Jacquetta of Luxembourg (1415/1416 – 30 May 1472) was a member of the House of Luxembourg and a prominent figure in the English civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487). Through her short-lived first marriage to the John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, brother of Henry V of England, she was initially firmly allied to the House of Lancaster. However, following the emphatic Lancastrian defeat at the Battle of Towton, she and her second husband Richard Woodville defected and sided closely with the House of York. Three years after the battle and the accession of Edward IV of England, Jacquetta's eldest daughter Elizabeth Woodville married him and became queen consort of England. Jacquetta bore Woodville 14 children and later stood trial on charges of witchcraft, of which she was exonerated.
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Family and ancestry
Jacquetta was the eldest daughter of Peter I of Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol, Conversano and Brienne, and his wife Margaret of Baux (Margherita del Balzo of Andria). Her father was also the hereditary Count of Brienne from 1397 until his death in 1433.