Roundtable Feature: The Woodville Family

This episode, hosted by Charlotte McCrory, explores the Woodville family who played such a prominent role in late fifteenth century English politics. Historians Danielle Burton, Lynda Pigeon and Kavita Mundan Finn explore the Woodvilles from their early origins in 1066, through to the height of their political power and prominence in the fifteenth century. 

Guest Bios

Danielle Burton is a historian, author, heritage worker, and history blogger. She has a First in History and an MA in Public History and Heritage, both from the University of Derby. Her first history book, a biography on Anthony Woodville, brother-in-law of Edward IV, entitled Anthony Woodville: Sophisticate or Schemer was published in February 2024. She currently works as a history speaker, tour guide and archive assistant.

• Facebook- Danielle Burton
• Instagram- @voyagerofhistory
• Bluesky- @princessburton.bsky.social
• Blog- https://voyagerofhistory.wordpress.com 
• Substack- Danielle Burton, Historian, https://voyagerofhistory.substack.com/ 

Lynda Pigeon earned a PhD from Southampton gained in 2012 as a mature student. Her thesis was on the Reputation of the Woodvilles which was published in 2019 by Fonthill as 'Brought up of Nought' a History of the Woodville Family. She has published a number of articles on the Woodvilles including: 

• 'Antony Wydevile, Family Friends and Affinity Part 1’ The Ricardian, vol. 15, 2005 
• ‘Part 2’ The Ricardian, vol. 16 2006
• ‘A Family “Made by Maryage”: Sir Richard Wydevile and Jacquetta, Duchess of Bedford’, Northamptonshire Past and Present, no. 62, 2009
• ‘A Strange Marriage: Jacquetta Wydevile and John Lord Strange’, The Ricardian, vol. 27, 2017
• ‘An Aristocratic Brass in Late Fifteenth-Century England’ Monumental Brass Society, vol. 19, pt. 4, 2017
• 'Ties That Bind: Cecily Bonville, the Nevilles, Lord Hastings and the Wydeviles' Ricardian Vol 30 2020
• 'Anne of York and her Loyal Yorkist: Sir Thomas St Ledger (ex. 1483)' The Ricardian vol 33, 2023.

She currently volunteers at St Nicholas Priory, Exeter working with a small group of researchers on the history of the Priory post Reformation. Lynda also manage a small group of transcribers for Friends of Lydiard Park, Swindon, transcribing PCC wills relating to people from the parishes of Lydiard Millicent and Lydiard Tregoze and members of the St.John family who owned Lydiard, these are entered on the Lydiard Archive website  

Dr. Kavita Mudan Finn (she/her) is an independent scholar who has published widely on medieval and early modern literature, Shakespeare, popular medievalism, and fan/reception studies. Since completing her PhD in 2010, she taught literature, history, and gender studies at a range of universities, most recently in the Literature Section at MIT in 2019-2020. She works as a freelance editor and indexer, and is writing a biography of the fifteenth-century English queen Elizabeth Woodville when not managing a two-child, two-dog chaos train in the woods.

• Bluesky: KVMFinn.bsky.social
• Instagram: melusinelafee18  though I’m very much a lurker here)
• Website: https://kvmfinn.wordpress.com/

Non-fiction 

• Joanna Laynesmith, The Last Medieval Queens (Oxford, 2004) and her bio of Cecily Neville from 2017
• Thomas Penn, The Brothers York: A Royal Tragedy (2016)
• Christine Weightman, Margaret of York: The Diabolical Duchess (Amberley, 2009)
• Danielle Burton, Anthony Woodville: Sophisticate or Schemer (Amberley, 2024)
• Susan Higginbotham, The Woodvilles (2013)
• Annette Carson, Richard III: Maligned King (2009)
• Sarah Gristwood, Women Behind the Wars of the Roses (2013)
• Lynda Pigeon, Brough up of Nought (Fonthill, 2019)

Fiction 

• The amours of Edward IV (anonymous, 1700) - https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_the-amours-of-edward-the_marana-giovanni-paolo_1700
• Rosemary Hawley Jarman, The King’s Grey Mare (1973) 
• Sharon Kay Penman, The Sunne in Splendour (1988)
• Reay Tannahill, The Seventh Son (2002) 
• Emma Darwin, A Secret Alchemy (2009) 
• Anne Easter Smith, Daughter of York (2008)
• Anne Easter Smith, King's Grace (2009)