William Bonville, 6th Baron Harington

Arms of Bonville: Sable, six mullets argent pierced gules ^[1]

William Bonville, 6th Baron Harington (1442 –19 February 1461) was an English nobleman who was a loyal adherent of the House of York during the dynastic conflict in England in the 15th century known as the Wars of the Roses. He was executed following the Yorkist defeat at the Second Battle of St Albans, leaving his six-month-old daughter, Cecily Bonville heiress to his barony.

Family

William was born in Chewton Mendip, Somersetshire, England to William Bonville and Elizabeth Harington. His paternal grandparents were William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville and Margaret Grey. His maternal grandparents were William Harington, 5th Baron Harington of Aldingham (c. 1394 - 1458) and Margaret Hill.

In 1458, he succeeded his grandfather as the 6th Baron Harington of Aldingham by right of his mother, who had died in her father's lifetime.

Marriage and death

The same year in which he gained his title, William married Lady Katherine Neville, a younger sister of military commander Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, known as Warwick the Kingmaker. They had one child, Cecily Bonville.

William survived the Yorkist defeat at the Battle of Wakefield, but was executed following the Second Battle of St Albans by the troops of the Queen consort, Margaret of Anjou, who headed the Lancastrian faction.^[2] The Bonvilles were loyal adherents of the House of York.

His widow, Katherine married secondly William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings, another Yorkist nobleman, by whom she had six more children. Cecily succeeded to William's barony, becoming the 7th Baroness Harington of Aldingham suo jure, on his death.

References

• Richardson, Douglas, and Kimball G. Everingham. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. Royal ancestry series. Baltimore, Md: Genealogical Pub. Co, 2005. (p. 110) googlebooks Retrieved 17 October 2008
• thepeerage Accessed 17 October 2008