General Notes

George Plantagenet, son of Richard, duke of York, and brother of Edward IV,
king of England, born in Dublin. The title duke of Clarence was revived for
him in 1461 by Edward, and the following year he became lord lieutenant of
Ireland. In 1469, in defiance of his brother, he married a daughter of
Richard Neville, earl of Warwick. During the Wars of the Roses, Clarence
first supported Warwick and the deposed Lancastrian king, Henry VI, against
his brother Edward IV, but he later turned to aid Edward and the Yorkist
faction. After the death of his father-in-law in 1471, Clarence shared the
Warwick estates with his brother Richard, duke of Gloucester (later King
Richard III), but retained the title earl of Warwick. Suspected of seeking
the crown, Clarence was imprisoned, convicted by Parliament, and murdered in
the Tower of London. His only son, Edward, earl of Warwick (1475-99), was
imprisoned in the tower at the age of ten and was beheaded on the order of
the Tudor king Henry VII. Shakespeare recounted the story of Clarence in
Henry VI, Part III and Richard III.