April 1471. Three days later Edward and his brothers defeated 'Warwick the Kingmaker' at the battle of Barnet, where Warwick was killed.
But the newly–restored Edward VI did not trust his younger brother. One of Clarence's retainers was accused of plotting against the King, and confessed under torture. He was executed, along with an accomplice whom he had implicated.
This should have served as a warning to Clarence, but he chose not to heed it. He engaged one Dr. John Goddard to burst into Parliament and recount the declarations of innocence of the two convicted conspirators. Goddard was not a wise choice; he was an ex–Lancastrian, who had supported Henry VI's claim to the throne. Edward accused Clarence of treason, and had him sent to the Tower.
Clarence was tried in his absence, and Edward coerced Parliament into finding him guilty. He was "privately executed" in the Tower of London on 18 February 1478. Some believe that the execution took place on Richard's orders. The rumour that Clarence had been drowned in a butt of malmsey began to circulate soon afterwards, and was perpetuated more than a century later in Shakespeare's play Richard III.
Edward IV died unexpectedly in 1483. He was succeeded by his son Edward V, who was never crowned and is believed to have been murdered, along with his younger brother Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, as one of the 'Princes in the Tower'. Edward V was succeeded by his uncle, Richard III.
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