William Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (5 March 145116 July 1491) was an English nobleman and politician.

Early life

He was the son of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke and Anne Devereux. His paternal grandparents were William ap Thomas and

Gwladys Saint Gwladys ferch Brychan () or St Gladys ( la, Gladusa), daughter of King Brychan of Brycheiniog, was the queen of the saint-king Gwynllyw Milwr and the mother of Cadoc "the Wise", whose ''Vita'' may be the earliest saint's life to mention ...

, daughter of Dafydd Gam, and his maternal grandparents were Walter Devereux,

Lord Chancellor of Ireland The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland (commonly known as Lord Chancellor of Ireland) was the highest judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 to 1801, it was also the highest political office of ...

and Elizabeth Merbury. He succeeded his father in the

earldom Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl'', and meant " chieftain", particula ...

in 1469. In 1479, he was forced by

Edward IV Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in Englan ...

to surrender the earldom with its accompanying lands in Wales to Edward's son, the future

Edward V Edward V (2 November 1470 – mid-1483)R. F. Walker, "Princes in the Tower", in S. H. Steinberg et al, ''A New Dictionary of British History'', St. Martin's Press, New York, 1963, p. 286. was ''de jure'' King of England and Lord of Ireland fr ...

, and was created Earl of Huntingdon. William had hoped to restore to his family the Earldom of Pembroke. Awarding lands in the south-west of England meant that Edward had moved the family influence out of Wales. A

Yorkist The House of York was a cadet branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet. Three of its members became kings of England in the late 15th century. The House of York descended in the male line from Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, t ...

, he married

Mary Woodville Mary Woodville, Countess of Pembroke (c. 1456–1481) was a sister of Edward IV's Queen consort, Elizabeth Woodville, and of Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers. She later became the first wife of William Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, by whom ...

, sister of the queen,

Elizabeth Woodville Elizabeth Woodville (also spelt Wydville, Wydeville, or Widvile;Although spelling of the family name is usually modernised to "Woodville", it was spelt "Wydeville" in contemporary publications by Caxton, but her tomb at St. George's Chapel, Wind ...

, and they had one daughter, Elizabeth Herbert, 3rd Baroness Herbert.

Later career

Herbert remained loyal to

Richard III Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Bat ...

. After the rebellion of 1483 he received the post of Chief Justice of South Wales, which had been the Duke of Buckingham's. After his marriage to his second wife, Katherine, an illegitimate daughter of Richard III in 1484, he received an annuity of some £1,000 pounds a year, nearly doubling his income.Charles Ross, ''Richard III'', (University of California Press, 1981), 158. Katherine is presumed to have died by 1487, because when William participated in the coronation of his first wife's niece, Elizabeth of York, he was noted to have been a widower. When Henry of Richmond landed in south Wales in 1485 Herbert's position forced Henry to take a roundabout route into England. It is likely that a Herbert agent first notified Richard III of Henry's landing.Charles Ross, ''Richard III'', 211. Herbert did not, however, fight at Bosworth.

Death and succession

When he died, his only child, Elizabeth Herbert, received the Herbert lands, including

Raglan Castle Raglan Castle ( cy, Castell Rhaglan) is a late medieval castle located just north of the village of Raglan in the county of Monmouthshire in south east Wales. The modern castle dates from between the 15th and early 17th centuries, when the succ ...

, but not his title. However, his earldom did not pass to his younger brother, Walter Herbert, as it had already been merged into the crown. The earldom would however be granted again to the Herbert family in 1551 as the tenth creation to his nephew, Sir William Herbert, the son of

Sir Richard Herbert Sir Richard Herbert (died 1510) of Ewyas, Herefordshire, was a Welsh knight, gentleman, landowner, and courtier. He was an illegitimate son of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1423–1469), and Maud ap Howell Graunt, a daughter of Adam ...

, an illegitimate son of William's father. The Herbert family today still retains the earldom of Pembroke, among others.

Notes

References

*Cokayne, George E. ''Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct, or Dormant.'' London: G. Bell & Sons, 1887. (p. 207
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Retrieved May 4, 2008 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pembroke, William Herbert, 02nd Earl Of 1451 births 1491 deaths William Herbert, 02nd Earl of Pembroke 2

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

15th-century English people People of the Tudor period Earls of Huntingdon