In 1435 the duchess became free (relatively speaking) to choose her own destiny. While somewhat constrained by the ruling that she was not to remarry without the king's permission, she allowed her heart to rule her head. And why not? She found happiness with Sir Richard Woodville and if the evidence of raising a large family is anything to go by, she must have felt years later that she made the right choice.
Economically, it was not such a bad outcome. Sir Richard was not a wealthy magnate, but he was far from being poor and as a rising start in the court of Henry VI had prospects. She had her own dowry income, which was not inconsiderable, estimated at over £1000 per annum.
The date of the marriage is unknown, but it must have been before 23 March 1437 when Parliament fined the couple £1000 for marrying without the King's permission. It was a heavy fine but not inconsistent with standard practice for someone of Jacquetta's rank marrying without licence. The couple probably factored this into their decision and Jacquetta at any rate could afford to meet the fine.
Sir Richard was engaged in the siege of Gerberoy in the Spring of 1436 and was captured by the French. He was released in May of that year and was therefore free to pursue his romantic interests. It can be inferred that they got together and married in the Autumn of 1436 because there was a hint that the duchess might have been visibly pregnant in March 1437 when the court discovered the fait accompli. Monstrelet reported that Jacquetta's uncle, the bishop of Therouane was annoyed at the revelation but concluded that nothing could be done at this stage. Had the secret wedding been exposed earlier it is probable that the powerful bishop could have arranged to have the marriage annulled. The expectation of a child made that impossible.
Sir Richard was a fine figure of a man "beautiful and well formed in his person", according to Monstrelet, and as an athlete and jouster had an established reputation. From the point of view of the personal attractiveness of the newly weds it was not such a bad match. Socially, there were those who sneered at it, and over 20 years later, the status of Sir Richard, then Lord Rivers was a subject for reproof. Rivers, together with his son Antony, had been captured at Sandwich and taken to Calais where the earl of Warwick was in rebellion against the king. Rivers was 'rated' by Warwick, his brother Salisbury and the young Edward, earl of March, for merely being the son of a squire who had married above his station. From the context, reported in a letter buy William Paston, it sounds as if Rivers accused Warwick of being a traitor to the king and that Warwick was unwilling to take such insults from a man he regarded as his social inferior by a large margin.
In 1437 they must have settled in the manor house at Grafton in Northamptonshire. The manor had been in the hands of the de la Pole family, by this time earls of Suffolk, and although the manor was at the heart of ancestral Woodville country, it was not at the time in Woodville hands. This was corrected three years later when Sir Richard and Jacquetta were able to purchase this rather small manor from the earl of Suffolk.
Here, their first child, Elizabeth, was born in 1437. None of the Woodville children have recorded dates of birth and the approximate year of birth has to be inferred from later records. There is some agreement about the year of Elizabeth's birth. She was followed by a daughter and then Antony c 1440. The real birth order is not known and people have argued for Margaret, Anne and Jacquetta as the next eldest. My own intuition is that it was probably Margaret, named after Jacquetta's own mother. Further children followed until the birth of Catherine c 1458. Twelve of these children survived to adulthood and part of the cause of resentment against the Woodvilles after Elizabeth's marriage to Edward IV, was that there were so many of them to be granted titles and marriages.
Jacquetta's life was not confined to the country in south Northamptonshire, at least not after the early years of marriage. She was sent to France in 1444 to accompany Margaret of Anjou to England for her marriage to Henry VI at Titchfield on 22 April 1445. Thereafter she was in attendance of the queen. Accounts for the queen's household record gifts to Jacquetta from the queen in 1447 and 1452. Richard;s career was developing at the same time. She was also present with the queen's household at Coventry in May 1457. It seems reasonable to infer that Jacquetta was a permanent member of the queen's household from 144 to 1460 and presumably was in attendance on the queen except for those months when she was in confinement to give birth.
She was in London in February 1461 (by this time past childbearing) and was asked by the Mayor and aldermen of London to negotiate with Queen Margaret's forces outside the city walls. Evidently she was trusted by both sides.
Lord Rivers and his family were firmly committed to the Lancastrian government for a generation but that changed at the battle of Towton on 29 March 1461, which was a decisive victory for the Yorkists. Rivers and his son Antony were both captured and sent to the Tower of London. They were released in July after swearing allegiance to the new king and it may be inferred that Jacquetta's Burgundian connection may have been a factor. More likely the pardon was due to Edward's generosity of spirit and his determination to unite the country. Unlike several other pardoned families, the Woodvilles remained true to their new master.
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