Maud de Clifford, Countess of Cambridge

Born about 1389 at Brough Castle

Sometime before 1406 she was married to John Neville, Lord Latimer. For some unknown reason the marriage was never consummated and Maud successfully sued for an annulment. The marriage was dissolved with very favourable terms for Maud; some of the Neville lands had been put in trust for Maud and, even though the marriage had been declared invalid, she was allowed to keep them.

Maud was, therefore, a very attractive bride for a landless earl. Richard of Conisbrough, earl of Cambridge, was the poorest – and the only landless – earl in England. He lived at Conisbrough Castle in Yorkshire as the tenant of his older brother, Edward, Duke of York. Richard was a widower with 2 small children; his wife, Anne Mortimer, had died sometime after 1411, when she had given birth to their 2nd child, Richard (future Duke of York), probably at Conisbrough Castle. It is not known when Anne died, but it was before 1414, which is the probable date of Maud’s marriage to the earl of Cambridge. Unfortunately the marriage proved to be short-lived, with Richard of Conisbrough becoming involved in the Southampton Plot, a plan to overthrow King Henry V and replace him with Richard’s brother-in-law, Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March. However, March revealed the plot to the King and Richard and his accomplices were arrested, with Richard beheaded for treason on 5th August 1415. Richard of Conisbrough was not attainted, so his lands, such as they were, were not forfeit to the crown. Maud was allowed to remain at Conisbrough Castle, and her step-son, Richard, would be allowed to inherit the Dukedom of York from his uncle, Edward, following his death at Agincourt in October 1415.

Maud would continue to use Conisbrough Castle as her principal residence throughout her life; she received an annuity of £100 from the Earl of March, perhaps to assuage his guilt in the part he played in her husband’s downfall. She seems to have led a full and active life, and remained very close to her Clifford family; they stayed with her often and she was a regular visitor to the Clifford home of Skipton Castle. Her nephew, Thomas and his family, lived with her at Conisbrough for a year in 1437, while his castle at Skipton was undergoing extensive works. There is some suggestion that Maud remarried in 1429. The supposed groom was John Wentworth of North Elmsall, Yorkshire. However, this seems to be more of a family legend among the Wentworth family and only arose over 100 years after Maud’s death.

Maud’s will demonstrates her closeness to her family, and serves as an insight into her comfortable life and the sumptuous furnishings of the castle.

Maud died, of an unknown illness, at Conisbrough Castle on 26th August 1446 and was buried at Roche Abbey, of which she was a benefactor. Footnote: ¹English Heritage Guidebook for Conisbrough Castle by Steven Brindle and Agnieszka Sadrei

Did not marry Richard Wentworth Richard Wentworth - he was a seneschal in her household.

