131 
career extended over a century, and whose occupation of the 
manor covered eighty-six years. 
Moreover, she was mother of two kings, grandmother of 
Henry VII.’s queen, and consequently ancestress of all the 
English monarchs from Henry VIII. down to Queen Victoria. 
Her lifetime was a remarkable epoch in the history and civilization 
of England. Whena girl, books were written by hand, and were so 
scarce, that it is on record that her mother petitioned the court for 
the return of a book she had lent to the late King Henry V. During 
the reign of her son Edward printing was introduced ; and in the 
_ short reign of her son Richard the laws of the land were first 
printed. She witnessed the downfall of feudalism, its enormous 
power having been turned against itself in desperate conflict for 
is 
_ the supremacy of two rival monarchical dynasties ; and out of the 
tuins of the feudal system she saw the rise of the supremacy of the 
English middle classes. 
Two years after the miserable death of Cicely’s son George, the 
ill-fated Clarence, done to death by his brother the besotted fourth 
_ Edward, she retired to her castle of Birkhamstead, and there for 
fifteen years lived the life of a nun, until in 1495, in probably the 
_ eightieth year of her age, she left this (to her truly) troublesome 
world. 
After the death of Ralph Nevill, in 1425, the manor was held 
by his son Richard, Earl of Salisbury, until the last day of 1460, 
when at or just after the disastrous battle of Wakefield he was 
executed by martial law, and his family attainted by Henry VI. 
_This—for the time—crushing defeat of the Yorkists, however, 
only lasted until the following Palm Sunday, when the great battle 
_ of Towton gave final supremacy to the House of York, and placed 
_ Cicely Nevill’s son Edward on the throne. 
Salisbury’s son Richard, Earl of Warwick, was heir to the manor 
of Penrith, to which he succeeded on the reversion of the attainder 
by Edward IV.; but whether in consequence of the attainder a 
_ ew grant was necessary, may perhaps be a moot point. Warwick, 
_ known in history as the king-maker, got his title and immense 
df possessions by his marriage with the heiress of the former Earl of 
