Anne Mowbray

Anne Mowbray (10 December, 1472 - 19 November (?), 1481) was the child bride of Richard, Duke of York, one of the Princes in the Tower, and held the title Duchess of York from her marriage until her death at the age of nine.

She was born at Framlingham Castle, Suffolk, England, the only (surviving) child of John Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk. His death in 1476 he left her a wealthy heiress. On 15 January, 1478, she was married in St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, to Richard, Duke of York, the 4-year-old son of Edward IV of England. (They were married rather than betrothed (as would have been the custom for children of their ages), so that the king could get control of her vast estates.)

Anne died at Greenwich, London, nearly two years before her husband disappeared into the Tower of London with his older brother Edward V of England, and she was entombed in a lead coffin in the Chapel of St. Erasmus in Westminster Abbey. When that chapel was demolished in about 1502 to make way for the Henry VII Chapel, Anne's coffin was moved to a vault under the Abbey of the Minoresses, run by nuns of the order of St. Clare, which eventually disappeared.

In December 1964, construction workers in Stepney accidentally dug into the vault and found Anne's coffin. It was opened, and her remains were analyzed by scientists and then entombed in Westminster Abbey in May 1965. Her red hair was still on her skull and her shroud still wrapped around her.