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• Maud Clifford1,2,3,4,5
• F, #46811, d. 26 August 1446
• Father Sir Thomas Clifford, 6th Lord Clifford, Sheriff Westmoreland1,2,3,4,5 b. c 1363, d. 18 Aug 1391
• Mother Elizabeth de Roos2,3,4,5 b. c 1366, d. Mar 1424
• Maud Clifford married Sir John Neville, 6th Lord Latimer, son of Sir John de Neville, 3rd Baron Neville, Ambassador to France, Admiral of the Fleet Northwards, Lt. of Aquitaine and Elizabeth Latimer, before 24 July 1406; No issue.1,2,4,5 Maud Clifford and Sir John Neville, 6th Lord Latimer were divorced between 1413 and 1417.4,5 Maud Clifford married Sir Richard 'of Conisburgh' Plantagenet, Earl of Cambridge, son of Sir Edmund 'of Langley' Plantagenet, 1st Duke of York and Isabel of Castile, circa 1414; They had no issue.6,2,3,4,5 Maud Clifford left a will on 15 August 1446.4,5 She died on 26 August 1446; d.s.p. Buried in the Roche Abbey, Yorkshire.6,3,4,5 Her estate was probated on 4 September 1446.4,5
• Family 1 Sir John Neville, 6th Lord Latimer b. c 1382, d. 10 Dec 1430
• Family 2 Sir Richard 'of Conisburgh' Plantagenet, Earl of Cambridge b. c 20 Jul 1385, d. 5 Aug 1415
• Citations
• 1.[S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. VII, p. 476.
• 2.[S5] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, p. 216.
• 3.[S5] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, p. 793-794.
• 4.[S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. III, p. 245.
• 5.[S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. IV, p. 400-401.
• 6.[S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. VII, p. 477.
• From: http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p1557.htm#... ___________________
• Matilda de Clifford1
• F, #107455, d. 26 August 1446
• Last Edited=23 Feb 2011
• Consanguinity Index=0.69%
• Matilda de Clifford was the daughter of Thomas de Clifford, 6th Lord Clifford and Elizabeth de Ros.1 She married, firstly, John de Neville, 6th Lord Latimer (of Corby), son of John de Neville, 3rd Lord Neville and Elizabeth Latimer, Baroness Latimer (of Corby), before 24 July 1406.2 She and John de Neville, 6th Lord Latimer (of Corby) were divorced before 1414 due to his impotence ('causa frigiditatis ejusdem').2 She married, secondly, Richard of York, 1st Earl of Cambridge, son of Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York and Isabella de Castilla, circa 1414.1 She died on 26 August 1446, without issue.1,2 She was buried at Roche Abbey, Yorkshire, England.1 Her will was probated on 4 September 1446 at York, Yorkshire, England.3
• Her last will was dated 15 August 1446.
• Citations
• 1.[S11] Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Family: A Complete Genealogy (London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999), page 112. Hereinafter cited as Britain's Royal Family.
• 2.[S8] Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 volumes (Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999), volume 1, page 14. Hereinafter cited as Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition.
• 3.[S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume II, page 495. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
• From: http://www.thepeerage.com/p10746.htm#i107455 _____________________________
• Maud CLIFFORD (C. Cambridge)
• Born: ABT 1389, Brough Castle, Westmoreland, England
• Died: 16 Oct 1436 / 26 Aug 1446
• Buried: Monastery Roche, Conisburgh, Yorkshire, England
• Father: Thomas CLIFFORD (6° B.Clifford)
• Mother: Elizabeth ROS (B. Clifford)
• Married 1: John NEVILLE (1° B. Latimer of Corby) BEF 24 Jul 1406
• Married 2: Richard PLANTAGENET of Conisburgh (1º E. Cambridge) AFT 1411, Conisburgh, Yorkshire, England
• Married 3: John WENTWORTH of North Elmsall ABT 1429, Elmsall, England
• From: http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/CLIFFORD.htm#Maud CLIFFORD (C. Cambridge) _______________________
• The baronetage of England: containing a genealogical and historical account ... By Thomas Wotton
• http://books.google.com/books?id=z6W35JBfgQAC&pg=PA300&lpg=PA300&dq...
• Pg. 300
• But, the third son of John Wentworth, Esq; and Agnes, sister and coheir of Sir William Dransfield, (or Dronfield) was,
  • 1. Richard Wentworth, of Everton in Nottinghamshire, who enjoyed his mother's estate at West-Breton: he married Matilda, or Maud, countess of Cambridge, daughter of the lord Clifford, and relict of Richard, earl of Cambridge, who was beheaded, son of Edmund, of Langley, duke of York, and had issue, Richard, William, Thomas, and Anne. And to his second wife, Cecilia __; Isabel, his daughter, married to Richard Wheatley, of Wooley, Esq; His will bears date, Dec. 20, 1447.
    • 2. Richard Wentworth, of Breton, Esq; eldest son and heir, married Isabel, daughter of Sir William Fitz-Williams, .......... _____________
• Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Volume 11 By Colonial Society of Massachusetts
