Who was the mother of both Edward IV and Richard III?

Cecily Neville was the mother of both Edward IV and Richard III. She was born in 1415, married Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, and became the matriarch of the Yorkist royal family during the Wars of the Roses.

Her son Edward seized the English throne in 1461 after Yorkist victories over the Lancastrian forces of Henry VI. Edward ruled as Edward IV, was briefly deposed in 1470, and returned to power the following year. Cecily’s youngest son, Richard, later became King Richard III after Edward’s death in 1483.

Cecily herself never became queen consort because her husband died before taking the crown, but she was honoured as the king’s mother. She also belonged to an important dynastic network: through Edward’s daughter Elizabeth of York, Cecily became an ancestor of the Tudor monarchs. Elizabeth Woodville was Edward IV’s wife, Margaret Beaufort was Henry VII’s mother, and Anne Neville was Richard III’s wife—not his mother.