• http://books.google.com/books?id=Sfw7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA69&lpg=PA69&dq=I...?
• Pg.61-71
• Pg. 66
• Richard Wentworth, the father of Matthew last mentioned, married Isabel FitzWilliam ............ Richard Wentworth of Bretton, the father of the last named, married Cecilia, daughter and heir of John Tansley of Everton. His will was dated 20 December, 1447, names his wife executrix, and was probatd 29 May, 1449. This Richard was a younger son of John Wentworth of Elmsall, who married one of the heiresses of Dronsfield from whom Richard inherited his Bretton estate. Richard is interesting genealogically because of an extraordinary mistake, or misrepresentation, concerning his marriage. Mr. Clay
• Pg. 67
• gives it as above and make no mention of any other statement. In Flower's visitation, however, taken in 1563-64, while both the sons of Matthew (the great grandsons of this Richard) were still living, Richard's wife is said to have been Maud, Countess of Cambridge. In the visitation by Glover (1584-85) as edited by Foster, Richard's wife is given as Maud, Countess of Cambridge, and second daughter to Thomas, Lord Clifford. Foster in his Pedigrees of the County Families of Yorkshire, "authenticated by the members of each family," gives Richard two wives, first Cecilia Tansley, to whom he assigns all the children except son Richard who was, he says, son of "Maud (second wife) Countess of Cambridge, and daughter of Thomas, Lord Clifford, and relict of Richard, Earl of Cambridge (who was beheaded), son of Edmund Duke of York." And he might have added relict of John Nevil, Lord Latimer (d.s.P. 1430). She was, indeed, a very great lady, this widow of the Plantagenet Duke of Cambridge-- he who appears in Shakespeare's Henry V; and it is perfectly clear that she never married this Squire Wentworth. The mystery is how there came to be a "family tradition" among the Wentworths that she was their great grandmother, and how they managed to get the heralds, not much more than a hundred years after her death, to record the invention. Mr. John Wentworth rejected the splendid alliance from his pedigree. He says:
• In some of the accounts of the family he is said to have married Matilda, daughter of Thomas Lord Clifford, and relict of Richard Plantagenet, Earl of Cambridge; but the present writer can find no evidence of it, nor in fact that any such person ever existed. On the contrary by his son William Wentworth, in his will distinctly mentions "John Tansley and Dame Alice his wife and their daughter Cecilia my mother."
• This, however, might have been campatible with Mr. Foster's arrangement of two wives. But that excellent and careful antiquary, Mr. Hunter, had long ago shown that Richard Wentworth married Cecilia before Lord Latimer died, and that Cecilia was his
• Pg.68
• wife after the Countess's death. But what did Mr. Wentworth mean by saying of the Countess that he could find no evidence that any such person ever existed? It would seem from this and other things that neither he nor Colonel Chester had consulted Mr. Hunter's Deanery of Doncaster (otherwise called South Yorkshire), quite the best book yet published on that part of England. Mr. Wentworth in writing of his authorities, say:
• The earliest portion of the Wentworth Pedigree rests upon the authority of William Flower, Norroy King of arms, on the the most careful and accurate genealogist ever connected with the College of Arms, who compiled it in the year 1588, and it has ever since remained upon the records of the college, and been accepted not only by that body but by all genealogists as authentic.
• Flower's visitation as he have it in print certainly shows the most extraordinary inaccuracy so far as the Wentworths were concerned, as well in times more remote as in these which fell within a centry of his own time. The earlier generations are not by any means the same as those which Mr. Wentworth gives as from Flower's pedigree of Wentworth in the College of Arms, which would appear to be very much worse. And it is only right to say that while there have been many honorable, careful, and learned men in the College of Arms, there have been also heralds who, like many other needy and avaricious professional genealogist outside the College, have been more or less unscrupulous in their efforts to please the vanity of their employers.
• The father of this Richard who did not marry the countess was John of North Elmsall, who married Agnes, one of the coheirs of the Dronsfield family, according to the two best authorities, Mr Hunter and Mr. Clay, as also Mr. Foster and Mr. Wentworth, but
• Pg. 69
• the visitation pedigrees as we have them of Flower and of Glover insert another John between -- namely, he who married a Beaumont and who is according to better authorities, the brother, not the father, of Richard. We may note by the way that it was Roger, brother of Richard, who founded the family of Nettlestead by marrying the widow of Lord Ros, who became heiress of the Despencers, for which marriage he was in trouble with the Privy Council. ___________________
• The Wentworth genealogy, comprising the origin of the name, the family in England, and a particular account of Elder William Wentworth, the emigrant, and of his descendants (1870)
• http://www.archive.org/stream/wentworthgenealo01inwent#page/n170/mo...
• Pg. 15
• XII. John Wentworth, Esq., of North Elmsall, in Yorkshire, who inherited that estate from his uncle John, and which is at no great distance from Wentworth-Woodhouse, being in the parish of South Kirkby, about nine miles from Doncaster. He married Joan, daughter of Richard le Tyas, of Burghwallis, in Yorkshire, and was succeeded by his only son--
  • XIII. John Wentworth, Esq., of North Elmsall, who married Agnes, sister and co-heir of Sir William Dronsfield, of West Bretton, in Yorkshire, and living in 1413. He had four sons, viz:
    • 1. John, of whom hereafter.
    • 2. Sir Roger Wentworth, who married Margery, relict of John Lord de Roos (who died without issue, 22 March, 1421-2). She was daughter and heir of Philip le Despencer, of Nettlestead,*
    • http://www.archive.org/stream/wentworthgenealo01inwent#page/n172/mo...
    • Pg. 16
    • County Suffolk, by Elizabeth his wife, daughter and heir of Sir Robert Tiptoft, of Nettlestead, and relict of William Scrope, Earl of Wiltshire. Sir Roger settled at Nettlestead, and died before his wife. Lady Margery died 20 April 1478. Her Will was dated 30 August, 1477, and proved 28 May 1478. He was settled at Nettlestead, and became ancestor of the Barons Wentworth of Nettlestead and the Earl of Cleveland. His direct line terminated in Lady Anne Wentworth, who married John, Lord Lovelace. He was also the ancestor of the Wentworths of Gosfield, in the county of Essex, members of which family were scattered over the kingdom, especially in the counties of Bucks, Oxford, and Dorset. From Lady Anne Wentworth, who married John, Lord Lovelace, was descended Anna Isabel (born 1794, and died 16 May, 1860),
    • http://www.archive.org/stream/wentworthgenealo01inwent#page/n173/mo...
    • Pg. 17
    • daughter and heir of Sir Ralph Milbanke and grand daughter of Sir Edward Noel, Baronet, Lord Wentworth. She married, in 1815, the celebrated poet, Lord Byron, whose name was George Gordon, and left an only child, Ada, who married Earl Lovelace, and died, in 1852, leaving children.
    • http://www.archive.org/stream/wentworthgenealo01inwent#page/n178/mo...
    • Pg. 19
    • 3. Thomas, who settled at Doncaster, and died about 1450.
    • http://www.archive.org/stream/wentworthgenealo01inwent#page/n180/mo...
    • Pg. 20
    • 4. Richard, who married Matilda (or Maude), Countess of
    • http://www.archive.org/stream/wentworthgenealo01inwent#page/n182/mo...
    • Pg. 21
    • Cambridge, and became ancestor of the Wentworths of Bretton,*
    • http://www.archive.org/stream/wentworthgenealo01inwent#page/n184/mo...
    • Pg. 22
    • 'in Yorkshire, among whom was a line of Baronets, the last of whom died in 1792.
    • http://www.archive.org/stream/wentworthgenealo01inwent#page/n182/mo...
    • Pg. 21
    • * Richard Wentworth was of Everton, Co. Notts. His will was dated 20 December, 1447. His wife was relict of Richard, Earl of Cambridge (who was beheaded), son of Edward of Langley, Duke of York. She was daughter of Lord Clifford. By her he had issue as follows:
      • 1. Richard, of whom hereafter.
      • 2. William Wentworth, Esq., whose will was dated 28 October, and proved 10 December, 1497, in which he directs to be buried in the church of Gamlinggay, Co. Cambridge. He married Lady Margaret St. George; who survived him.
      • 3. Thomas.
      • 4. Anne. ___________________
• Clifford 02
• Thomas de Clifford, 6th Lord (d 18.08.1391)
• m. Elizabeth de Ros (dau of Thomas de Ros, 5th Lord)
  • 1. John de Clifford, 7th Lord (d 18.03.1421-2)
  • m. (1412) Elizabeth Percy (d 1437, dau of Sir Henry 'Hotspur' Percy)
    • A. .... etc.
    • B. Mary Clifford probably of this generation
    • m. Sir Philip Wentworth of Nettlestead or Nettlested (d. 18.05.1464)
    • C. Maud Clifford possibly of this generation
    • m. Richard Wentworth of West Bretton (a c1440)
  • 2. Maud Clifford dsp 26.08.1446) probably of this generation
  • m1. (div) John Nevill, 6th Lord Latimer
  • m2. (c1414) Richard Plantagenet, Earl of Cambridge (b 1375, d. 05.08.1415)
• Main source(s): BE1883 (Clifford of Cumberland), BP1934 (De Clifford)
• From: Stirnet.com
• http://www.stirnet.com/genie/data/british/cc4aq/clifford02.php _______________________

References

• Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 30. “Burgh and Waterton Families.” Page 385. Archive.Org Robert Waterton married Beatrice Clifford, daughter of Thomas Clifford, 6th Lord Clifford, nephew of Maud, the wife of Richard Plantagenet, Earl of Cambridge.